Post 14: Spring Impressionist Landscapes

Dematerialization mirroring sensation

To see, we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at ~ Claude Monet

Fruit trees are blooming again in Provence. The sunlight from the dew in the grass reflects through the air onto delicate almond flowers. That sensory effect was never better interpreted than in Impressionists' paintings. Join me on a little trip enjoying their spring landscapes, aiming the spotlight at the ones with blossoming trees.

Apple Blossoms, 1873
Charles-Francois Daubigny (1817-1878)
58.7 x 84.8 cm, oil on canvas
Apple Blossoms Daubigny The Met

Apple Trees in Blossom, 1874
Charles- Francois Daubigny (1817-1878)
85 x 157 cm, oil on canvas
Blooming Trees Daubigny NG Scotland 

Daubigny, a precursor of Impressionism, was one of the Barbizon group of painters Monet very much looked up to. He painted blossoming trees every spring, starting in 1857, and continued for the next 20 years until the end of his life. The Barbizon Group of painters were the first to paint in the open and to focus on true colors under the natural light. Daubigny was also the favorite landscape painter of Vincent van Gogh and you will find at the end of this post a story of the poetic way he paid homage to Daubigny.

Apple Blossom Time in Arc-la-Bataille
Wynford Dewhurst (1865-1941)
38.3 x 55.4 cm, oil on canvas
Apple Blossom Dewhurst Christie's

Digging deeper in the Impressionist drawers of the past, I found Wynford Dewhurst, a British painter ("Monet from Manchester") and theorist. He wrote the book Impressionist Painting, its Genesis and Development in 1904 (available on the Gutenberg Project platform). The book is packed with first-hand accounts and anecdotes from his mentor and idol Monet, Mary Cassatt, Cezanne, and other key art figures in France at the time. Dewhurst felt that his compatriots were falling behind Americans in comprehending the importance of Impressionism in art. 

Note how in the painting above, like a true Impressionist, he moves the horizon line way above (or other times way under), while Daubigny still keeps it in the classical central position. 

Spring (Fruit Trees in Bloom), 1873
Claude Monet (1840-1926)
62.2 x 100.6 cm, oil on canvas
Monet Spring Trees Met Museum

After visiting his mentor and his admirer, we arrive at the man himself—Monet, one of the world's greatest landscape artists. As the description in the Met Museum says, we can not be sure what kind of fruit trees these above are. The painting was first named Plum, then Apple Trees, only to be left today as Fruit Trees. This proves the point Monet was trying to make- forget about details and immerse yourself in the magical play of the light, color, surfaces, and air in the moment.

In the above-mentioned book by Dewhurst, we can find an anecdote proving Monet's dedication: in 1889 invited by poet Maurice Rollinat (who would later tell the story to Dewhurst), Monet spent 3 months in  Fresseline in Creuse and painted 23 paintings there. He was especially taken by one tree hanging on the top of a cliff, painting it at different times of the day from various angles. At one point, the weather got so bad that he had to stop painting for three weeks. Arriving again at his scene, he found the tree budding. Determined to paint it as it was when he started, Monet called the whole village and orchestrated them to take every single bud from the poor tree by the next morning when he would be back to continue his work. 

Springtime, 1886
Claude Monet (1840-1926)
64.8 x 80.6 cm, oil on canvas
Spring Monet Fitz Museum UK

He made up for that 'crime' later as I found out in another story from the same book: hundreds of poplar trees along the Seine were to be cut by the order of the French government, and used for palisading the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900. Monet bought those grounds before the government got to them, and saved the poplars, immortalizing them in later paintings.

Speaking of the Universal Exhibition, the one in 1900 in Paris attracted  51 million visitors (France at the time had 41.5 million inhabitants) - a new world record. The French government included a large number of Impressionists in its exhibition "The Best of French Art in the XIX Century" establishing their elevated status domestically and internationally from then on.

Small Houses in Auvers (near Pantoise), 1873/4
Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)
40.7 x 50.9 cm, oil on canvas
Cezanne Blossom Harvard Art Museums

Printemps. Pruniers en fleurs (Spring. Plum Trees Flowering), 1877
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
65.5 x 81 cm, oil on canvas
Pissarro Orsay

And here are some blossoming trees from the two good friends - Cezanne and Pissarro who painted many scenes next to each other (like these from the Pentoise area, even though they were dated differently). They bonded when they met in 1861, feeling like outsiders with strong accents in Paris (Pissarro's Caribbean and Cezanne's Provençal). Pissarro was one of the rare ones to recognize early on something special in Cezanne's artistry. While Pissarro stayed loyal to the Impressionistic process of disintegrating the materialistic elements into sparkles of colors and light, Cezanne was heading in almost the opposite direction - "building" with color, as he said, "I want to make something solid and durable out of Impressionism".

