Art Eyewitness Essay: In the Garden with Vincent van Gogh and Gustave Caillebotte

 

Art Eyewitness Essay
 In the Garden with Vincent van Gogh & Gustave Caillebotte

By Ed Voves

Original Photography by Anne Lloyd

Like a ship's anchor, certain works of art serve to give a "mooring" to the art museums which are their home ports. These familiar paintings or often-seen sculptures are easy to take for granted but disconcerting when placed in storage. Conversely, when works we hold in great regard are loaned to another museum for a special exhibition, then the world seems out of kilter.

There's a gap on the gallery wall where my favorite Impressionist landscape usually hangs!!! How can that be? What is to be done?

It is the contention of this essay that the best place to look, when you cannot view beloved works of art, is outside the museum walls. 

That is where great artists always train their eyes and we will be spending some time here in the company of two of the greatest painters from the 1800's, Vincent van Gogh and Gustave Caillebotte.

Self-portraits by Vincent van Gogh & Gustave Caillebotte 

Focus your attention on the realm of nature, as Van Gogh and Caillebotte did. There you will never lack for the inspiration which they discovered in abundance.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)

 Black-eyed Susans (rudbeckia) cultivated at the W.B. Saul High School

 of Agricultural Sciences farm in Philadelphia

In recent days, we have been spending some "quality time" with nature, here at Art Eyewitness. One of the signature paintings at our local museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), has indeed "weighed anchor" and departed for foreign shores. 

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2022)

 Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers, 1889

 Philadelphia Museum of Art collection

Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers (1889) is currently on loan to the National Gallery in London which has its own version of this iconic image. The pairing of the Sunflowers paintings provides the centerpiece for a "once-a-lifetime" exhibition. The curators at the National Gallery are presenting over fifty works of art by the legendary Dutch painter who worked in virtual obscurity during his lifetime, 1853-1890.

Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1888

National Gallery, London, collection

The National Gallery purchased their Sunflowers in 1924 directly from Jo Bonger van Gogh, the artist's sister-in-law and the guardian of his estate and reputation. The National Gallery paid £1304 for Sunflowers, a substantial sum back in the 1920''s.

Philadelphia's Sunflowers was bought in 1935 by Carroll S.Tyson, a cousin of John Singer Sargent and a notable landscape painter and expert in avian art. After Tyson died in 1956, Sunflowers was bequeathed to the PMA and has been a crowd-pleaser ever since. Now it is appearing in a starring role in a major National Gallery exhibition, Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers. This marks the first time that these two Sunflowers have been together since they were in Van Gogh's studio at the Yellow House in Arles in 1889. 

What's the big occasion? The two hundred year anniversary of the founding of the National Gallery, for starters, and the centennial celebration of the purchase of the National Gallery's version of Van Gogh's Sunflowers. 

The two Sunflowers appear along with another major painting by Van Gogh from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, La Berceuse (1889). The two Sunflowers flank the portrait of Augustine Roulin, who is shown rocking the cradle of her infant daughter. 

Sunflowers for Van Gogh had a symbolical connotation - like cypress trees - as will be discussed below. He contemplated displaying the three paintings in a triptych-like manner to honor Madame Roulin as a symbol of the sacred state of motherhood. Sadly, Van Gogh was never to realize his conception.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2020) 

Gallery view of the Resnick Rotunda at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Placing pictures of sunflowers next to a likeness of Madame Roulin is not as unorthodox as it might seem. The Philadelphia version of Sunflowers customarily hangs next to another portrait of Augustine Roulin (shown in the gallery view, above) in the Resnick Rotunda of the PMA. In this portrait, painted in late 1888, Madame Roulin is shown holding her baby, Marcelle.

