The Impressionist Landscape
Following in the footsteps of Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Pierre-Auguste Renoir we analyse what was new about Impressionist landscape paintings: their experiments with colour theory, new synthetic pigments, and, most importantly, the distinctly modern landscape that they chose to depict. We’ll be travelling by train, in and out of the Gare Saint Lazare in Paris, with boating trips and balloon excursions thrown in. We’ll also consider the distinctively modern independent exhibitions mounted by the Impressionist group in Paris from 1874 onwards, and beyond that, Monet’s exploration of a new kind of modern landscape painting during the 1890s, epitomised by his series of Poplars, Haystacks and Rouen Cathedral, and culminating, at the end of his life, with his monumental Water Lilies.