The Normandy Impressionist Festival is a multidisciplinary event that aims to showcase the Impressionist movement and its close links with Normandy. The region is regularly described as the birthplace of Impressionism because it is where the greatest masters of this pictorial style were born and developed their style, like Claude Monet, Eugène Boudin, Edgar Degas or Raoul Dufy.
Drawing on key works as well as museum collections in the region, the festival reveals Impressionism in all its forms: exhibitions of painting and photography, music concerts, film screenings, theatre and dance performances, as well as conferences, educational workshops and "lunches on the grass", referring to Manet's famous painting Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe.
The festival runs from April to September throughout the Normandy region but most of the activities are concentrated in Rouen and Caen. Each year is devoted to a new theme. In total over 450 events are scheduled throughout Normandy for five-and-a-half months.
