A WORK by one of the all-time great painters arrived in the region yesterday - but art lovers will have to wait before they can see it.

Claude Monet's 1896 painting Flood Waters arrived at York Art Gallery on loan from the National gallery in London.

It will be one of the highlights of a new exhibition, Reflections, when the gallery re-opens on March 19 after a nine-month, £445,000 refurbishment.

Sponsored by investment management company Gerrard Limited's York office, Reflections will match works of art like Flood Waters, loaned from national and regional galleries, with similar paintings from York Art Gallery's collection.

Works by Rembrandt and Titian will also be coming to York.

Flood Waters is said to show the flood waters of the River Epte, a tributary of the Seine, which passes through Giverny, where Monet lived in later life.

In Reflections, it is matched with The Wave, painted in 1898 by Roderic O'Conor, an Irish old boy of Ampleforth College whose work has often been compared with Monet's.

Reflections, which runs from March 19 until June 19, will include works from the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, and galleries in Hull, Wakefield, Leeds and Bradford.

Published: 23/02/2005