When food made France: Impressionism comes to Seattle Art Museum

Impressionism is some of the most beloved art in the world, and Seattle Art Museum invites visitors to experience it through an unexpected and delicious lens.

Farm to Table: Art, Food and Identity in the Age of Impressionism is an exhibition that explores how iconic artists like Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Gauguin captured food, dining and everyday life in 19th-century France. Through luminous paintings of markets, cafés, countryside harvests and intimate meals, the exhibition reveals how Impressionist art helped shape France’s identity as the world’s culinary capital.

Impressionism, served fresh

Featuring more than 50 works, Farm to Table brings together landscapes, still lifes, and vivid portraits that celebrate the pleasures, and realities, of food. Visitors will see themes of abundance and scarcity, city and country, wealth and labor.

From Monet’s serene countryside scenes to Victor Gabriel Gilbert’s chaotic food stands, the exhibition highlights a wide range of perspectives on French food culture.

Together, these artworks offer a sensory experience that goes beyond sight, evoking taste, texture and memory, reminding viewers that food has long been central to how communities define themselves.

A cozy reading nook, featuring a curated selection of books, at the special exhibition ‘Farm to Table: Art, Food, and Identity in the Age of Impressionism’ at Seattle Art Museum. Chloe Collyer photo

More to savor inside the gallery

Visitors can take a seat at the exhibition’s communal “dinner table,” where food-themed conversation starters invite connection with other art- and food-lovers. For a quieter moment, a cozy reading nook, featuring a curated selection of books in partnership with the Seattle Public Library, offers space to linger.

Guests can also stop by the Farm to Table Pop-Up Shop – from whimsical bread-shaped lamps to handmade chef hats, the shop features unique finds for both food lovers and art enthusiasts.

A must-see experience in downtown Seattle

Seattle Art Museum, one of SAM’s three distinct locations, is located steps from Pike Place Market. It’s walkable, transit-accessible and surrounded by some of the city’s best dining, making Farm to Table an easy and inspiring addition to a day out.

Learn more and plan a visit at visitsam.org/farm.

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