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024)

 Vincent van Gogh's Portrait of Madam Augustine Roulin

 and Baby Marcelle (detail), 1888 

Madame Roulin is said to have been uneasy while being painted by Van Gogh. The Dutch artist held the Roulin family in the highest esteem and affection, but Madame Roulin does appear apprehensive and "out of sorts" in this portrait. Whatever Madame Roulin's frame of mind, it is a rare moment in the Resnick Rotunda when visitors are gazing at her or other nearby works by Van Gogh rather than at Sunflowers. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2021) 

Van Gogh paintings at the Resnick Rotunda, Philadelphia Museum of Art

Philadelphia's Sunflowers will continue to enjoy its role as a center piece of the  National Gallery celebrations until mid-January 2025. In the meantime, Madame Augustine Roulin and Baby Marcelle can enjoy some well-deserved appreciation without the attention-grabbing Sunflowers stealing the scene.

Fans of Van Gogh's Sunflowers in the Philadelphia area can look to nature for  compensation, at least for the next few weeks. One place in particular stands-out as an idyllic garden-spot, a haven -indeed a heaven - of sunflower splendor: the W.B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences.

Saul High School is located within the city limits of Philadelphia, with a modern educational campus on one side of a major highway, Henry Ave. On the other side is a facility which looks the set of the old TV show, Green Acres. But it is an honest-to-goodness working farm, with cows, sheep, horses, crops of all kinds, bee hives and cultivated flowers, especially sunflowers.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) 

A view of the W.B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences farm 

The setting of the Saul agricultural school is enhanced by its proximity to the Wissahickon Valley Park, a woodland environment over two thousand acres in size, seven miles in length. This makes a visit to the Saul school seem like a journey to Montana's "big sky" country.

The kind of serenity and "oneness" to nature which one encounters at the Saul school is much the same as Van Gogh sought in the vicinity of Arles. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) 

Sunflowers & Black-eyed Susans at the Saul  Agricultural School farm 

Painting sunflowers was a key element in Van Gogh's attempt to create a "school of the south"  in Provence. To quote the commentary from the PMA web page devoted to their version of Sunflowers::

Throughout his ten-year career, Van Gogh painted sunflowers repeatedly in different arrangements and settings. The shapes, colors, and cheerfulness of the modest flower appealed to him. He associated its yellow color with sunshine, the south, and Christ, the light of the world. Over a single week in August 1888, Van Gogh painted four pictures of sunflowers, including a bold canvas of twelve sunflowers against a turquoise ground, now in the Neue Pinakothek, Munich. The speed of this work was driven by enthusiasm and necessity since the flowers were destined to wilt and fade. This painting is a variation on the work now in Munich. Far from being a simple copy, it is a new interpretation that gives each flower a pronounced personality.

None of Van Gogh's Sunflowers are the least bit wilted or faded. They are as "alive" as the ones we see growing at the Saul High School farm. Every sunflower has its own "pronounced personality" as the PMA commetary notes. 

That insight needs further emphasis. Each sunflower is "one-of-kind" like a snowflake, as unique as a human fingerprint.

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2023 & 2019) 

A sunflower at the Saul Agricultural School farm (above)

 and a detail of the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Sunflowers 

Whether waving its diadem of golden ray florets in the breeze at the Saul farm or filling the picture plane of a Van Gogh canvas, each sunflower is a testament to the life force which animates the Universe.

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2021) 

Sunflower "weather" at the Saul Agricultural School farm 

Anne and I make a point of going to the Saul High School farm during the late summer and early autumn, when the the sunflowers there are at their peak. This year, with the PMA's Sunflowers enjoying the London "season", we had added reason to make the Saul sunflowers the focus of our visit.

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2024)) 

Sunflowers at the Saul Agricultural School farm 

We were not disappointed. The weather was fantastic. The sun could not have been brighter in the south of France and the Saul sunflowers were arching upwards like Jacob's Ladder. 

It was the kind of September day, spent painting in the fields and gardens of Provence when Van Gogh wrote to his brother, Theo, “Everywhere and all over the vault of heaven is a marvelous blue, and a sun sheds a radiance of pure sulphur, and it is soft and as lovely as the combination of heavenly blues and yellows in a Van der Meer of Delft…" 

Nature has a way of reminding us that its abundance needs to be acknowledged along with our agendas and intentions. We journeyed to the Saul High School farm to bask in the beauty of sunflowers. But the farm's dahlias nudged our elbows and commanded our attention.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) 

Cultivating dahlias at the Saul Agricultural School farm

Dahlias, unlike sunflowers, did not figure prominently in Van Gogh's oeuvre. But another artist of his era has left us a magnificent landscape dedicated to this beautiful flower. Moreover, the setting of Gustave Caillebotte's Dahlias, Garden at Petit Gennevilliars (1893) beautifully complements that of the Saul High School farm.

Gustave Caillebotte, Dahlias, Garden at Petit Gennevilliers, 1893

Caillebotte's Dahlias is a very significant painting on several counts. It is one of a select number of works by this brilliant, unconventional artist in U.S. collections. This wonderful painting recently entered the collection of the National Gallery in Washington D.C. Moreover, it was among the last of Caillebotte's paintings.

Gustave Caillebotte's career cannot be recapped here. That is best served by recalling the great 2015 exhibition at the National Gallery. For the present, it is important to note that Caillebotte (1848-1894) like Van Gogh, died tragically young, aged 46. He was stricken by pulmonary congestion as he worked in his own garden, at his country estate of Petit Gennevilliers.

Caillebotte was a man of many interests, horticultural being a particular passion. Although the cultivation of rare orchids absorbed much of his time and expertise, dahlias were another favorite and he painted several landscapes featuring this beautiful flower.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) 

 Just a few of the varieties of dahlias at the Saul Agricultural School 

In a way, dahlias were a perfect match to Caillebotte's personality with his love of hands-on experimentation. A perennial flower, native to Mexico and Central America, dahlias are unusual plants by European standards. Dahlias are rich in sugar content and, therefore, edible. When the Spanish introduced the dahlia to Europe, they became a favorite of botanists who bred new petal shapes and colors. 

In 1872, a shipment of rare, multi-colored dahlias with pointed leaves was sent from Mexico to Holland. Only one dahlia tuber survived the voyage. From this sole survivor, a "red yellow" dahlia craze swept Europe. It was just the kind of a competitive, creative phenomenon that appealed to Caillebotte, cultivating flowers in his green house and garden plots.

There was another aspect to Caillebotte's personality. His family was wealthy, but many family members, including his beloved brother, Rene, died young. Caillebotte had a strong sense of his own mortality. The unsettling aspects of some of his paintings - severed heads of calves, rows of dead chickens and rabbits hanging in butcher-shop windows - undoubtedly testify to his awareness of death.

Caillebotte was conscious of his impending demise but this acted as a spark to his embrace of life.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) 

Butterflies and dahlias at the Saul Agricultural School farm

Any melancholy thoughts on our part were soon dispelled, as we basked in the glorious sunlight amid the flowers at the Saul High School farm. As if on cue,  the butterflies and honey bees showed-up. They almost always do when we visit Saul.

The sight of butterflies darting amid the rows of brightly-hued zinnias and rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susans), dahlia and sunflowers, is one of the most life-affirming sights I know. The bees go about their business with quiet, purposeful dedication. Nature's industry is marvelous to behold.

Van Gogh was truly perceptive to regard sunflowers as symbolical of the life force of nature. Caillebotte painted several depictions of this magnificent plant, as well. Here is a sequence of like-minded photos which Anne took of the sunflowers at the Saul farm in 2023.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)

Sunflower splendor at the Saul Agricultural School Farm 

These are troubled times in which we find ourselves. So was the era in which Van Gogh and Caillebotte lived. Amidst their woes, with the shadow of death creeping closer, they glimpsed the beauty of nature and recorded it in oil on canvas. 

If we keep looking, we will find beauty too... even if our favorite painting is on loan to a museum in a foreign land.

The sunflowers and dahlias will bloom. The bees and the butterflies will appear.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved

Original photography, copyright of Anne Lloyd

Introductory image: Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024) A photo of a dahlia flower and a butterfly at butterfly the W.B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences farm in Philadelphia. 

Composite illustration of self-portraits by Vincent van Gogh and Gustave Caillebotte.  Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait, 1887-1888, Oil on canvas: 65.1 × 50 cm) Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; Gustave Caillebotte, Self-Portrait, 1888-1889, Oil on canvas: 55 × 46 cm (21 5/8 × 18 1/8 in.) Private Collection.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)  Black-eyed Susans (rudbeckia) cultivated at the W.B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences farm in Philadelphia. 

