The Impressionists and Photography

W i t h t h e ex cl u si v e co l l ab o r at i o n o f :

W i t h t h e su p p o r t o f :

W i t h t h e co l l ab o r at i o n o f :

T ech n o l o gy p ar t n er sh i p :

Introduction

The age of photogr aphy, which began nearly two hundred year s ago, changed ar tists ?way of looking at the world and representing reality. The Impressionists and Photography sets out to illustr ate this new approach by dr awing attention to the similar ities between the main French photogr apher s of the 19th centur y and the ar tists who were involved in some way or another in the creation and development of the Impressionist group.

The show br ings Impressionism into dialogue with photogr aphy in order to highlight their resemblances, affinities and mutual influences in cer tain thematic and technical aspects: from how the camer a?s ar tificial eye and photogr apher s?study of light

The new medium?s astonishing capacity to br ing time to a standstill and its

influenced the depiction of reality in

magical ability to capture moments of real life likewise led ar tists to explore

painting to how the asymmetr ical and

instantaneousness and visual ambiguity in their paintings.

cropped appear ance of photogr aphic images spur red painter s to adopt a new viewpoint.

Photogr aphy, which called for recognition as a new ar tistic specialty from the outset, in tur n incor por ated cer tain painterly lighting and compositional effects and employed var ious methods in an attempt to avoid the excessive precision of the camer a. By the end of the centur y, the so- called Pictor ialist photogr apher s, influenced by the Impressionists? r apid, sketchy style of execution, deliber ately sought means of likening their images to paintings and dr awings.

The exhibition?s nine theme- based sections ? the forest, figures in the landscape, water, the countr yside, monuments, the city, por tr aits, the body and archives? show how photogr aphy and Impressionist painting shared a new way of looking that laid the foundations for moder n ar t.

The exhibition Sections

1. The Forest The landscape enjoyed great popular ity in French painting and photogr aphy in the mid- 1800s.

Painter s and photogr apher s fir st exchanged exper iences in the forest of Fontainebleau and in the parks around Par is. This room shows paintings by the forer unner s of Impressionism? Gustave Courbet, Camille Corot, Théodore Rousseau and Charles Daubigny? alongside photogr aphs by Gustave Le Gr ay, Eugèn Cuvelier and Henr i Le Secq, the fir st photogr apher s to car t their heavy equipment around the forest.

The natur alist painter s?and early photogr apher s? pur suit of the tr uth in nature was inher ited by the Impressionists. As can be seen here, the angle of view and light effects employed by Camille Pissar ro? ?the fir st Impressionist,? as Paul Cézanne called him? br ing to mind the images captured by photogr apher s and, like them, the painter does not por tr ay the forest in its immensity but only fr agments of it.

2. Figures in the Landscape Outdoor painting gr adually caught on throughout the 19th centur y and became the future Impressionists?main method of working. As this section shows, in Claude Monet?s early paintings the forest ser ves as a backdrop to his figures, and their natur alism closely resembles that of the photogr apher s of the forest.

Unlike Monet, Édouard Manet nearly always worked in his studio and only occasionally painted from life. His schematic landscape backgrounds recall the decor ative backdrops used in photogr aphic por tr aits, such as those made fashionable by Olympe Aguado. Édouard Baldus?s group photogr aphic por tr aits are likewise compar able to Frédér ic Bazille?s and Mar ie Br acquemond?s painted por tr aits of relatives and fr iends in outdoor settings, in which the sitter s seem to be posing for the camer a.

3. Water The sea was an inexhaustible source of inspir ation and exper imentation for moder n ar tists. Gustave Le Gr ay?s seascapes are one of his greatest aesthetic and technical accomplishments. In these concise, close- up photogr aphs of choppy seas and clouds, Le Gr ay invented a new notion of instantaneousness and visual fr agmentation that subsequently ser ved as a reference for Eugène Boudin and Claude Monet in var ious paintings of seas and skies. Like Le Gr ay, Monet captures the agitated movement of the sea in his pictures and offer s the viewer an ar tistic symbol of the passage of time. The ghostly reflections of the trees in the calm r iver water s in Olympe Aguado?s and Camille Silvy?s photogr aphs bear a close resemblance to the paintings of Monet and Alfred Sisley, who were concer ned with captur ing the fleeting, changing appear ance of water and studying the reflections of the trees on its sur face.

