Impressionism and Impressionist Artists in Normandy

Work at the same time on sky, water, branches, ground, keeping everything going on an equal basis. Don’t be afraid of putting on colour. Paint generously and unhesitatingly, for it is best not to lose the first impression. Camille Pissarro.

Giverny is rightfully a site of pilgrimage for fans of Claude Monet and Impressionism, but also for people who appreciate a wonderful garden. Monet’s garden and the famous water lily ponds he created on the River Epte in Giverny is the second most visited tourist attraction in Normandy. But few of these thousands of tourists know that not that far up-stream of Giverny is the town of Eragny-sur-Epte, where Camille Pissarro lived from 1884. [Read more →]

For Monet fans visiting Paris, getting from Paris to Giverny, even for just a day-trip, is not only easy it is very rewarding and should definitely be done. Interestingly, and perhaps not that surprisingly, the connection between Gare Saint Lazare and Monet goes back to the 1870s. During the winter of 1876/7 Monet painted the station at least seven times, and together these paintings play an important part in the development of Impressionism. [Read more →]

“I think I am beginning to understand something about painting.” Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1919. A remark he apparently made while he covered up his painting for the day, on the day he died.

Towards the end of the 1880s it is said that Pierre-Auguste Renoir became dissatisfied with Impressionism, then still a relatively recent movement in the development of Western art. He began to travel more widely, first within France and then to Algeria, Spain and Italy, where he became influenced by other artists, including Delacroix, Velazquez and Titian. It is widely thought that his work during this time is his most fertile and innovative. And it is his paintings and sculptures from the final decades of his life that make up the Late Renoir exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. [Read more →]

Have paintings will travel. The Birth of Impressionism exhibition, currently on show at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, is headed next for the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, Tennessee. The exhibition, part of the Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay collection on the road while renovations in Paris are under way for the 25 anniversary in 2011, will open in Nashville 15 October 2010. [Read more →]

While the de Young museum in San Francisco has been hosting a globally advertised Impressionism exhibition from the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, its sister museum, the Legion of Honor, has been keeping quite a secret. It, too, is exhibiting a show on the Impressionists, and some have argued it is even more exquisite than one at the de Young. [Read more →]

The Normandy Impressionist Festival is in full swing, with an impressive and diverse programme of events taking place throughout Normandy, some of which last up until November. Most however end in September. So if you are planning to come to Normandy, or have been thinking about it – it really is not too late to catch some of the Normandie Impressionniste 2010 buzz. [Read more →]

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Currently on show at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne is a collection of 19th and 20th Century European masters from the permanent collection of the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. Besides a remarkable collection of German artists, the exhibition also includes art works by some of the greatest French, Belgian, Dutch and Swiss masters of the 19th and 20th centuries. Chronological themes therefore range from Neo-Classicism, to Realism, Impressionism and Symbolism works, as well as some German Expressionist paintings and sculpture. [Read more →]

Georges Clemenceau, Claude Monet and Alice Butler on the Japanese bridge in Monet’s garden in Giverny. This photograph was taken by Henri Martinie in June 1921. © Musée Clemenceau, Paris.

When Claude Monet died, Georges Clemenceau was there to pay a final farewell to his long-time friend. It is said that upon finding Monet’s coffin draped with the customary black pall Clemenceau snatched away the cloth and replaced it with a multi-coloured shawl, saying “Pas de noir pour Monet.” (Not black for Monet.) [Read more →]

The commemorative stamps for the Normandy Impressionist summer festival, 2010.

To mark the Normandy Impressionism summer Festival 2010, the French Post Office have produced a collection of Impressionist stamps. The collection, entitled ‘Normandie, berceau des Impressionnistes‘ (Normandy, cradle of Impressionism), features 10 different paintings of Normandy landscapes by leading Impressionist painters. [Read more →]

The Gros horloge in Rouen, on a bright winters day.

When one thinks of Rouen and impressionist art it is usually Claude Monet’s name that immediately springs to mind, Camille Pissarro is another. But, there was a group of artists we rarely hear about who were painting in and around Rouen from the 1870s onwards who produced some stunning paintings of the area. Léon-Jules Lemaître’s paintings of the the Gros Horloge in Rouen city centre is just one example. [Read more →]