With the Paris 2024 Olympics around the corner, now is a great time for North Texans to learn more about Impressionism, one of the most cherished artistic movements in the world. The Impressionist Revolution from Monet to Matisse, on view at the Dallas Museum of Art through Nov. 3, reveals a surprising story about Impressionism’s origins: Claude Monet was a rebel.
“This artwork was not just seen as radical or innovative; it was seen as offensive: it was seen as a joke. It was almost universally panned,” said the exhibition curator Dr. Nicole Myers, the DMA’s Chief Curatorial and Research Officer.
Featuring nearly 90 works from the museum’s holdings, this exhibition marks the 150-year anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition. Modern enthusiasm for Impressionism would astound the 19th century art world, as the artwork has moved from the walls of a museum to the environment of everyday life.
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“We put their images on our walls, on our pillows and we like to have it on our dishware. I like to say we wake up with Renoir and go to sleep with Monet in terms of how we choose to live with these particular artists,” Myers said.
The Impressionists defied the expectations of the state-run Academy of the Arts, and they were rejected from exhibiting in the Academy-organized Salon, the only non-commercial venue where artists could display their work. The Impressionists decided to mount their own exhibitions in hopes that the artists could market their work, develop clientele and earn a living.
“This had not been done before 1874 and I think that’s a detail that most people are unaware of. They helped revolutionize the modern museum, ticketed exhibitions, for example,” Myers said.
The Scene
The Impressionists’ loose sketch-like rendering of paint, bright palettes and separation of colors drew a lot of criticism.
“The most common refrain the Impressionists would get was that they could never show a finished painting, that all they showed were sketches,” Myers said.
Berthe Morisot could get away with these new approaches because of assumptions about her gender’s capabilities.
“Morisot is, in fact, probably the least finished, most gestural in her application of paint of all the members of the group and she is recognized as such. She was actually considered a leader of the Impressionists at the time. Because she was a woman, these traits were acceptable because this is the best a woman could do.”
The Academy of Fine Arts had specific expectations of what artists should depict. Subjects from history, religion and mythology reflecting French values, morals and culture were favored.
“The Impressionists weren’t interested in depicting those vaunted subjects,” Myers said. “Looking at performers, looking at the ballet dancers who performed at the Paris opera house – that was something that wasn’t done. That was something that wasn’t considered appropriate as high art. It’s not to say that artists didn’t depict these topics, but to do it on this scale, to exhibit publicly and to say it is a finished piece of art – that’s what did it.”
Impressionists showed views of Paris during the Industrial Revolution at a time when the French were anxious about the changing world. Renoir challenged the concept of the classical female nude with works like Blonde Braiding Her Hair.
“This is a contemporary modern 19th century woman, an everyday woman who has removed her clothing. She is naked; she is not nude – you can even see her clothing – and she is going to bathe outdoors. That was a total subversion of something that was cherished,” Myers said.
With a full wall of Monet paintings, the exhibition shows how the artist took advantage of new metal paint tubes, allowing artists to travel long distances with their tools and paint outside and in the moment.
“You see him moving from place to place to place with his materials, painting en plein air to paint directly in front of the motif,” Myers said.
The exhibition features Pointillism, demonstrated in the works of Georges Seurat, and how the artistic approach challenged the Impressionists and pushed the movement to its scientific ends.
“Almost all of the artists in 1886 left Paris in search of something else,” Myers said. “Everyone leaves the city center to find their unique voice.”
Paul Gauguin would eventually reject Pointillism and inspire a new generation of artists.
“He will start all of the other artists in this room that we collectively call Post-Impressionists off into different directions, that will lead more and more to the abstract,” Myers said.
Leaving a legacy that impacted European modernism, Impressionism’s beautiful revolution allowed artists to express the world around them the way they see it.
Learn more: Dallas Museum of Art
