Impressionists by the Sea Feb 9, 08 through May 11, 08
Museum Hours during
Impressionists by the Sea:
Tuesday, 11am - 5pm.
Wednesday, 11am - 5pm.
Thursday, 11am - 5pm.
Friday, 11am - 5pm.
Saturday, 10am - 5pm.
Sunday, 10am-5pm.
Open until 8 pm on the first Thursday of every month.
The Museum is closed on Mondays.
Admission: A special exhibition fee of $10 is applied to general museum admission. The last admission is 90 minutes before closing.
Tickets are available now by calling Ticketmaster at 1-877-600-MAIN, online at Museumtix.com, or come in person to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.
Press Release:
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art:
HARTFORD, Conn. (January 8, 2008)—From rustic fishing villages to fashionable beachside resorts, the transformation of the Normandy and Brittany coasts was a favorite subject of many French nineteenth-century artists. The development of this theme between the 1850s and the 1890s is explored in Impressionists by the Sea, an international loan exhibition on view at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, February 9 – May 11.
Impressionists by the Sea highlights the radical modernity of Monet, Renoir, Manet, and others by comparing their canvases to those of their predecessors, such as Corot, Courbet, Isabey, Jongkind, and Whistler. The exhibition also includes works by their contemporaries allied with the Paris Salon, notably Boudin, Daubigny, and Pelouse.
The exhibition is arranged chronologically, with sections titled “The Public Face of the Coast,” “Before Impressionism,” “Early Impressionism,” “Beach Scenes at the Salon after 1870,” and “Impressionism in the 1880s.” There will be a selection of travel books and postcards of the period.
“Monet is certainly the chief player, beginning with his 1864 view of the shore at Sainte-Adresse,” said Eric Zafran, Susan Morse Hilles Curator of European Art at the Wadsworth Atheneum. “Then in 1870 while on his honeymoon at Trouville he produced his most joyous examples of vacationers at the beach. Unique to the exhibition in Hartford, the Trouville scenes will be reunited for the first time since they were painted.”
A group of Monet’s unconventional, virtuoso paintings also bring the exhibition to a stunning conclusion.
“In his beach scenes of the 1880s, Monet often eradicated any sign of human presence to focus on pure nature,” Zafran continued. “He sought to capture the fluid violence or passive calm of the ocean, the rough texture of the rocks and cliffs, the effects of light and weather. Monet invites the viewer to share his solitary contemplation of the Normandy coast.”
The idea for the show was sparked ten years ago by two scenes of the beach at Trouville by Monet (1870) and Boudin (1863) in the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum, and under the guidance of John House, Walter H. Annenberg Professor at Courtauld Institute of Art, London.
House is the author of the exhibition catalogue, published by the Royal Academy of Arts (paperback, 154 pages, $39.95), which is available at The Museum Shop at the Wadsworth Atheneum.
Impressionists by the Sea has been organized by the Wadsworth Atheneum in conjunction with the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. The Atheneum is the final venue.
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