Early works from Nantucket and the East Coast, views of Brittany, then finding form and distinctive fine-textured grasses and flowers around Medfield, Massachusetts.
Impressionism
From his fine realism of 1858, through sinuous trees above Bordighera, to his first series of poplars near his home in Giverny and on the River Epte.
Influenced by Corot, late in his career he painted several views of an avenue of poplars in the village of Moret-cur-Loing, forming an unusual series shown here.
Taught by Corot, he became an almost compulsive painter of trees and a central figure among the French Impressionists. He later became Pointillist, peaking in 1891, but ceased painting outdoors in his final years.
Early works followed Constable or his teacher Michallon, and excelled in anatomy. His trees became more gestural, with daubs and marks as he led the start of Impressionism.
As Paul CĂ©zanne reached the end of his Impressionist phase, he started painting foliage using patterned brushstrokes, his ‘constructive stroke’.
Before about 1870, no one questioned that cast shadows should appear grey, without any change in colour. The Impressionists disagreed.
A style set by Monet and Renoir in their 1869 paintings of La Grenouillère, it became more deliberate and even adopted by those considered to paint in academic style.
As a member of the Salon jury, he ensured the young Impressionists were accepted. He led the way in painting fruit trees in blossom, and a series of innovative nocturnes.
His increasingly sketchy landscapes in the 1850s were well received at the Salon, as he pioneered painting riverbanks from his studio boat.
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