The Artist’s Wife and Mother-in-law Reading a Letter by Candlelight, c1878–79
Albert Lebourg
Charcoal and graphite, heightened with white, on buff paper
From the exhibition
Impressionists on Paper: Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec
(November 2023 - March 2024)
Degas, Cézanne, Morisot, Van Gogh. You might recognise their paintings, but it’s their radical works on paper we put the spotlight on in this ground-breaking exhibition.
In the whirl of modernity that was late 19th-century France, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists radically transformed the future direction of art. But it wasn’t just through their paintings. In a subtle but seismic shift, they lifted the status of works on paper – drawings, pastels, watercolours, temperas, gouaches – from something preparatory that you left in a studio, to artworks in their own right.
In this rich exhibition, we bring together 77 works on paper by leading Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists whose innovation would challenge traditional attitudes and ultimately pave the way for later movements like Abstract Expressionism...
...The enduring popularity of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art is mainly due to the celebrated paintings by artists such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne. Drawings, pastels, watercolours, temperas and gouaches by these artists have historically received less attention. The examples in this exhibition, gathered from collections across Britain and Europe, reveal how Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works on paper are as significant as paintings.
Since its foundation in 1648, the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture had exerted official control over artistic practices and standards in France, as well as determining what subjects should be depicted.
Despite reforms, by the nineteenth century the Académie’s authority was being challenged by artists. The emphasis previously placed on drawing for the purposes of training or solely as part of the preparatory process for finished work was regarded as far too restrictive.
Avant-garde artists such as the Impressionists saw that works on paper had a wider potential, especially given their preference for contemporary subject matter and their aesthetic principles based on light and colour. Although they did not totally renounce working in their studios or using models, these artists increasingly sought inspiration directly from nature, modern life and the careful observation of individuals. Furthermore, they readily adopted new approaches including the selection and use of media, supports, techniques and formats.
This greater freedom encouraged the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists to make independent works on paper for exhibition or sale. This was how, by the end of the nineteenth century, drawing achieved parity with painting and played an important role in the developments of modern art.
[*Royal Academy]
Taken in the Royal Academy
The Artist’s Wife and Mother-in-law Reading a Letter by Candlelight, c1878–79
Albert Lebourg
Charcoal and graphite, heightened with white, on buff paper
From the exhibition
Impressionists on Paper: Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec
(November 2023 - March 2024)
Degas, Cézanne, Morisot, Van Gogh. You might recognise their paintings, but it’s their radical works on paper we put the spotlight on in this ground-breaking exhibition.
In the whirl of modernity that was late 19th-century France, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists radically transformed the future direction of art. But it wasn’t just through their paintings. In a subtle but seismic shift, they lifted the status of works on paper – drawings, pastels, watercolours, temperas, gouaches – from something preparatory that you left in a studio, to artworks in their own right.
In this rich exhibition, we bring together 77 works on paper by leading Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists whose innovation would challenge traditional attitudes and ultimately pave the way for later movements like Abstract Expressionism...
...The enduring popularity of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art is mainly due to the celebrated paintings by artists such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne. Drawings, pastels, watercolours, temperas and gouaches by these artists have historically received less attention. The examples in this exhibition, gathered from collections across Britain and Europe, reveal how Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works on paper are as significant as paintings.
Since its foundation in 1648, the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture had exerted official control over artistic practices and standards in France, as well as determining what subjects should be depicted.
Despite reforms, by the nineteenth century the Académie’s authority was being challenged by artists. The emphasis previously placed on drawing for the purposes of training or solely as part of the preparatory process for finished work was regarded as far too restrictive.
Avant-garde artists such as the Impressionists saw that works on paper had a wider potential, especially given their preference for contemporary subject matter and their aesthetic principles based on light and colour. Although they did not totally renounce working in their studios or using models, these artists increasingly sought inspiration directly from nature, modern life and the careful observation of individuals. Furthermore, they readily adopted new approaches including the selection and use of media, supports, techniques and formats.
This greater freedom encouraged the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists to make independent works on paper for exhibition or sale. This was how, by the end of the nineteenth century, drawing achieved parity with painting and played an important role in the developments of modern art.
[*Royal Academy]
Taken in the Royal Academy