Impressionism & Modernism

Light, colour and the courage to see for oneself: from Impressionism to Art Nouveau, painting broke free of the academy – and the road to modern art began.

The times

Paris was the capital of the late 19th century: wide boulevards, cafés, railway stations, theatres and music halls. City dwellers took the train to the countryside or the sea at weekends. Paint in tubes made painting outdoors easy. Women such as Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt fought for their place in the art world, and art dealers rather than academies increasingly decided who succeeded.

What art set out to do

The Impressionists wanted to capture the fleeting moment: changing light, reflections, life in the street. From 1874 they exhibited independently of the official Salon. After them, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin and Seurat went their own ways – with solid form, expressive colour or dots of pure colour. Around 1900, Art Nouveau and the Vienna Secession joined art, ornament and everyday life.

How to recognise it

  • Visible, quick brushstrokes instead of a smooth surface.
  • Bright colours and coloured shadows – hardly any black.
  • Everyday subjects: boulevards, gardens, cafés, bathers.
  • Unusual framing, inspired by photography and Japanese woodblock prints.

Timeline

  • 1874: First Impressionist exhibition in Paris.
  • 1886: Seurat shows “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”.
  • 1888–1890: Van Gogh paints his best-known pictures in Arles, Saint-Rémy and Auvers.
  • 1897: In Vienna, Gustav Klimt and others found the Secession.
  • 1907: Picasso paints “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”.

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