Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PHO_E1999i115.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PHO_E1999i116.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PHO_E1999i117.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PHO_E1999i118.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PHO_E1999i119.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PHO_E1999i120.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PHO_E1999i121.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PHO_E1999i122.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PSC_E1999i005.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PSC_E1999i006.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PSC_E1999i007.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PSC_E1999i008.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PSC_E1999i009.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PSC_E1999i010.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PSC_E1999i011.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PSC_E1999i012.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PSC_E1999i013.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PSC_E1999i014.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige, May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999 (Image: PSC_E1999i015.jpg Brooklyn Museum photograph, 1999)
Impressionists In Winter: Effets de Neige
DATES May 28, 1999 through August 29, 1999
ORGANIZING DEPARTMENT
European Painting and Sculpture
COLLECTIONS
European Art
-
December 1, 1998
Brooklyn, New York. A major exhibition of exquisite and experimental winter scenes by Monet, Pissarro, Sisley, Caillebotte, and Gauguin will be presented at the Brooklyn Museum of Art from May 28 through August 29. This addition to the exhibition schedule makes the BMA the final venue of a three-city tour. The exhibition has been organized by The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., where it will be on view through January 3, 1999, after which it will be at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco from January 30 to May 2.
Organizational support for this exhibition is made possible by J. P. Morgan & Co. Incorporated. Transportation assistance has been provided by United Airlines and United Cargo. Additional support has been provided by the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities.
Impressionists in Winter: Effets de Neige, which includes loans from public and private collections around the world, is the first exhibition to bring together the snowy scenes of winter created by these Impressionist masters, better known for their lush landscapes painted in other seasons. The works in the exhibition span a period of some thirty years beginning in the mid-1860s.
“We are delighted to follow up on the tremendous success of Monet and the Mediterranean,” Museum Director Arnold L. Lehman said, “by bringing to the New York area this breathtaking exhibition of paintings that portray the varied aspects of winter, from the effects of morning light across untouched fields of snow to city rooftops at twilight. These extraordinary scenes, full of winter’s deep shadows, subtleties of whites punctuated by exciting bursts of color, demonstrate the Impressionists’ endless fascination with light, the moment, and changing atmospheric conditions. It is an exhibition that elucidates and enriches our knowledge of Impressionism through these lesser known but truly exceptional winterscapes that have never before been presented together.”
Jay Gates, Director of The Phillips Collection, in making the announcement of the additional venue, commented on the tremendous success of Impressionists in Winter at The Phillips Collection: “Public response has been overwhelming. We are very pleased that our colleagues at the Brooklyn Museum of Art wish to bring this delightful exhibition to a New York audience.”
Timed and dated tickets for the exhibition are available at a cost of $9.50; $7.50 for older adults, full-time college students with valid I.D., and children ages ten through eighteen. Children under ten will be admitted without charge. Tickets may be purchased by calling toll free 1-877-WINTER-9 or on the Internet at www.2btech.com/winter. They may also be purchased at the Brooklyn Museum of Art beginning January 2, 1999. Members will enjoy special privileges including free tickets, accelerated entry, preview opportunities, and first notification of public programs. For membership information call (718) 638-5000, ext. 326. To arrange for a group tour call Krista Ruane, ext. 234.
Monet was the first and most prolific Impressionist painter of effets de neige (effects of snow). He painted his first snow scene in 1865 near Honfleur at the Saint-Siméon farm, a location that so inspired him he returned to the same site two years later.
The winter of 1869-70 was unusually cold, and the region surrounding Paris was blanketed by a blizzard of epic proportions. During this winter Monet visited Pissarro in Louveciennes, where the two artists painted closely related winter views of the village, including a remarkable collection of views of the route de Versailles, the street on which Pissarro and his family lived. The following winter Alfred Sisley took up the theme for the first time. Frequent and severe storms during subsequent winters provided ample occasions for the three to depict the varied aspects of winter. Their shared fascination with these “effects” led each to repeatedly seek out opportunities to paint snowy landscapes well into the 1890s, the decade in which Monet produced his famous series of grain stacks.