4. In the Countr yside Leisure activities around Par is, boat r ides and strolls in the countr yside were the favor ite subjects of most of the Impressionist ar tists. Dur ing the cour se of their outdoor exper iments they developed a new way of looking at their sur roundings, and their in- depth reflections on the ver y nature of painting paved the way for moder n ar tistic sensibilities. The novel instantaneous and fr agmentar y approach adopted by Pier re- Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet and Gustave Caillebotte in their depiction of landscape is compar able to how photogr apher s such as Achille Quinet, Eugène Atget and

At the end of the 1800s their loose, r apid strokes aimed at reproducing a

Charles Mar ville captured

fleeting exper ience influenced the aesthetic of the so- called Pictor ialist

reality.

photogr apher s including Constant Puyo and Rober t Demachy.

5. Monuments In the mid- 1800s

buildings, chiefly

sever al photogr apher s

Gothic. The ser ies of

such as Édouard

views of Rouen

Baldus, Hippolyte

cathedr al painted by

Bayard, Gustave Le

Claude Monet

Gr ay and Henr i Le Secq

throughout 1892 and

were hired by the

1893 is a par ticularly

imper ial gover nment?s

good example of the

Histor ic Monuments

new photogr aphic

Committee to dr aw up

approach. The

visual records of the

appear ance of br idges,

monuments in all the

factor ies and r ailroads

French regions. Despite

in the photogr aphic

being commissioned

landscapes of Édouard

for documentar y

Baldus and Eugène

pur poses, these

Atget and in the

photogr aphs are tr ue

paintings of Claude

master pieces in the

Monet, Alfred Sisley

histor y of French

and Gustave Caillebotte

photogr aphy. These

is a reflection of their

pictures also aroused

shared interest in the

the Impressionists?

new landscape of the

interest in histor ical

age of industr ialization.

6. The city The fir st daguer reotypes of urban scenes taken by Louis Daguer re from a window set an example that was followed in the photogr aphs of Le Gr ay, Charles Soulier and Adolphe Br aun and in the canvases painted by Gustave Caillebotte, Ber the Mor isot and Alfred Sisley.

All these images captured from above are the result of a vision of the exter ior taken from an inter ior.

Par is?s new urban settings? the gr and avenues and wide boulevards designed by Baron Haussmann dur ing the Second Empire? encour aged new ways of viewing and exper iencing the city and became the favor ite motifs of painter s and photogr apher s alike.

These moder n per spectives were

while Camille Pissar ro tr ansfor med them in his paintings into foreshor tened

captured by the camer as of Charles

Impressionist views far removed from ar tists?tr aditional hor izontal

Mar ville and Hippolyte Jouvin,

depictions of the city.

7. Por tr aits The advent of photogr aphy steered painted por tr aits in a new direction. Daguer reotypes, whose long exposure times resulted in stationar y, unnatur al poses, were followed by a fashion for car tes- devisite. Patented by DisdÊr i in 1854, this new for mat made it possible to obtain eight photogr aphs from the same negative. On display alongside examples of these more commercial por tr aits are works by the multitalented Nadar, who immor talized with his camer a all the intellectuals and bohemians of his day with piercing psychological insight and a new realism and simplicity. Cer tain conventions of photogr aphic por tr aiture were adopted by Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas and a few of the Impressionists, who even used photogr aphs to compose their paintings. It became common for sitter s to be depicted slightly off- center, against a flat or theatr ical- looking background, in keeping with new post- photogr aphic sensibilities.

Also on view are sever al photogr aphs taken by Degas in 1895 with his newly acquired Kodak camer a showing his fr iends in carefully studied settings and compositions.

8. The Body The public showing of Édouard Manet?s Olympia in 1865 tr iggered a huge scandal on account of its similar ity with the por nogr aphic photogr aphs then in circulation. This section features sever al examples of how nude photogr aphy evolved from the more academic models with pictor ial settings favored by Félix- Jacques- Antoine Moulin, Eugène Dur ieu and Auguste Belloc to the naked bodies in more natur alistic, spontaneous poses por tr ayed by Gustave Le Gr ay and Paul Ber thier. Interest in nudes in uninhibited poses spread to the Impressionist painter s, especially Edgar Degas, the member of the group who was most taken by photogr aphy.

Degas used dance and dancer s?changing attitudes as an essential means of studying the human body in motion and was par ticularly interested in Eadweard Muybr idge?s chronophotogr aphs, which captured tr ansience by freezing figures in mid- movement.

9. Archives The last room illustr ates how Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas used photogr aphy for documentar and archival pur poses. The advent of the age of mechanical reproduction led to the mass circulation of photogr aphic pr ints of ar tworks and ar tists discovered they could be useful documentar y aids for creating their own paintings. The set of photogr aphs Manet commissioned Anatole- Louis Godet to take of his paintings are interesting not only for their documentar y value but also for the pur pose to which the painter put them. He sometimes even colored these photos using watercolor s and gouache, tur ning them into or iginal works of his own. Degas?s por tfolio of photogr avures br ings together a selection of works from his entire career, from the early histor y paintings to the bather s and dancer s of his final per iod. The fact that they were chosenby the ar tist himself adds to their interest.

Related content

Introductor y video

Vir tual visit

Activities -

Tempor ar y exhibition focus: The Impressionists and Photography

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Painting with Friends. Seeing like an Impressionists

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Study Day. The Impressionists and Photography

Social media

Publications and products

Catalogue -

Text of Paloma Alarcรณ, Chief cur ator of Moder n Painting at the Museo Nacional Thyssen- Bor nemisza

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Dimensions: 200 x 275 (High x wide)

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288 pages

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Languages: Spanish and English

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Paper back: ?30.40

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Har d cover : ?36.10

Exhibition guide The exhibition guide offer s an itiner ar y throuth its nine sections.

Each chapter provides a context and clues to think about the works on display. The publication includes color illustr ations and a map of the connections between painter s and photogr apher s.

Texts by: Clar a Marcellรกn Fer nรกndez Language: Spanish 15 x 18 cm 56 pages Pr ice: ?5.70

Infor mation and credits

Dates

Audio guide ser vice

From 15 October 2019 to 26 Januar y 2020

Available in Spanish, English, French and Italian

Or ganiser Museo Nacional Thyssen Bor nemisza Paseo del Pr ado, 8 - 28014, Madr id mtb@museothyssen.or g

Visitor ser vices Telephone: (+34) 917 911 370 Email: cavthyssen@museothyssen.or g

Opening hour s

Tr anspor t

Tuesdays to Sundays, 10.00 to 19.00

Subway station: Banco de EspaĂąa

The tempor ar y exhibition will remain open until 9.00 on Saturdays

Buses: 1, 2, 5, 9, 10, 14, 15, 20, 27, 34, 37, 45, 51, 52, 53, 74, 146 and 150

Monday closed

Tr ain stations: Atocha, Sol and Recoletos

24 and 31 December : open from 10.00 to 15.00 Closed 25 December 2019 and 1 Januar y 2020 Visitor s are asked to leave the galler ies 5 minutes before closing

Pr actical infor mation

Ticket pr ices Single ticket It's available to visit in the same day, all museum, including tempor ar y exhibitions

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Standar d tickets: ?13.00 Gr oup ticket (7 or more people): ?11.00 per per son Reduced pr ice ticket: ?9.00

Mor e infor mation

Exhibition Factsheet Title: The impressionists and Photography Or ganiser : Museo Nacional Thyssen- Bor nemisza Cur ator : Paloma Alarcรณ, chief cur ator of Moder n Painting at the Museo Nacional Thyssen- Bor nemisza Technical cur ator : Clar a Marcellรกn, cur ator, Depar tment of Moder n Painting, Museo Nacional Thyssen- Bor nemisza Number of wor ks: 66 oils and works on paper and more than 100 photogr aphs Publications: Catalogue with texts by Paloma Alarcรณ; digital publication in ISSUU and educational guide with texts by Clar a Marcellรกn Sponsor ship: With the suppor t of JTI, with the collabor ation of Comunidad de Madr id and with the technical collabor ator Samsung The Fr ame

Cr edits Editor ial cor dinator

Cover images

IT Area, Web and New Media Depar tment of Museo Nacional Thyssen- Bor nemisza

Edgar Degas

Content

Pastel and gouache on paper. 64 x 36 cm

The texts of this magazine come from the exhibition brochure

© Museo Nacional Thyssen- Bor nemisza, Madr id

Cr edits and legal disclaimer s

Woman Dancing, in Animal Locomotion, plate 189, 1887

© Museo Nacional Thyssen- Bor nemisza, Madr id

Photogr aphy of Eadweard Muybr idge

All the content featured in this application is protected by copyr ight and may not be produced without the previous author isation of its respective owner s. The works of ar t that have been reproduced are also protected by copyr ight and it is forbidden to reproduce them wholly or in par t

Swaying Dancer (Dancer in green), 1877- 1879

Victor ia and Alber t Museum, London © Victor ia and Alber t Museum, London