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2022) Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers, 1889. Oil on canvas: 36 3/8 x 28 in. (92.4. x 71.1 cm.) Philadelphia Museum of Art #1963-116-19

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch,1853-1890) Sunflowers, 1888. Oil on canvas: 36.3 x 29 in. (92.1. x 3 cm.) National Gallery, London #NG-3863 

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2020) Gallery view of Resnick Rotunda at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2024) Vincent van Gogh's  Portrait of Madam Augustine Roulin and Baby Marcelle (Detail), 1888. Oil on canvas: 36 3/8 x 28 15/16 in. (92.4. x 73.5 cm) Philadelphia Museum of Art #1950-92-22

Anne Lloyd, (Photo 2021) Van Gogh paintings at the Resnick Rotunda, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Gustave Caillebotte (French, 1848-1894) Dahlias, Garden at Petit Gennevilliers, 1893. Oil on canvas: 61 13/16 x 44 7/8 in. (157 x 114 cm.) National Gallery of Art #216.48.1

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2018-2024) The selection of photographs of sunflowers and dahlias, illustrating this essay, were taken during visits to  the W.B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences farm in Philadelphia during the years 2018-2024. 

Art Eyewitness Review: Paris 1874, the Impressionist Moment

  

Paris 1874, the Impressionist Moment

 National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

September 8, 2024–January 19, 2025

Reviewed by Ed Voves

 Visitors to the Paris 1874 exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., no sooner walk through the entrance to the galleries than they are greeted by two of the greatest paintings of the nineteenth century. Both were contemporary works of art and were first exhibited the same year, one hundred and fifty years ago. The sesquicentennial observance of the First Impressionist Exposition, which opened on April 15, 1874, serves as the inspiration for this outstanding exhibition.

Paris 1874, the Impressionist Moment is a collaborative effort of the National Gallery and the Musee d’Orsay, Paris. A dazzling array of 125 works of art, predominantly paintings and a selection of sculptures, from the rich collections of both museums is complemented by significant loans from other institutions. The lenders include the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Musée Marmottan in Paris and the Stadel Museum of Frankfurt, Germany.

Ed Voves, Photo (2024)

 Gallery view of the Paris 1874: the Impressionist Moment exhibition 

This is a beautifully mounted exhibition which devotes equal attention to the Paris Salon of 1874 and the first Impressionist exhibit. The curators wisely chose to integrate Salon and Impressionist artworks in thematic arrangements. Rather than confining works of art from the 1874 Salon and from the rival Impressionist presentation in separate galleries, the curators have evoked the cultural setting of 1870's France in which both of these legendary displays were held.

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) 

Gallery view of Paris 1874: the Impressionist Moment, showing Jean-Léon Gérôme’s L'Éminence Grise & Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise

The two paintings which introduce Paris 1874 - Jean-Léon Gérôme’s L'Éminence Grise (1873) and Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise (1872) were not on the best of terms one hundred-fifty years ago. 

Jean-Léon Gérôme, L'Éminence Grise, 1873

Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872

Each of the paintings was displayed at a rival venue, one being the official Paris Salon, where Gérôme’s history painting was unveiled to popular acclaim. 

The other exhibition was presented by an artist cooperative known as the Société anonyme des artistes peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs, etc. The location of the exposition was the vacant studio of the photographer, Nadar, who had just moved to a new site. Nadar had earlier paid the rent for his old studio for the month of April 1874. Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Cezanne and twenty-six other artists, most of them "refused" by the Salon, were thus enabled to mount their own exhibit.

It should be noted that one of the participating artists in the group presentation in Nadar's old studio was a young woman. Associating "with madmen ... at some peril" (as her art teacher wrote with horror) was Berthe Morisot. Her exquisite The Cradle, painted in 1872, was a highlight of the 1874 Impressionist exhibit. One of the treasures of the Musee d’Orsay, it is now on view in the National Gallery show.

Ed Voves, Photo (2024)

 Berthe Morisot’s The Cradle, 1872

Radically different, too, were the effects of the two exhibitions, immediate and long-term. Gérôme's L'Éminence Grise won the Salon's medal of honor. Monet's masterpiece earned a derisive sobriquet which was soon applied to the paintings of his colleagues, as well: Impressionist.

At the National Gallery, today, this contentious stand-off continues in the opening display of paintings.

Gérôme’s L'Éminence Grise and Monet’s Impression, Sunrise confront each other like two opposing duelists.

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) 

Gallery view of the Paris 1874 exhibit, showing Jean-Léon Gérôme’s L'Éminence Grise & Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise

Viewing L'Éminence Grise and Impression, Sunrise, one feels like a “second” at the duel. The paintings hang, not together on the gallery wall, but “back-to-back” in the manner of gentlemen defending their honor. They appear poised to walk the requisite ten paces, pistols in hand, turn and at the command -

Fire! 

As contrived, even absurd, as this may sound, the actual events surrounding the advent of Impressionism were even more contentious – and confused - than this imagined scenario conveys.

Jean-Leon Gérôme (1824-1904) was the greatest of French academic painters, whose meticulous scenes of history and oriental sensuality commanded huge prices. L'Éminence Grise accurately and evocatively recreates a famous story from French history. It is a brilliant example of the works of art which made Gérôme such a formidable figure in the nineteenth century art world.

Gérôme detested the “New Painting” innovations of the likes of Edouard Manet whom he scorned as “the apostle of decadent fashion, the art of the fragment..." Gérôme remained the implacable foe of Impressionism until the day he died.

Claude Monet (1840-1926) responded to Gérôme's traditionalism by a change of focus. He chose for his subjects nature at close hand and life in the modern metropolis. His urban paintings were immortalized by his sweeping vista of the Boulevard des Capucines, painted in late 1873. Monet's observation point for this truly-impressionistic work was the window of Nadar's studio where the first Impressionist exhibition was to be held a few months later.

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) 

Claude Monet’s Boulevard des Capucines,1873–1874

Monet and the Impressionists would eventually win the duel. But the struggle was not settled by a single "shot" or a pair of contrasting paintings.

One of the reasons for the rancorous rivalry between academic painters like Gérôme and Monet’s Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers, etc., was the legacy of actual warfare. The artistic events of 1874 occurred while the debris of the Franco-Prussian War and the radical uprising known as the Paris Commune was still being cleared from battlefields and barricades.

In 1870-71, France suffered shattering, unexpected defeat at the hands of Prussia/Germany. The experience of the Commune was, in many ways, even worse. Deep fissures had been revealed in French society. After the brutal execution of the archbishop of Paris, held hostage by the Communards, and the savage reprisals of the French army, these divisions could no longer be concealed.

Ed Voves, Photo (2024)

 Auguste Lancon’s Dead in Line, 1873

Nor do the curators of the National Gallery exhibit attempt to gloss over the effects of the 1870-71 disaster. A powerful painting of French war casualties entitled Dead in Line is presented not far from L'Éminence Grise and Impression, Sunrise. This work, by an artist named Auguste Lancon, has the searing effect of battlefield photos from the American Civil War.

The detail of the corpse of a French soldier in the foreground of Lancon's painting (below) reminds us of the death of Frederic Bazille in one of the final battles of the 1870-1871 war. A friend of Monet and Renoir and a fellow-painter, Bazille had been the first to propose a joint exhibition of the type eventually presented in April 1874.

 
In response to the horrors of the “terrible year”, traditionalists like Gérôme emphasized the need for depicting episodes from France's glorious past. Like the trumpet call of the medieval knight, Roland, heroic art works would summon Frenchmen to defend la patrie.

Monet and his compatriots took a more low-key approach. They favored scenes of “the heroism of everyday life.”

These remarks on the opposing ideals of Gérôme and his supporters (he was the son-in-law of the major art dealer, Goupil) and those of Monet and the Anonymous Society need some clarification.