Page of Van Gogh's letter to his brother Theo
with a sketch of Daubigny's garden
Letter Van Gogh Museum

Daubigny's Garden, 1890
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
51 x 51.2 cm, oil on canvas
Daubigny Jarden VV Gogh Museum

Le Jardin de Daubigny, 1890
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
53.2 x 103.5 cm, oil on canvas
Vincent Jardin Hiroshima Museum

Le Jardin de Daubigny (avec un chat blue), 1890
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
56 x 101. 5 cm, oil on canvas
Blue Cat Art Museum Basel 

(it should be here, but it is not at the moment, there is some dispute about whether they have the original or a copy)

As promised, here is a story (gathered from different sources you can find below) of Vincent van Gogh paying respect to Daubigny. 

It is 1890 and Van Gogh is as mentally exhausted, as his brother Theo is physically and financially. Camille Pissarro helps him go to Auvers-sur-Oise to be taken under the care of the famous Dr Gachet. Van Gogh learns that the house where his admired Daubigny lived, is in Auvers with his widow still living there. 

In a letter to his brother (image above) Van Gogh, as usual, writes about paintings he is working on and sketches the Daubigny's garden that he is about to paint. The first of the three paintings was done more in an Impressionist manner while the other two are in Van Gogh's original style, belonging to Post-Impressionism and almost Expressionism. The two in his Post-Impressionist style are painted in different weather conditions, one on a sunny day and the other under the turbulent sky with a blue cat.

Here is an easy way to remember the difference between Impressionism and Expressionism: Impressionists painted shadows blue and Expressionists painted their cats blue!

Auvers is the place where Vincent lived during the last months of his life, where he painted Wheatfield with Crows known as his 'suicide note' after which he shot himself in the stomach. He was buried there next to his brother (who died 6 months later) right by those wheatfields.

But we must remember him by the endless magnificent paintings he created while overcoming his pain with beauty. His series of around 20 paintings of Blooming Peach, Apricot, Almond, Plum, and Apple Orchards of Provence, painted in Arles and around Saint-Rémy-de-Provence are immeasurable sources of joy, beauty, and hope. Many of them are in Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, like this one:

Small Pear Tree in Blossom, 1888
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
73.6 x 46.3 cm, oil on canvas
Van Gogh Museum Single Tree

Sources:

Artist profile - Wynford Dewhurst | Great British Life

Claude Monet (1840–1926) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Claude Monet - Orchard in Bloom | Národní galerie Praha - sbírky

"J'ai été fulgurée par Claude Monet", une passionnée raconte l'histoire des tableaux creusois du peintre

Spring (Fruit Trees in Bloom) by Claude Monet - Artvee

The 1900 Universal Exhibition — Google Arts & Culture

Pavilions of the 1900 Universal Exhibition — Google Arts & Culture

Claude Monet | Spring (Fruit Trees in Bloom) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plum Trees in Blossom - Claude Monet — Google Arts & Culture

Monet's Palette in the Twentieth Century: 'Water-Lilies' and 'Irises' | Technical Bulletin | National Gallery, London

Orchard in Bloom, Louveciennes - Camille Pissarro

Plum Trees in Blossom, Éragny (Camille Pissarro (1830–1903)) | Museu.MS

Catalogue de la 4e Exposition de peinture , par M. Bracquemond... Mlle Cassatt, MM. Degas, Forain, Lebourg, Monet, Pissaro... du 10 avril au 11 mai 1879... 28, avenue de l'Opéra, Paris | Gallica

What are the Most Beautiful and Famous Paintings About Spring? - Dandelion Chandelier

Vegetable Garden and Trees in Blossom, Spring, Pontoise, by Camille Pissarro, 1877 | Great Big Canvas

The Hermitage at Pontoise by Camille Pissarro

Orchard in Pontoise, 1877 - Paul Cezanne - WikiArt.org

Pioneering Modern Painting: Cezanne and Pissarro 1865–1885 | MoMA

Speaking — Joachim Pissarro

Apple Trees in Blossom by Charles-François Daubigny | National Galleries of Scotland

Spring fever | Christie's

Flowering Orchards - Wikipedia

Garden of Daubigny, 1890 by Vincent Van Gogh

Le Jardin de Daubigny — Wikipédia

Post 13: Impressionists in Cafés

"The Green Muse"

My original idea was to do this post in two parts: research café culture in Paris before and after 1870-71 and explore the stories behind some Impressionist paintings depicting café scenes. 

