The Road to the Modern
Several of the most important movements in nineteenth-century French art are included here, collectively describing the advent of Modernism in European art. Naturalism, a movement concerned with the realistic depiction of the natural world, is represented by several canvases of about 1860 from the so-called Barbizon School, a group of artists working out of doors for the first time in the history of European high art, they notoriously led the way toward plein air painting, a practice that placed great value on the direct and unmediated experience and depiction of nature.
Works such as these by Rousseau, Daubigny, and Diaz enormously influenced the Impressionist generation which followed. Represented here by works by Boudin, Pissarro, and the young Ensor, these artists took plein air painting to a new stage, focusing increasingly on transient light effects and ways in which the landscape is perceived by the human eye.
The last group of works suggests ways in which the eye moved form being an instrument of perception to one of subjective expression, placing primacy on the role of the individual artist. In these pieces by artists such as Cezanne and Gauguin, along with a late work by Renoir, we find an interesting fracturing of the image, and interest in decorative patterns and textures that seems to deny the importance of Renaissance perspective. Surface textures created by the artist's materials - rather the their use in creating a realistic representation of the observable world - also come to dominate. Collectively these interests led the way to the art of the twentieth century, explored in the following galleries.
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Charles-Francois DaubignyFrance,1817-1878 . Landscape . undated . oil on canvas
. 1976.15
Gift of Polly Hatch Mosby (Mrs. David Clayborn Mosby), Class of '22
Daubigny's art sprang from a humble vision of the rural countryside.
In an age of economic prosperity, Daubigny and other artists (including Diaz de la Pe-a and Rousseau) set themselves in opposition to urban life by establishing the practice of painting out-of-doors at Barbizon, in the Fontainebleau Forest. Daubigny's vision-of a universally accessible land inhabited by common people-posed a counterpoint to the new cosmopolitan brilliance and modernity of a revitalized Paris.
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James EnsorBelgium, 1860-1949 . Seascape . undated . oil on canvas
. 1966.70
Gift of James R. Good
This small, almost abstract seascape tells us much about the young artist finding his own voice.
Seascape stands as a transitional work, in which the artist overcame the thick, muddy colors of his formal training. Instead, he has lightly painted the clear, cool colors of the sky and sea. Ensor's study of light eventually turned, in his mature works, to the use of intense, unmixed colors applied in swirls of paint.
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Paul GauguinFrance, 1848-1903 . Nature morte la cruche de Quimper (Still life with Quimper pitcher) . 1889 . oil on canvas mounted on panel
. 1990.11
Gift of Frieda S. Nadolny in memory of Annemarie Nadolny
This still life contains elements from two cultures-Brittany and Martinique-which suggest Gauguin's interest in so-called "primitive" art.
The pitcher comes from the small Breton village of Quimper, whose pottery only ceased production in 1983. Sophisticated Parisians viewed this type of pottery as rustic, even inferior when compared to more elegant glazed earthenware produced in other factories. For Gauguin, however, elements of the "naive" or even "primitive" were appealing.
Gauguin visited Martinique in 1887, when he painted the canvas "Dans les vagues" (In the waves) which appears in the background. The female figure throws herself into the ocean, the waving arc of her body mirrors the Quimper pitcher. She becomes as much a part of the surface patterning as the pitcher or the tablecloth.
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Theodore RousseauFrance, 1812-1867 . The Forest of Fontainebleau . circa 1860 . oil on canvas
. 1920.1
Bequest of Phoebe Apperson Hearst
Rousseau and his followers in the Barbizon school believed that the simplest forms of nature-trees, a sky at sunset-could speak directly to humankind.
Rousseau and his followers in the Barbizon school believed that the simplest forms of nature-trees, a sky at sunset-could speak directly to humankind.
Rousseau and his followers in the Barbizon school believed that the simplest forms of nature-trees, a sky at sunset-could speak directly to humankind.