23/12/25

Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh

Beyond Monet: The Immersive Experience offers visitors the chance to see “Monet like they’ve never seen him before.” This isn’t quite true for us though: we’ve been to the Carrières des Lumières in Provençe about a dozen times, and – unsurprisingly – many of those exhibitions have focused on the famous impressionist’s work, particularly those pieces that depict the area. So, although we’re keen to see what this travelling showcase has to offer, we don’t really expect images projected onto the interior walls of the Royal Highland Centre – where we went to get our Covid jags – to wow us in the same way as they do in the disused quarry beneath Les Baux’s castle.

We’re pleasantly surprised. Despite the conference-venue vibes of the building, the immersive experience has been so cleverly curated that we soon forget where we are. What we lose in size and majesty, we gain in subtle animation and a clear visual narrative. Beyond Monet is showing ‘in rep’ with Beyond Van Gogh and, in all honesty, we’d have chosen to see Vincent if we could have made the dates work. That didn’t pan out, so we’ve settled for Claude – and we’re delighted with the result.

We already knew we loved Van Gogh, but we’ve tended to dismiss Monet as a bit too pretty, a bit too safe. But under Mathieu St-Arnaud’s creative direction, we see just how transgressive the artist really was, not only for the ‘unfinished’ look of his art, but also in his obsession with painting the same scene over and over, in order to capture it in different weathers, different lights. Seeing the various giant iterations of the Haystacks and the Houses of Parliament – sometimes side by side, sometimes layered over one another – really helps to illustrate his aim of capturing his immediate sensory reaction to a particular scene.

The Waterfall Room, which we enter first, gives us an eight-minute ‘starter’, where we stand, enraptured by the fleeting impressions (sorry!) of what is coming up, with glimpses of Monet’s paintings projected onto the walls and floor. In the Infinity Room next door, people are sitting on benches and cushions, settling in for the ‘main course’ – which runs on a thirty-five minute loop. Combined with Jean-Sébastien Côté’s hypnotic soundtrack, the hallucinatory imagery wraps itself around us, creating an intense auditory and visual experience that keeps us entranced for the whole running time.

Finally, we enter the Reflection Room, which has been mocked up on one side to look like the Giverny gardens, while the other features Van Gogh’s starry night skies looming over a field of giant sunflower sculptures. Like all the best desserts, it’s fun and light – and gives us an opportunity to take a selfie or two.

If it’s showing near you, I highly recommend you visit this extraordinary exhibition – and take the chance to see Claude Monet in an entirely new… ahem… light.

4.5 stars

Susan Singfield