080004 SE Claude Monet and the Birth of Impressionism (2024W)

Paris in 1874 was the venue for the first exhibition of the later world-famous Impressionists, whose art was celebrated throughout Europe after initial rejection. Starting from the year 1863 and the Parisian "Salon des Refusés" initiated at that time, which can be described as a groundbreaking and important step for avant-garde art, the course will meticulously trace the early years of Impressionism - with Claude Monet in the centre - (till 1882). The seventh group exhibition (1882) also marks an important turning point, as from this point onwards the artists were mainly marketed individually.
The focus will be on the precise preconditions for the emergence of Impressionist painting, the forms of exhibition presentation and the diversity of the profiles of the artists involved, which soon led to the coexistence of very different forms of Impressionist painting. More than almost any other style, Impressionism was subject to the formation of myths, the problem areas of which are also part of the course. These include the relationship between painting and photography, painting in nature (‘en plein air’) and the question of the finished/unfinished nature of paintings. On this basis, the role of Impressionism in the genesis of modern art will be focussed on from different perspectives.

Presentation Topics:

Manet and Impressionism
1 Édouard Manet, The Croquet Game, 1873, Frankfurt on the Maine, Städel'sches Kunstinstitut
2 Édouard Manet, Music in the Tuileries Garden, 1862, London, The National Gallery

The early Monet
3 Claude Monet, The Magpie, 1869, Paris, Musée d'Orsay
4 Claude Monet, The Terrace of Sainte-Adresse, 1867, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Monet and Renoir: La Grenouillère
5 Auguste Renoir, La Grenouillière, 1869, Stockholm, National Museum
6 Claude Monet, La Grenouillère, 1869, New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Monet in Argenteuil
7 Claude Monet, The Seine Basin at Argenteuil, 1872, Paris, Musée d'Orsay
8 Claude Monet, The railway bridge at Argenteuil, 1873, Private collection

Auguste Renoir
9 Auguste Renoir, The Seine at Argenteuil, 1874, Portland Art Museum
10 Auguste Renoir, Monet painting at Argenteuil, 1873, Hartford Wadsworth Atheneum

The first group exhibition of the Impressionists in 1874 I
11 Claude Monet, Boulevard des Capucines, 1873, Moscow, Pushkin Museum
12 Claude Monet, Impression. Sunrise, 1872/1873, Paris, Musée Marmottan

The first group exhibition of the Impressionists 1874 II
13 Camille Pissarro, Fruit Trees in Bloom at Louveciennes, 1872, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection
14 Jean-Baptiste Armand Guillaumin, Rainy Weather, 1871, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Gift of Audrey Jones Beck

The second group exhibition of the Impressionists 1876
15 Claude Monet, Madame Monet in a Japanese Dress, 1876, Boston Museum of Fine Arts
16 Gustave Caillebotte, The Parquet Sander (first version), 1875, Paris Musée d'Orsay

The third group exhibition of the Impressionists 1877
17 Claude Monet, Saint-Lazare railway station. Arrival of a Train, 1877, Harvard, Fogg Art Museum
18 Gustave Caillebotte, Paris Street. Rainy Weather, 1877, The Art Institute of Chicago

The seventh group exhibition of the Impressionists 1882
19 Claude Monet, View of Vétheuil, 1880, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
20 Claude Monet, Sunset over the Seine, 1880, Paris, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris