8 - Édouard Manet The Fife Player (Le fifre), 1866. © RMN (Musée d'Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski.
More than ninety paintings from Musée D’Orsay in Paris are presently on show at the Fundación Mapfre, Madrid.
Showing Impressionism in a startling new light, the exhibition includes works by the great artists of Impressionism, including Manet, Monet, Degas and Cézanne and more.
These are set in the context of myriad other currents of French art at the time they were produced to give a full picture of the environment.
They range from the traditional paintings of the state-controlled official Salon to the arcane Symbolism of Puvis de Chavannes and Gustave Moreau.
10 – Jean-François Millet Spring (Le printemps), between 1868 and 1873, oil on canvas, Paris, Musée d'Orsay © RMN (Musée d'Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski.
As they view the French exhibits in Madrid, in close proximity to the Prado, visitors will become aware of the relationship of Impressionism to Spanish art, through the influence of Velazquez and Goya.
Impressionism was the most important French artistic movement of the nineteenth century; it brought a revolution to the western tradition of painting. But was this movement as isolated as it is usually seen to be?
Curated by Stéphane Guégan and Alice Thomine of the Musée D’Orsay, this exhibition presents a new way of looking at Impressionism by studying the full artistic spectrum of its period - something that has never before been attempted in an exhibition.
11 – Claude Monet The Saint-Lazare Station (La gare Saint-Lazare), 1877, oil on canvas, Paris, Musée d'Orsay © RMN (Musée d'Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski.
Impressionism: A Modern Renaissance shows the Spanish influence of Goya and Velazquez on artists such as Manet and Whistler; the Batignolles school, with Monet and Renoir and Manet at its centre.
The emergence of women is brought out, through the art of female painters like Berthe Morisot, as well as male artists such as Tissot; and the legacy of Courbet and Millet’s moves towards naturalism.
Fundación Mapfre
Fundación Mapfre is a private Spanish cultural foundation. It is affiliated to the insurance group Mapfre and was created in 1975 to teach and promote culture, art and literature in Spain and South America.
In October 2008, Fundación Mapfre opened a permanent exhibition space in a newly converted historic building in Madrid, on the Paseo del Arte - the famous Madrid art trail.
It is in this new home that Impressionism: A Modern Renaissance will be held until April 22, 2010. The exhibition is free of charge.
Exhibition Tour
The exhibition will travel to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (22 May – 6 September 2010) then to the Frist Center for Visual Arts, Nashville (14 October 2010 – 23 January 2011).
To contact Fundación Mapfre, please click here.