 Disagreement there certainly was but the French art world was not divided into rigid, warring camps. Some of the works of art on view in the 1874 Salon shared artistic affinities with the paintings displayed on the walls of Nadar's ex-studio.

                                      

                                Ed Voves, Photo (2024)                                  

Charles Francois Daubigny’s The Fields in June, 1874

A good example of the "dialog" between the artists in the 1874 Salon and the Boulevard des Capucines "outsiders" is a sprawling landscape painted by Charles-Francois Daubigny (above). Entitled The Fields in June, Daubigny's painting is described by the exhibit wall text as an "expansive landscape" characterized by "loose brushwork, a bright palette and sense of immediacy."

In short, The Fields in June has all the hallmarks which we now ascribe to signature Impressionist landscapes by Monet, Sisley and Pissarro. Yet, Daubigny's vast painting was accepted for the 1874 Salon. Was exception made for him because he was a close friend of Corot, now a revered figure in France, or by virtue of his own age and long years of devotion to art?

There were so many exceptions and inconsistent decisions related to acceptance or rejection by the annual Salon committees that it is a good question if there were actual standards by which works of art were judged. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2024 ) 

Detail of Camille Cabaillot-Lassalle’s The Salon of 1874, 1874

Whatever the criterion for Salon decision-making in 1874, it is perplexing to consider Manet's unconventional (dare we say impressionistic) The Railroad (1873). This startling work, certainly to 1870's sensibilities, was accepted for display in the 1874 Salon. 

Manet submitted another painting to the1874 Salon. Masked Ball at the Opera conformed much more closely to the customary standards of pictorial composition. Yet, it was denied inclusion in the 1874 Salon.

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) 

Édouard Manet’s The Railway, 1873

The same fate befell Manet's pupil, Eva Gonzalez. The 1874 Salon accepted a clearly inferior work, The Pink Morning Gown, while rejecting the vastly superior, opera-themed A Box at the Theatre des Italiens. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2024)

 Eva Gonzalez’ A Box at the Theatre des Italiens, c.1874

Gonzalez might have considered offering this "refused" masterpiece for display in the exhibition at Nadar's old studio. But Manet, who had advised Morisot not to join forces with Monet, Renoir and Degas, likely urged Gonzalez to refrain from doing so. If so, Gonzalez listened to Manet's advice, unlike Morisot who - fortunately - did not.

Of course, Manet could have displayed Masked Ball at the Opera with Monet, Degas and his other friends at Nadar's studio, while exhibiting The Railroad at the Salon. Monet and Degas were anxious for Manet's participation. There was no "either/or" stipulation in this first Impressionist public display, as there was in the later exhibitions. But Manet kept his sights on the annual Paris Salons and would never exhibit with the Impressionists.

Giuseppe De Nittis, the Italian-born landscape painter befriended by Degas, did take advantage of the ability to show works at both venues. The Salon exhibited his brilliant study in color-contrasts, In the Wheat Field, while rejecting another fine work, Avenue du Bois de Boulogne (1873). Five other paintings by De Nittis went on view at the Société anonyme show.

Ed Voves, Photo (2024)

 Giuseppe De Nittis’ In the Wheat Field, 1873 

Exhibiting with the soon-to-be Impressionists proved to be a mixed blessing for De Nittis. He felt that his paintings had been poorly hung, evidence of resentment by Monet and Renoir at allowing foreign artists into the ranks of the Société anonyme. De Nittis remained a close friend of Degas but did not participate in the later Impressionist exhibitions.

If, as noted above, it is hard to understand the acceptance/rejection standards of the Salon, no such problems existed for admission to the Société anonyme (apart from the prejudicial attitude of Monet and Renoir). The cash-strapped members of this "co-op" welcomed recruits, including print makers who traditionally had been viewed as artisans rather than artists.

Felix Bracquemond (1833-1914), who played a key role in the revival of etching in France, joined the group, displaying an ensemble of etched prints based on Old Master favorites and an intriguing drypoint print of J.M.W. Turner's now-iconic painting Rain, Steam and Speed.

