Famous Claude Monet landscape travels to Australia in the hands of one of Notre-Dame’s art saviours

If you think being an art conservator sounds like a lot of cotton buds and chemicals, listen to what Christian Chatellier has been doing lately.

Leading French art conservator Christian Chatellier helped salvage art treasures from the Notre Dame Cathedral fire. Now he has brought the iconic Claude Monet painting, Impression, sunrise, 1872, safely to the National Gallery of Australia for exhibition. Picture: National Gallery of Australia

If you think being an art conservator sounds like a lot of cotton buds and chemicals, listen to what Christian Chatellier has been doing lately.

The French specialist has just chaperoned a rock star of the art world from Paris to Canberra.

Impression, sunrise, painted by Claude Monet in 1872, will be the centrepiece of a National Gallery of Australia exhibition opening tomorrow which will present amazing new research into the picture that gave its name to Impressionism.

The exhibition is called Monet: Impression Sunrise.

And just weeks ago, Chatellier was involved in one of the biggest stories of the year.

After a devastating fire engulfed Notre Dame Cathedral, Chatellier received an emergency summons at 9.30pm and was soon threading through the Paris streets on his motorbike.

With the historic building still alight, Chatellier worked with fire fighters and fellow art specialists to rescue irreplaceable, ancient treasures from the disaster.

By the time Chatellier arrived, the spire of Notre Dame had already toppled.

“The firemen (that night) said it was possible the fire continue and destroy completely the church,” Chatellier said.

Massive damage was done, but the cathedral was not razed. And the following day, Chatellier’s task was to retrieve a 17th Century painting by the famous Ludovico Carracci that hung inside the cathedral’s north tower.

Firefighters douse flames rising from the roof of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on April 15. Picture: Bertrand Guay, AFP

Other people had already removed the painting from its frame. But Chatellier used his special expertise in rolling ancient canvases, transferring the large masterpiece on to a cylinder so it could be removed from Notre Dame to a safe place.

Even though Impression, sunrise certainly didn’t have to be rolled up for its journey to Canberra, the master work still needed expert accompaniment, and Chatellier was it.

The French conservator said the painting – which is rarely loaned even between museums in Paris – arrived in good order.

“It was very OK,” he said.

The start of its journey was the Musee Marmottan Monet, which owns the leading collection of Monet artworks in the world.

Monet: Impression Sunrise was organised by the Marmottan, the NGA and Art Exhibitions Australia.

It will showcase the remarkable Impression, sunrise alongside almost 60 other paintings by a range of famous artists who influenced Monet, including J.W.M. Turner and Eugene Boudin.

A newly created exhibition catalogue will present the results of recent research indicating exactly from where Monet painted Impression, sunrise and – incredibly – on what exact date.

Securing the exhibition was a “coup” for the NGA which was excited to show the iconic French painting to Australian audiences in a whole new light, the gallery’s director Nick Mitzevich said.

Monet: Impression Sunrise will be on at the NGA until September 1.

* The writer travelled to Paris courtesy of Singapore Airlines and Art Exhibitions Australia.