It turns out the first part of my idea is not so original; somebody else already did it in the form of a blog: Impressionism and Paris Cafes. In that post, we can learn about the sudden rise in the number of cafes in Paris, about different types for different classes (bohemian and bourgeois), some with bar service and some with waiters, the introduction of mirrors behind the bar, women serving drinks and women entering cafes, and the rise in alcohol consumption. We can also read about cafés becoming discussion forums for artists to explore new ways of expression and freedom. 

This leads us to the original "Impressionist café" - Guerbois, where the idea of the first joint independent exhibition was born, establishing it forever as the cradle of modern art. 

Café Guerbois, Manet, 1869

Now, let's dive into the second part of my self-imposed task: the stories behind some of the "café paintings". 

Since the end of 1863, when Le Figaro published Charles Baudelaire's (1821-1867) essay "The Painter of Modern Life," Impressionists have followed his instructions and braved the unknown. Baudelaire urged painters to observe life around them in an "independent, intense and impartial" way. Modern life is "grand and heroic but also melancholy and fragmentary. Modernity is the transient, the fleeting, the contingent," says Baudelaire. 

Au Café, circa1875/7
Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
65.7 x 54.6 cm, oil on canvas
Degas Au Café Cambridge Museum

That is why Degas' Au Café is modern and alive today. Real and truthful, these women have emotions, one deep sadness, the other probably empathy for her friend. The background and foreground are also truthfully painted exactly how our eyes would perceive them, while looking at the ladies - out of focus.

There are many Impressionist paintings with café and cabaret scenes, but I realised they were all painted by only three Impressionists: Eduard Manet, Edgar Degas, and August Renoir. In my mind, Frederic Bazille, (who got killed in 1870 in the Franco-Prussian war, started by France still in its Napoleonic rush) would also be the one to paint café scenes as he was a regular there and loved portraying people. For female painters, operas were proper public outings, and to other Impressionists, outdoor scenes and nature in natural light were more inspiring than people's behaviour. 

Dans un café, 1875/6
Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
92 x 68.5 cm, oil on canvas
In the Café Degas Orsay

Manet, Degas, and Renoir had three distinctively different styles and temperaments, reflected in the general 'mood' of their paintings. 

Degas's paintings are the 'darkest'; Nobody is smiling. People's eyes are empty, either caused by absinthe alcoholism, poverty, moral defeats, or simply being broken by the horrible times witnessed in Paris. During the Prussian 'siege' (September 1870-January 1871), Parisians were so hungry they were buying rats grouped by weight and price on the street stalls. The rich ate at the restaurant near the zoo, which served animals from the zoo (source: Paris In Ruins, Sebastian Smee). 

In this painting above, the woman drinks "green muse" or "green fairy," as absinthe was called (tables have no legs, alluding to absinthe's mind-altering effect). Inspired by this painting and a thorough research on the devastating impact this drink had on women and men's lives in Paris, Emile Zola wrote a novel, "L'assomoir" (The Knockout). The one that made him popular and rich and the one that was adapted for film 6 times so far. Here is the link to the first film, fascinating and silent: L'Assommoir (1908) Drink (Pathé). Zola said his L'assommoir message was simply: "Close the cabarets, open the schools".

Femmes Devant un Café, le Soir, 1877
Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
41 x 60 cm, pastel over print
Femmes devant un café Degas Orsay

Being the most dedicated observer, Degas catches the moment no other painter would: a woman's finger touching her lips, and decides to position it in the very centre of the painting. As the pillars support the roof, her arm supports her head.  The lower half of the painting is the interior, and the upper side is the exterior of the scene. Blurry street lights fall on buildings and sidewalks' straight lines, while sharp interior light falls on women's bodies, heads, hats, and chairs' curves. Women, as chairs, are there for some useful purpose, not for fun chatting. 

       

                 In the Café, 1878                          Corner of a Café-Concert, 1878

        Eduard Manet (1832-1883)                        Eduard Manet (1832-1883)

      78 x 84 cm, oil on canvas                  97.1 x 77.5 cm, oil on canvas

         Reinhart Museum left part         The National Gallery Manet right part

These two paintings were once one before Manet slashed it in two during his usual questioning and restarting process. They were only exhibited together two times: in 1880 in Marseille and 125 years later (2005) in Winterthur, Switzerland. The 'left' painting is in Switzerland and can never be loaned for exhibitions due to the will of its donor, so in 2005, the National Gallery London agreed to lend its part without the possibility to exhibit them both back in London, as usual agreements between museums go. 

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1882

Eduard Manet (1832-1883)

96 x 130 cm, oil on canvas

Manet Courtauld Gallery

Moving on from Degas's' Parisiennes 'miserables', we are faced with Manet's ambiguous and enigmatic subjects, usually looking straight at us with no facial expression, as if asking: "What do you think?". The famous "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère" is exactly that, a visual and mental puzzle for so many decades. Manet's last master piece (painted while he suffered painfully in his final year with neuro-syphilis) is to the envy of all museums kept at Courtauld Gallery in London. 

Many essays are written about whether this young woman serves only drinks or is she "serving" something more (based on flowers and oranges positioned near triangles on her dress and a 'parallel" world in the mirror where she seems to be more engaged with a gentleman). Note two white geometrically perfect circles (the right one slightly smaller to deepen perspective) as light reflections in the mirror, making us dizzy while our brain struggles to separate what is in front of us and what is behind her. On the left, I found a study that he did (still not sure if this work is also in the Courtlaud Gallery). In it, we see how he prepared the general composition with proportions, verticals, and horizontals. 

Plum Brandy, 1877
Eduard Manet (1832-1883)
73.6 x 50.2 cm, oil on canvas
Plum Manet National Gallery DC

Above, is actress Ellen Andrée painted by Manet as a response to Degas' "Dans un Café", also of Ellen Andrée as the model. She is also the woman in " the left Manet painting "In the Café" and she is the one drinking from the glass in Renoir's "The Luncheon of the Boating Party"! What a star! Let's raise a glass to the real muse de Belle Epoque cafés! 🍷

To finish on a high note, we arrive at Renoir. Unlike Degas and Manet, he was not in Paris during the terrible winter of 1870/71, therefore, we will find his subjects in a drastically different mood. Pretty young people, optimistic and expectant, are painted with vibrant colours and flickering light. He loved portraying people dancing, enjoying their food (usually at the time: oysters, choucroute-sour cabbage, ham, baguette), and smiling in the daylight. To me, his paintings are not just about the 'joie de vivre' but also about love happening or love that will happen right after we walk away from the painting. 

Bal du Moulin de la Galette, 1876
August Renoir (1841-1919)
131.5 x 176.5 cm, oil on canvas
Bal du Moulin Musee d'Orsay

Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880/1
August Renoir (1841-1919)
130.2 x 175.6 cm, oil on canvas
Boating Party Renoir Washington

This post is already too long, so I am finishing with just one unavoidable reference to modern art, the iconic presentation of urban isolation in Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, whose subjects seem like time travellers from Degas' paintings.

Nighthawks, 1942
Edward Hopper (1882-1967)
84.1 x 152.4 cm, oil on canvas
Nighthawks Art Institute Chicago

Sources:      

Café Guerbois - Wikipedia

Two Artistic Cafés on Place Pigalle Montmartre | Montmartre Artists' Studios

Meeting places - Impressionism

Women in Front of a Cafe, 1877 by Edgar Degas

A literary feast – Cafés and culture in Paris’ 9th arrondissement – A Woman's Paris L'Assommoir - Film entier - video Dailymotion

Baudelaire, Charles (1821–1867) - The Painter of Modern Life (Le Peintre de la Vie Moderne)

Charles Baudelaire and The Painter of Modern Life | David Weintraub

Meeting of Manets paints full picture - SWI swissinfo.ch

Découverte récente Manet's split paintings

The Parisian hotspot where Manet had a sword fight

"A Bar at the Folies-Bergère" by Édouard Manet - A Look

Édouard Manet's "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère": A Complete Analysis – GalleryThane

The Café-Concert | The Walters Art Museum

City girls: women in entertainment in Impressionist Paris | Art UK

In a Private Dining Room at the Rat Mort | Art UK

In het café – Kröller-Müller Museum Renoir

Il Café de la Nouvelle-Athènes by Federico Zandomeneghi | USEUM

Au café de la Nouvelle Athènes - Jean-Louis Forain | Musée d'Orsay