Odd News

Monet fans get a chance to impress

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-03-25 19:41

A London hotel is offering art fans a chance to emulate Impressionist Claude Monet in the room where he painted his classic studies of the Thames skyline.

Claude Monet's 'Londres, le Parlement, effet de soleil dans le brouillard' is displayed at a preview in Hong Kong in this October 7, 2004 file photo as part of auction house Christie's New York Impressionist and Modern Art sale. A London hotel is offering art fans a chance to emulate Impressionist Claude Monet in the room where he painted his classic studies of the Thames skyline. [Reuters]

For 2,600 pounds ($4,500), a couple can stay two nights in the Savoy Hotel room where Monet painted 70 canvases.

For that price, they also get an easel, paints and the advice of an arts teacher on how to reproduce the French painter's famous works.

"The teacher will also take you round London's National Gallery to see the Monet paintings there and point out what to look for. It is a mini-painting holiday," said a Savoy spokeswoman.

The Savoy's artistic tradition was started by James McNeill Whistler who painted a picture of the scaffolding when the hotel was being built in the 1880s.

Monet followed him as a guest, as did fellow artists Oskar Kokoschka and Andy Warhol.