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CELEBRATE THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF IMPRESSIONISM WITH A HOST OF EVENTS ACROSS NORMANDY AND PARIS


It’s 150 years since 30 young painters in Paris broke from artistic convention to set up an independent showcase. Their work captured shifting light and colour — a departure from the style of the time, which favoured accurate depictions. Critics were derisive and the public indifferent, but the group — which counted artists such as Monet, Renoir and Degas among its ranks — held what is now seen as the first impressionist exhibition. Normandy’s coastline and countryside inspired


some of the most recognisable impressionist works, and fans can mark this year’s anniversary at the Normandy Impressionist Festival — a quadrennial event returning for its fifth edition between March and September. Around 150 celebratory events are taking place across the region,


from public installations to guided tours. Highlights include a Whistler retrospective at the Rouen Museum of Fine Arts, and the Impressionism and the Sea exhibition in Giverny, where Monet lived for over 40 years. In Paris, the Musée d’Orsay is presenting some of the


paintings from the original 1874 display — including Monet’s Impression, Sunrise, which gave the movement its name — alongside more traditional works on show that year, recreating the rift in the French art scene of the 19th century. The exhibition, Paris 1874. Inventing Impressionism, will run from March to July before travelling to Washington, DC’s National Gallery of Art. normandie-impressionniste.fr musee-orsay.fr ANGELA LOCATELLI


Above from left: The Musée d’Orsay in Paris; Monet’s garden in Giverny, Normandy


1860S A Paris-based group of artists discover an interest in painting landscapes and contemporary life, often en plein air and with thin, quick strokes. They come to be known as the Batignolles group, after the district where they met up


1874 After unsuccessfully battling for recognition from the Salon de Paris, the official showcase of France’s Académie des Beaux-Arts, the Batignolles group open a breakaway exhibition to barbed reviews on 15 April


1886 The group hold their eighth and final exhibition. By this point, critics and the public have acclimatised to the movement, and the artists — now known as the impressionists — have made a name for themselves


1927 The Musée de l’Orangerie opens in Paris as the Musée Claude Monet, a permanent home for the impressionist icon’s eight Water Lilies murals, which remain the building’s star attractions to this day


1986 The Musée d’Orsay opens to bridge the gap between the Louvre and France’s National Museum of Modern Art (now known as Centre Pompidou). Today, it holds the world’s most extensive collection of impressionist works


MARCH 2024 19


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