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) 

Felix Bracquemond's The Locomotive (After J.M.W. Turner), 1873

Generally, the Société anonyme members introduced recent works of art at the exhibition, created within a year or two of the April 15th opening day. Most of the group we now consider "Impressionists" were making major strides in the "New Painting" during the months before the debut of the exhibition.The combined efforts  of the National Gallery and the Musee d’Orsay have succeeded in presenting an array of early Impressionist masterpieces which we are unlikely to see again for some time to come.

Of particular note, visitors to the National Gallery will be able to study the transformative moment when Paul Cezanne "discovered" landscape painting. This occurred during  the joint painting expeditions of Camille Pissarro and Cezanne to the French countryside around Pontoise and Auver. The Paris 1874 exhibit devotes major attention to the landscapes which this unlikely pair created. As these were of such seminal importance in Cezanne's maturation as an artist, I plan a follow-up essay in Art Eyewitness. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) 

Gallery view of Paris 1874: the Impressionist Moment, showing landscapes by Camille Pissarro & Paul Cezanne during the 1870’s

Paul Cézanne, The House of the Hanged Man, Auvers-sur-Oise, c. 1873

It can scarcely be wondered why  visitors to the Société anonyme exhibit were shocked upon seeing Monet's Impression, Sunrise or Cezanne's The House of the Hanged Man. Never had so many "en plein air" landscapes, works painted with "broken" brush stokes or portraits influenced by Japanese-style picture cropping appeared together en masse.

Monet, however, used the exhibition to display a huge painting created in the realist style of his early career. The story of how this "dated" masterpiece came to be included needs to be briefly recounted.

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Claude Monet’s The Luncheon, 1868

In 1868, Monet, enjoying a very brief respite from financial woes, painted an endearing portrait of his mistress, later first wife, Camille Doncieux and their son, Jean. An enigmatic, black-clad guest (also posed by Camille) is about to join them for lunch. Monet painted this scene of domestic harmony on a heroic scale (91 1/8 x 59 5/8 inches) usually reserved for a Napoleonic hussar or a captain of industry. Any hopes that this depiction of a secularized "madonna and child" would find favor - and a buyer - were dashed when the 1870 Salon rejected it.

Monet dusted The Luncheon off and exhibited it at the Société anonyme exposition. He had to wait until 1910 for the painting of his long-dead first wife to sell, when the Stadel Museum purchased it from Monet's dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel.

Ed Voves, Photo (2024)

 Gallery view of Paris 1874: the Impressionist Moment, showing

 Claude Monet’s The Luncheon, 1868

Today, on loan from the Stadel, The Luncheon towers over the Impressionist and 1874 Salon paintings sharing gallery space with this once-spurned masterpiece. Its presence in Paris 1874 reminds us of the revolutionary change in style which Monet made between 1870 and 1874.

Yes, a revolution had occurred, the artistic upheaval which we now call Impressionism. Not many people noticed in 1874.

Only 3,500 attended this "First Impressionist Exposition" as opposed to nearly 500,000 patrons at the 1874 Salon. Sales were few and the reviews were mixed. The negative, derisory comments of the art critics were the ones that most people recalled.

The remarks of Ernest Chesneau, writing in the Paris-Journal, were the words that deserved to be remembered. Focusing on Monet's Boulevard des Capucines, Chesneau took note of the lack of finish of early Impressionism, "the art of the fragment." He also caught sight of its future promise.

      Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Monet’s Boulevard des Capucines 

Chesneau wrote: "At a distance,, one hails a masterpiece in the stream of life ... But come closer and it all vanishes. There remains only an indecipherable chaos of palette scrapings. Obviously, this is not the last word in art, nor even of this art."

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) 

Detail of Claude Monet’s Boulevard des Capucines, 1873

Chesneau concluded his remarks with a judicious assessment, composed in equal measures of practical insight and prophetic foresight.

"It s necessary to go and transform this sketch into a finished work. But what a bugle call for those who listen carefully, how it resounds into the future."

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved                                                 

Original photography, copyright of Ed Voves

Introductory Image:

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Gallery view of Paris 1874: the Impressionist Moment, showing Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise.