Gustave Caillebotte, and Paul Gauguin also painted snowscapes, although far fewer. Gauguin produced his first snowscape in Paris in 1875, and Caillebotte, who lived in Paris throughout the 1870s, painted a number of unusual views of the city in the snow.
The snowscapes of these five artists represent the first sustained interest in the subject since seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painters. The notable difference is that the Dutch paintings generally highlight human activity in the snow, whereas the Impressionists, although occasionally featuring people in their winter paintings, focused on the unique visual characteristics of the snow itself.
The reduced range of palette draws attention to the presence of stronger color when it does appear, and things that would have been barely noticeable in other types of landscapes assume far greater power. Despite differences in technique, palette, and scale, all five artists were inspired by the unique quality of atmosphere and light in winter and the unlimited range of color possibilities in depictions of snow and ice. Their effets de neige are some of the most beautiful and daring paintings created during the second half of the nineteenth century.
Impressionists in Winter is accompanied by a full-color catalogue with individual texts about each painting included in the original exhibition at The Phillips Collection as well as entries that include provenance, exhibition history, and selected bibliography. Published by The Phillips Collection in collaboration with Philip Wilson Publishers, London, the catalogue contains essays by Charles S. Moffett; Katherin Rothkopf, Assistant Curator of The Phillips Collection; and Impressionist scholar Dr. Joel Isaacson. The essays explore many aspects of Impressionist effets de neige, including the importance of snowscapes as subject matter; the use of structure in the Impressionist winter scenes of Sisley and his colleagues; the influence of Japanese prints on Monet’s production of effets de neige; and Pissarro’s contribution to the genre of winterscapes. The catalogue includes documentation and illustrations from contemporary journals that chart weather conditions from 1865 to 1893 and examines the Impressionists’ sources of inspiration, from the depiction of snow in Netherlandish painting to the realist works of Gustave Courbet.
The exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art has been coordinated by Elizabeth Easton, curator of European Painting and Sculpture.
Monet
Claude Monet (1840-1926) produced over 140 winter views throughout his career. His enduring interest in painting snowscapes began during the winter of 1865 and continued for nearly thirty years. Around 1870 he produced The Red Cape, which depicts his wife Camille in the snow as viewed through a large window, capturing the moment when she turned to look in. During the winter of 1874-75 Monet created sixteen snowscapes that portray various aspects of the landscape in and around the town of Argenteuil, where he and his family had lived since 1871.
Pissarro
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) was nearly as prolific as Monet in his creation of winter scenes, producing more than one hundred canvases in which snow, or variants such as hoarfrost, white frost, or ice, play a major role in the composition. These views were painted in a variety of locations in France, presenting images of suburban, rural, and city life in the late nineteenth century. Although Pissarro is not best known for his snowscapes, he was extremely proud of these paintings and exhibited at least nine winter scenes at the eight Impressionist exhibitions held periodically from 1874 to 1886. Pissarro began his painting of effets de neige in the winter of 1868-69 and continued to work on the complex issues of representing snow on canvas with oil paint until the end of his life.
Sisley
Alfred Sisley (1839-1899) produced his first snowscape in Louveciennes during the winter of 1871-72, during which time he also often painted side by side with Monet in Argenteuil. He produced more than fifty winter views throughout his career. These works often depict quiet village scenes with townspeople traveling along snow paths, and reflect a wide range of winter light. His snow paintings have carefully structured compositions, subtle palettes, and a sense of ordered calm.
Caillebotte
Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) was raised in Paris and continued to live in the city through the 1870s. Using the fourth floor of his parents’ home on rue de Miromesnil as a studio, and later his own home on boulevard Haussmann, Caillebotte usually found his subjects in his own bourgeois surroundings, which he painted from dramatic vantage points. During the 1870s he painted his first effets de neige, including View of Rooftops (Snow) (c. 1878), which was shown in the fourth Impressionist exhibition. In this work, as well as in a number of other paintings that he produced at this time, Caillebotte created strikingly modern images in both technique and subject matter. A collector of paintings by other Impressionists, he purchased his first Monet, The Church at Vétheuil, Snow, in 1878.
