Exhibition of French Impressionism
The weekend was great, I enjoyed it and I hope you will be interested in why and how. I was at another exhibition last Saturday and I absolutely loved it!
I had the opportunity to visit an exhibition called French Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Ordrupgaard Collection. Uff, this is a very long name. To be clear. Ordrupgaard is the Danish State Art Museum, which lent this collection to Prague. So without them, there would be no exhibition. Thank you guys! 🤗
I heard about it from my long-time friend, who tends to art as much as I do. The exhibition takes place at the Kinsky Palac. The best thing how to enter the exhibition is to follow the names of the artists who started with Impressionism and then who continued in it.
Impressionist artists were not trying to paint a reflection of real life, but an 'impression' of it. The origin of this artistic style dates back in 19th century. As with many artistic movements, Impressionism had many opponents at the beginning. Now, a century later, we see Impressionism as an important part of European art.
And how does it differ from previous directions? Working in the open air, many colors, optics and short brush strokes that often confuse the viewer's eye. Impressionism has tried to go against the academic style of painting, which was for ex. painting in the studio. Painting outdoors had great advantages in light and color. The light was not artificial and created new richer colors on the skin with which the Impressionists had to learn to work.
Representatives of Impressionism came from different families - the poorer and richer, but almost all of them combine study or created their works in Paris. The first of the authors I would like to introduce is Claude Monet, who in his paintings worked mainly with light so that the viewer could feel the atmosphere in which the painting was painted. I like the creation of the Normandy coast the most and later his work from Holland where he painted directly on the Seine waves.
Other representatives of his era and whose work we can see at the exhibition are Aguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley. Aguste Renoir initially painted portraits and landscapes. Later on his work was influenced by a trip to Italy. After that came his so-called pearlescent period, when he painted only women.
My other favorite artist is Edgard Degas, who came from a wealthy family and could often visit the Louvre in Paris. He easily moved away from the impressionists by painting a lot of characters and for that, he needed lines that did not belong entirely to Impressionism. He was later influenced by the work of the artist Manet. Degas began to paint real-life situations - dancers and racing.
Of course, there are many more authors, including post-impressionist authors - Paul Cézann and Paula Gauguin. But I would spend the whole day writing about it and it is better if you go to the exhibition and see by yourself. I can't tell you everything. 🤫
https://www.ngprague.cz/exposition-detail/francouzsky-impresionismus/