Impressionism was an entirely exceptional phenomenon in the annals of art. Perhaps no other artistic manifestation in history has elicited as much controversy and emotion as did the first exhibition of the Impressionists, held at the studio of the famous Parisian photographer Nadar in the spring of 1874. Subsequently, through the year 1886, the Impressionists organized another seven exhibitions, after which they essentially ended their activities as a group manifesting their shared artistic views. Impressionism as a creative direction, however, had a much more extensive history that lasted at least as long as individual representatives of the movement remained alive (Claude Monet died in 1926). Thereafter, the current essentially never ceased influencing other artists. For many of its exponents, Impressionism was merely a momentary fascination, an opportunity for brightening their palate, for adopting a stance towards the new, revolutionary role of color in painting. Temporary encounters of this kind as well as serious artistic disputes with the Impressionist doctrine gave rise to new, avant-garde directions, trends as well as individual creative stances. This multiplicity of phenomenon is generally referred to as Post-Impressionism. Post-Impressionism is therefore not a term for a specific artistic current; instead, it covers a set of highly varied phenomena that share the fact of having been rooted in Impressionism.
The exhibition LEKCJA PARYSKA. IMPRESJONIZM I POSTIMPRESJONIZM Z KOLEKCJI MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM / A PARISIAN LESSON - IMPRESSIONIST AND POST-IMPRESSIONIST WORKS FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM juxtaposes the works of Impressionists like Claude Monet (Waterloo Bridge - Sunlight Effect), Auguste Renoire (Nude with Tambourine), Edgar Degas (The Dancer) and Armand Guillaumin (Puy Barriou, Creuse) with the canvasses of a number of Post-Impressionists, including Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Frederic Bazille, Georges Braque (Nude Seated), Raoul Dufy (Deck of the Marie-Christine Casino at Sainte-Adresse), Alfred Sisley, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (Three Cuirassiers) and Maurice Urillo (Canal in Pontoise).
The most beautiful and most valuable work in the exhibition is a painting by Claude Monet (1840-1926). Monet is considered an icon of Impressionism - the title of one if his paintings essentially provided the name for the entire current and the artist was the most orthodox proponent of Impressionism, remaining faithful to its doctrines and creatively developing the style to the end of his life. The work that audiences will have an opportunity to admire in Gdansk dates from the later period of Monet's life. In the 1870s, Monet began painting series of canvasses in which he depicted one motif at different times of the day and during different seasons. This method provided him with an opportunity to conduct carefully color research. The series included HAY STACKS, ROUEN CATHEDRAL, NYMPHEAS (WATER LILIES) as well as his views of London. Monet created a series of paintings depicting Waterloo Bridge (one of which is included in the exhibition) during his second prolonged stay in London in 1900-01. As in subsequent series of canvasses, in this work the artist transforms objective reality into a shimmering, poetic vision, one in which the subject is not depicted realistically but subjectively, through a play of color and light. The consistency with which he applied the principles of Impressionism practically took the artist to the edge of abstraction, a fact that ultimately contributed to the advent of allusive and lyrical abstract art. In the summer of 1907, Monet showed some of his London paintings in an exhibition at the Durand-Ruel Gallery in Paris. Among them was the work included in the exhibition in Gdansk.