Gauguin
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), although most often associated with his colorful paintings produced in the South Pacific, took advantage of his winters in France to create several snow-covered landscapes. His effets de neige range from paintings that predate his Impressionist affiliation to those painted during his final winter in Brittany and portray subjects that vary from urban scenes of workers along the Seine to quiet village homes covered in snow.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1995 - 2003. 07-12/1998, 208-212.
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May 1, 1999
A wide range of special group tour options is available for the exhibition Impressionists in Winter, on view at the Brooklyn Museum of Art from May 28 through August 29, 1999. This is the final stop on a national tour of the first exhibition to present the extraordinary winter scenes painted by Impressionist favorites Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Caillebotte, and Gauguin.
Self-guided tours are $9.50 per person for adults; $7.50 per person for seniors, full-time college students with valid I.D., and children ages ten through eighteen; children under ten are admitted without charge (not applicable for school groups); ten-person minimum. Special travel-industry incentives are available for groups.
Audio tours are also available for an additional $4 per person. This forty-minute tour provides an in-depth discussion of individual paintings and includes one audiocassette with headphones and admission to both the exhibition and the rest of the Museum. There is a ten-person minimum.
Another option is a slide talk, with a fifteen-person minimum, available at $15.50 per person, seniors $13.50. Prior to viewing the exhibition, these groups attend a forty-minute slide presentation by a Museum guide in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium. In addition to the slide presentation, this tour includes a ticket to the exhibition and general admission to the Museum.
Guided tours of the exhibition, led by an expert Museum guide, provide an exclusive opportunity for groups of twenty-five or more to see the exhibition when the galleries are closed to the public. Guided tours are $22 for adults, $20 for seniors. This tour includes general Museum admission and a coupon for a fifteen-percent discount at the Museum Shop.
For an additional $5 per person with an audio tour, slide talk, or guided tour, groups can enjoy a guided tour of one of the many world-renowned permanent collections in the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
A wide variety of dining options is also available exclusively for groups touring Impressionists in Winter, such as the European Breakfast at $15 per person (minimum twenty-five people); the Box Lunch at $8 per person (minimum twenty people), offering a choice of gourmet sandwiches; and the Paris Café Buffet at $15 per person (minimum twenty people), with menu items inspired by Daniel Young’s The Paris Café Cookbook. An Afternoon Wine Reception (minimum twenty people) and take-away snacks and sandwiches are also being offered.
A special Day at the BMA tour is available at $33.50 per person for adults and $31 per person for seniors, offering an audio tour of Impressionists in Winter, luncheon at the Paris Café Buffet in the private group-dining area, and a guided tour of one of the permanent-collection galleries at nearly fifty percent off its regular price. The tour, which includes general admission, is limited to groups of twenty or more.
Another group tour option offers a self-guided tour of Impressionists in Winter, luncheon at the Paris Café Buffet, and a guided tour of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which is next door to the Museum, at $34.50 per person, seniors $32.50. The same package is also available with a sit-down luncheon at the Palm House at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden at $54.50 for adults and $52.50 for seniors. Groups may also select a package that includes a backstage tour of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, a self-guided tour of the exhibition, and luncheon at the Paris Café Buffet for $33.50 per person, seniors $31.50.
For additional information, or to book a tour, contact Krista Ruane, Group Tour Coordinator, at (718) 638-5000, ext. 234. Individual tickets, which are timed and dated, may be purchased by calling toll free 1-877-WINTER-9, or through the Internet at www.2btech.com/winter, or at the Brooklyn Museum of Art box office.
Impressionists in Winter, which includes loans from public and private collections around the world, brings together the snowy scenes of winter created by Impressionist masters over the course of some thirty years beginning in the mid-1860s. These extraordinary paintings are full of winter’s deep shadows, subtleties of whites punctuated by exciting bursts of color, demonstrating the Impressionists’ endless fascination with light, the moment, and changing atmospheric conditions.
This exhibition was organized by The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., where it was on view this past fall before traveling to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
This exhibition is generously sponsored in Brooklyn by Legg Mason, Inc. Headquartered in Baltimore, Legg Mason, Inc., is a holding company that provides securities brokerage, investment advisory, investment banking, and related financial services through its wholly owned subsidiaries. This year marks the 100-year anniversary of the firm’s founding.
This exhibition’s official media sponsor is CBS 2 (WCBS TV) and its official hotel is the New York Marriott Brooklyn. The exhibition is indemnified by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Promotional support is provided by Bloomingdale’s. Additional support is provided by United Airlines and United Cargo.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1995 - 2003. 01-06/1999, 049-51.
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May 27, 1999
May 27, 1999. Brooklyn, NY—When Impressionists in Winter opens to the public on Friday May 28 at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, it will have its own 2,500 square foot shop that will carry a wide range of merchandise inspired by the exhibition of winter scenes by some of the most famous Impressionists, including Monet and Renoir. The exhibition-specific shop, along with the audio tour, has become standard museum fare with blockbuster exhibitions.
Although the Impressionists in Winter shop will carry the expected items such as catalogues, a variety of stationery items, mugs, and T-shirts, there will also be a dizzying array of more idiosyncratic items, including wrought iron patio furniture and miniature Eiffel Tower Lamps. There will also be products that provide information on French culture to further understanding of the lives and times in which the artists lived.
The shop will carry seven to ten major categories. Best sellers, based on the Museum’s previous experience with the Monet and the Mediterranean exhibition in 1997, will include the exhibition catalogue; postcards; note cards; posters; exhibition calendars, address books and journals; exhibition mugs and T-shirts; holiday ornaments and snowglobes; and puzzles.
“The extraordinary popularity of the Impressionist artists spills over into the sale of related products. The shop becomes an enhancement of the exhibition in which the visitor may extend their experience by taking home a memory. Product development becomes critical for the success of the sales,” comments Sallie Stutz, who heads the BMA’s retail operations.
The Museum expects attendance to Impressionists in Winter to equal that for Monet and the Mediterranean, to which there were 255,000 visitors.
The ticketed show, which will be at the BMA through August 29, is the first exhibition [of] winter scenes by the Impressionists. It is the final stop of a three city national tour and the last time these paintings from public and private collections throughout the world will ever be seen as a group.
The exhibition is generously sponsored in Brooklyn by Legg Mason, Inc. Media sponsor is CBS 2 (WCBS TV), its official hotel is the New York Marriott Brooklyn. Promotional support is provided by Bloomingdales. It is indemnified by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Additional support is provided by United Airlines and United Cargo.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1995 - 2003. 01-06/1999, 045-46.
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May 1, 1999
Actor Kevin Kline, currently appearing as Bottom in the just-released film version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, is the narrator of the audio tour of Impressionists in Winter. Produced by Acoustiguide the tour will also feature Museum Director Arnold L. Lehman and Curator of European Painting and Sculpture Elizabeth Easton. The first exhibition of winter scenes by such Impressionist artists as Monet, Renoir, Gauguin, Pissarro, and Sisley, Impressionists in Winter opens on May 28 at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, where it will be on view through August 29.
The final venue of a three-city tour, the Brooklyn Museum of Art is augmenting the exhibition with several additional paintings. Among the works presented exclusively at the BMA will be Cezanne’s Melting Snow, Fontainebleau; a rare loan of Monet’s Vétheuil in Winter from the Frick Collection, New York; and a selection of the BMA’s own Japanese snowscapes by Hiroshige that underscore the influence of Japanese woodcuts on Impressionist painters.
Exhibition tickets may be purchased by calling toll free 1-877-WINTER-9 (1-877-946-9379) [or] on the Internet at www.ebtech.com/winter, or purchased at Museum Admissions.
There will also be a 2,500-square-foot shop that will carry a wide variety of related products ranging from the exhibition catalogue, books, postcards, posters, note cards and other station[e]ry items to Parisian tables and chairs, French glassware, clocks[,] lamps, screensavers, holiday ornaments, a Monet seed package, and even a snowflake cookie cutter.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1995 - 2003. 01-06/1999, 047-48.
