Sunday, May 28, 2017

Painting of the 1870s, mostly French

Alfred Sisley
Bridge at Villeneuve la Garenne
1872
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Alfred Sisley
Villeneuve la Garenne
1872
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

"How could one deny the existence of collective fashions? But I have to say that often they are negative. What can easily happen is a kind of social taboo. Certain things are not done. After the triumph of Impressionism, no one who wished to be taken seriously would paint purely photographic or anecdotal pictures. I call this in one of my papers 'the principle of exclusion'. If you accept this exclusion there are many things you can still do, provided you do not do what is now socially taboo, which is considered passé and vieux jeu. You are then confronted with a new array of possibilities and only those who are really original and inventive can, within these new limitations, create something which becomes accepted, and a fashion. So, the negative is very important in the history of art."

Claude Monet
Seine at Rouen
1872
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Claude Monet
Seine at Asnières
1873
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

"It means that, again, certain possibilities are denied to the artist. Because they have been done before, they are taboo now. And one element in the situation is that he wants to be a success. He wants to make an impression. He is groping his way (not of course consciously) towards something which will be accepted. I sometimes compare it to the growth of a tree. A tree in a wood will always move towards the light. And an artist also develops towards the light, towards people who favor him. He will notice that, unexpectedly perhaps, this or that innovation really makes an impression and he will go on in that direction. I do not want to give the impression that artists are all opportunists. But up to a point everybody wants to please. I touch on this problem in the introduction to The Story of Art, where I quote a letter by Mozart from Paris, where he says: every symphony here starts with a fast movement so I start with a slow introduction. That is part of the logic of the situation: being different and yet acceptable. There is also a limit beyond which it ceases to pay off: if you do something entirely different, it is unintelligible." 

– from Looking for Answers: Conversations on Art and Science, by Ernst Gombrich with Didier Eribon (Abrams, 1993)

Claude Monet
Corner of the garden at Montgeron
ca. 1876
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Claude Monet
Pond at Montgeron
ca. 1876
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Jean-Léon Gérôme
Pool in a Harem
ca. 1876
canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Alfred Stevens
After the Ball
1874
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Claude Monet
Garden
1876
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier
Musketeer
1870
oil on panel
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Paul Cézanne
Apples, Peaches, Pears, Grapes
ca. 1879-80
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Paul Cézanne
Fruit
ca. 1879
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Paul Cézanne
Jas de Boufon - The Pool
ca. 1876
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

John Singer Sargent
A Road in the South
ca. 1878
oil on canvas
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts