If Constable acted as a bridge, Corot was the crossroad leading to ‘modern’ art.
Pissarro
A brief glance through the history of painting trees in the landscape, from Rubens and Poussin to van Gogh and Pissarro.
Fifteen paintings by 11 artists showing the gardens over more than 130 years.
Some paintings have figures and action which goes beyond staffage, and provides narrative, meaning, or puzzles.
Seurat was interested in much more than the perception of colour, and in his reading of contemporary science (particularly that of von Helmholtz) and in his paintings, explored much of visual experience.
Compared with most other European countries, Impressionism largely passed British painters by.
His richly colourful paintings of women are reminiscent of Renoir at his best, and some of his later studies of nudes appear to owe much to the influence of Degas.
There are several uncanny parallels with the Impressionists, including the importance of the tache and plein air painting, early critical hostility followed later by acceptance, and of course the tragic deaths of Sernesi and Bazille in war.
This book looks at the type of painting which was central to Impressionism – the plein air landscape – and traces its development from inception by Desportes in the latter years of the seventeenth century, through the Barbizon School, to its peak in the late nineteenth century.
This article summarises the information that I have now obtained from working through that catalogue raisoné, and includes new information on Pissarro’s series paintings.
The Eclectic Light Company 