View Original -
May 1, 1999
Brooklyn, New York. A major exhibition of exquisite and experimental winter scenes by Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Caillebotte, and Gauguin will be presented at the Brooklyn Museum of Art from May 28 through August 29, 1999. The final venue of a three-city tour, the BMA is augmenting the exhibition with several additional paintings and a selection of the Museum’s own Hiroshige woodcuts.
Impressionists in Winter: Effets de Neige, which includes loans from public and private collections around the world, is the first exhibition to bring together the snowy scenes of winter created by these Impressionist masters, better known for their lush landscapes painted in other seasons. The works in the exhibition span a period of some thirty years beginning in the mid-1860s. Among the works presented exclusively at the BMA will be Cézanne’s Melting Snow, Fontainebleau; a rare loan of Monet’s Vétheuil in Winter from the Frick Collection, New York; and a selection of Japanese snowscapes underscoring the tremendous influence of Japanese woodcuts on Impressionist painters.
“We are delighted to follow up on the tremendous success of Monet and the Mediterranean,” Museum Director Arnold L. Lehman said, “by bringing to the New York area this breathtaking exhibition of paintings that portray the varied aspects of winter, from the effects of morning light across untouched fields of snow to city rooftops at twilight. These extraordinary scenes, full of winter’s deep shadows, subtleties of whites punctuated by exciting bursts of color, demonstrate the Impressionists’ endless fascination with light, the moment, and changing atmospheric conditions. It is an exhibition that elucidates and enriches our knowledge of Impressionism through these lesser known but truly exceptional winterscapes that have never before been presented together.”
Timed and dated tickets for the exhibition are available at a cost of $9.50; $7.50 for older adults, full-time college students with valid I.D., and children ages ten through eighteen. Children under ten will be admitted without charge. Tickets may be purchased by calling toll free 1-877-WINTER-9 or on the Internet at www.2btech.com/winter. They may also be purchased at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Members will enjoy special privileges including free tickets, accelerated entry, preview opportunities, and first notification of public programs. For Membership information call (718) 638-5000, ext. 326. To arrange for a group tour call Krista Ruane, ext. 234.
Monet was the first and most prolific Impressionist painter of effets de neige (snow effects). He painted his first snow scene in 1865 near Honfleur at the Saint-Siméon farm, a location that so inspired him he returned to the same site two years later.
The winter of 1869-70 was unusually cold, and the region surrounding Paris was blanketed by a blizzard of epic proportions. During this winter Monet visited Pissarro in Louveciennes, where the two artists painted closely related winter views of the village, including a remarkable collection of views of the route de Versailles, the street on which Pissarro and his family lived. The following winter Alfred Sisley took up the theme for the first time. Frequent and severe storms during subsequent winters provided ample occasions for the three to depict the varied aspects of winter. Their shared fascination with these “effects” led each to repeatedly seek out opportunities to paint snowy landscapes well into the 1890s, the decade in which Monet produced his famous series of grain stacks.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Gustave Caillebotte, and Paul Gauguin also painted snowscapes, although far fewer. Gauguin produced his first snowscape in Paris in 1875, and Caillebotte, who lived in Paris throughout the 1870s, painted a number of unusual views of the city in the snow. Renoir, who regarded snow as “one of nature’s illnesses,” painted only two or three winter scenes.
The snowscapes of these six artists represent the first sustained interest in the subject since seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painters. The notable difference is that the Dutch paintings generally highlight human activity in the snow, whereas the Impressionists, although occasionally featuring people in their winter paintings, focused on the unique visual characteristics of the snow itself.
The reduced range of palette draws attention to the presence of stronger color when it does appear, and things that would have been barely noticeable in other types of landscapes assume far greater power. Despite differences in technique, palette, and scale, all six artists were inspired by the unique quality of atmosphere and light in winter and the unlimited range of color possibilities in depictions of snow and ice. Their effets de neige are some of the most beautiful and daring paintings created during the second half of the nineteenth century.