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Gallery view of the Paris 1874: the Impressionist Moment exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Gallery view of Paris 1874: the Impressionist Moment, showing Jean-Léon Gérôme’s L'Éminence Grise, and Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise.

Jean-Léon Gérôme (French, 1824-1904) L'Éminence Grise, 1873. Oil on canvas overall: 68.6 x 101 cm (27 x 39 3/4 in.) framed: 111.1 x 142.9 x 12.1 cm (43 3/4 x 56 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Bequest of Susan Cornelia Warren, 1903 Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926) Impression, Sunrise, 1872. Oil on canvas framed: 75 x 91 x 10 cm (29 1/2 x 35 13/16 x 3 15/16 in.) original canvas: 50 x 65 cm (19 11/16 x 25 9/16 in.) Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris, gift of Eugène and Victorine Donop de Monchy, 1940. Inv. 4014 Photo: © Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris / Studio Christian Baraja SLB

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Berthe Morisot’s The Cradle, 1872. Oil on canvas framed: 80 x 71 cm (31 1/2 x 27 15/16 in.) unframed: 56 x 46.5 cm (22 1/16 x 18 5/16 in.) Musée d’Orsay, Paris, purchased 1930.

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Gallery view of Paris 1874: the Impressionist Moment, showing Jean-Léon Gérôme’s L'Éminence Grise, and Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise.

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Claude Monet’s Boulevard des Capucines,1873–1874. Oil on canvas framed: 110.2 x 92 x 10.2 cm (43 3/8 x 36 1/4 x 4 in.) unframed: 80.3 x 60.3 cm (31 5/8 x 23 3/4 in.) The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri 

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Auguste Lancon’s Dead in Line, 1873. Oil on canvas: 160 x 210 cm (63 x 82 11/16 in.) Musée de la Princerie de Verdun # 81.1.401

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Charles Francois Daubigny’s The Fields in June, 1874. Oil on canvas: 54 x 86 inches. Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithica NY.

 Ed Voves, Photo (2024 ) Detail of Camille Cabaillot-Lassalle’s The Salon of 1874, 1874. Oil on canvas: 100 x 81.5 cm (39 3/8 x 32 1/16 in.) Musee d’Orsay, Paris, gift of Galerie Ary Jan and Segoura Fine Art, 2023

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Édouard Manet’s The Railway, 1873. Oil on canvas: 93.3 x 111.5 cm (36 3/4 x 43 7/8 in.) framed: 113 x 132.7 x 5.4 cm (44 1/2 x 52 1/4 x 2 1/8 in.) National Gallery of Art, Gift of Horace Havemeyer in memory of his mother, Louisine W. Havemeyer

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Eva Gonzalez’ A Box at the Theatre des Italiens, c.1874. Oil on canvas  38 1/2 x 51 1/8 inches.  Musee d’Orsay, Paris.

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Giuseppe De Nittis’ In the Wheat Field, 1873. Oil on panel 13 x 9 7/8 in. Private collection.

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Felix Bracquemond's The Locomotive (After J.M.W. Turner), 1873. Etching and drypoint, 2nd state of 2:  Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. #1990.1119

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Gallery view of Paris 1874: the Impressionist Moment, showing landscapes painted by Camille Pissarro and Paul Cezanne during the 1870’s.

Paul Cézanne (French,1839 -1906) The House of the Hanged Man, Auvers-sur-Oise, c.1873. Oil on canvas:: 55.5 x 66.3 cm (21 7/8 x 26 1/8 in.) Musée d’Orsay, Paris, bequest of Count Isaac de Camondo, 1911. Photo: © Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Claude Monet’s The Luncheon, 1868. Oil on canvas: 231.5 x 151 cm. Stadel Museum, Frankfurt am Main. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Gallery view of Paris 1874: the Impressionist Moment, showing Claude Monet’s The Luncheon, 1868. 

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Gallery view of Paris 1874: the Impressionist Moment, showing Claude Monet’s Boulevard des Capucines, 1873.

Ed Voves, Photo (2024) Detail of Claude Monet’s Boulevard des Capucines, 1873.