Impressionist Women

Fülszöveg

The exhibition held in Paris in 1874 in the Boulevard des Capucines has come to be regarded as the birthplace of modern art, and marked the culmination of a period of ten years' unrest in the artistic world of Francé - and of Paris in particular. The Impressionists set themselves apart selfconsciously, angry young artists determined not to be forced into conforming to the aesthetic rules laid down by the state and its mechanisms. Technically they were considered radical, for they often worked in média thought worthy only of preparatory studies, and their paintings were criticized for lacking "finish." More importantly, they shocked the art establishment with their choice of subject matter; traditional themes and motifs still appear, but are now accompanied by a wide variety of images of contemporary society. While British painters such as Rossetti, Millais and Burne-Jones were looking to the past, to the world of chivalrous legends and Romantic literary works for inspiration, their... Tovább

Fülszöveg

The exhibition held in Paris in 1874 in the Boulevard des Capucines has come to be regarded as the birthplace of modern art, and marked the culmination of a period of ten years' unrest in the artistic world of Francé - and of Paris in particular. The Impressionists set themselves apart selfconsciously, angry young artists determined not to be forced into conforming to the aesthetic rules laid down by the state and its mechanisms. Technically they were considered radical, for they often worked in média thought worthy only of preparatory studies, and their paintings were criticized for lacking "finish." More importantly, they shocked the art establishment with their choice of subject matter; traditional themes and motifs still appear, but are now accompanied by a wide variety of images of contemporary society. While British painters such as Rossetti, Millais and Burne-Jones were looking to the past, to the world of chivalrous legends and Romantic literary works for inspiration, their continental contemporaries were fascinated by all the facets of the energetic and ever-changing world of nineteenthcentury Francé - glamorous high society gatherings, crowded boulevard and park scenes, workplaces and domestic life, even the circuses, bars and brothels of Montmartre. The Impressionists recorded the present while the PreRaphaelites reinterpreted the past. Images of women played a significant role in this new "reálist" interpretation of the world; they are, now represented not as dim, mythical figures, but as real creatures of flesh and blood, whatever their position in the social hierarchy. The elegant society hostess and the modern bourgeois woman enjoying a boating trip to Argenteuil; the barmaid in one of Manet's noisy cafés and the Degas laundress; even the tart lounging lasciviously amidst the plush reds of the whorehouse - the Impressionists described all these women, to create a colorful and vivid picture of Paris in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Moreover, the numerous portraits painted by these artists of their families and friends offer us an intimate view of the close-knit community called the Impressionist circle. Sumptuously illustrated with many color and black and white photographs, Impressionist Women is a fascinating insight into the lives of an extraordinary group of artists living in a world soon to vanish forever. Vissza