Impressionists in Winteris accompanied by a full-color catalogue with individual texts about each painting included in the original exhibition at The Phillips Collection as well as entries that include provenance, exhibition history, and selected bibliography. Published by The Phillips Collection in collaboration with Philip Wilson Publishers, London, the catalogue contains essays on many aspects of effets de neige, including the importance of snowscapes as subject matter; the use of structure in Impressionist winter scenes; the influence of Japonism on Monet’s winterscapes; and Pissarro’s contribution to the genre.
This exhibition was organized by The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., where it was on view this past fall before traveling to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
This exhibition is generously sponsored in Brooklyn by Legg Mason, Inc. Headquartered in Baltimore, Legg Mason, Inc., is a holding company that provides securities brokerage, investment advisory, investment banking, and related financial services through its wholly owned subsidiaries. This year marks the 100-year anniversary of the firm’s founding.
This exhibition’s official media sponsor is CBS 2 (WCBS TV) and its official hotel is the New York Marriott Brooklyn. The exhibition is indemnified by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Promotional support is provided by Bloomingdale’s. Additional support is provided by United Airlines and United Cargo.
The exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art has been coordinated by Elizabeth Easton, curator of European Painting and Sculpture.
Monet
Claude Monet (1840-1926) produced over 140 winter views throughout his career. His enduring interest in painting snowscapes began during the winter of 1865 and continued for nearly thirty years. Around 1870 he produced The Red Cape, which depicts his wife Camille in the snow as viewed through a large window, capturing the moment when she turned to look in. During the winter of 1874-75 Monet created sixteen snowscapes that portray various aspects of the landscape in and around the town of Argenteuil, where he and his family had lived since 1871.
Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) did not enjoy working en plein air in frigid temperatures. As he delighted in the luminosity of color and in the human figure, it is not surprising that one of Renoir’s rare winter landscapes, Skaters in the Bois de Boulogne (1868), is peopled with figures in a variety of poses. The unusual work was painted from an elevated viewpoint overlooking the skating pond on the former royal preserve that had recently become a fashionable gathering place.
Pissarro
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) was nearly as prolific as Monet in his creation of winter scenes, producing more than one hundred canvases in which snow, or variants such as hoarfrost, white frost, or ice, play a major role in the composition. These views were painted in a variety of locations in France, presenting images of suburban, rural, and city life in the late nineteenth century. Although Pissarro is not best known for his snowscapes, he was extremely proud of these paintings and exhibited at least nine winter scenes at the eight Impressionist exhibitions held periodically from 1874 to 1886. Pissarro began his painting of effets de neige in the winter of 1868-69 and continued to work on the complex issues of representing snow on canvas with oil paint until the end of his life.
Sisley
Alfred Sisley (1839-1899) produced his first snowscape in Louveciennes during the winter of 1871-72, during which time he also often painted side by side with Monet in Argenteuil. He produced more than fifty winter views throughout his career. These works often depict quiet village scenes with townspeople traveling along snow paths, and reflect a wide range of winter light. His snow paintings have carefully structured compositions, subtle palettes, and a sense of ordered calm.
Caillebotte
Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) was raised in Paris and continued to live in the city through the 1870s. Using the fourth floor of his parents’ home on rue de Miromesnil as a studio, and later his own home on boulevard Haussmann, Caillebotte usually found his subjects in his own bourgeois surroundings, which he painted from dramatic vantage points. During the 1870s he painted his first effets de neige, including View of Rooftops (Snow) (c. 1878), which was shown in the fourth Impressionist exhibition. In this work, as well as in a number of other paintings that he produced at this time, Caillebotte created strikingly modern images in both technique and subject matter. A collector of paintings by other Impressionists, he purchased his first Monet, The Church at Vétheuil, Snow, in 1878.
Gauguin
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), although most often associated with his colorful paintings produced in the South Pacific, took advantage of his winters in France to create several snow-covered landscapes. His effets de neige range from paintings that predate his Impressionist affiliation to those painted during his final winter in Brittany and portray subjects that vary from urban scenes of workers along the Seine to quiet village homes covered in snow.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1995 - 2003. 01-06/1999, 052-56.
View Original
