Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
A group of young painters organized their own exhibitions, painted light and modern life, and changed art forever.
In April 1874 a group of artists opened an exhibition of their own in the former studio of the photographer Nadar in Paris. Among them were Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Paul Cézanne and Berthe Morisot. A critic mocked them on the strength of Monet’s painting Impression, Sunrise and called them Impressionists. The name stuck. By 1886 the group had organized eight exhibitions, with a partly changing roster, and had shown that it was possible to reach the public without the Salon.
The Impressionists wanted to capture a moment: the light at a particular hour, the shimmer of water, the movement on a boulevard. They often painted outdoors, with quick brushstrokes and pure colours set side by side. Their subject was modern life – railway stations, cafés, dance halls, theatres and outings along the Seine. At first critics thought the pictures looked unfinished. But with the help of dealers such as Paul Durand-Ruel they gradually found buyers, not least in the United States.
In the 1880s several younger artists pushed further. Georges Seurat built up his pictures from tiny dots of pure colour. Paul Cézanne wanted to make Impressionism into something solid and enduring. Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin used colour to express emotions and ideas. They are usually called Post-Impressionists. At the same time Auguste Rodin renewed sculpture, and Art Nouveau transformed interior design. Around the turn of the century Paris was the undisputed centre for artists from all over the world, including the Nordic countries.