How the Impressionists Dressed for Success

“The latest fashion... is absolutely necessary for a painting,” artist Édouard Manet announced in 1881. “It’s what matters most.” When most people think of Impressionism, they may think of flowers, haystacks, water lilies, dancers, and even nude bathers, but rarely of haute couture caught on canvas. Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity, which runs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City through May 27, 2013, focuses on how Impressionists from the 1860s through the 1880s depicted the latest fashions as a sign of a new spirit and freedom—the same spirit and freedom that led to their then-radical art movement. As Manet suggested, in many ways, showing the latest fashions in art was what mattered most. For modern audiences who tend to look past the clothes to the people and things, Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity reminds us of how the Impressionists “dressed” for success. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Howthe Impressionists Dressed for Success."

[Image: Jean-Frédéric Bazille (French, 1841–1870). Family Reunion, 1867. Oil on canvas. 58 7/8 x 90 9/16 in. (152 x 230 cm). Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Acquired with the participation of Marc Bazille, brother of the artist, 1905.]  
[Many thanks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City for providing me with the image above and other press materials related to Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity, which runs through May 27, 2013.]

From Paris With Love: Masterpieces of the Musée d’Orsay at the de Young Museum

Any art lover who has been to Paris knows what it’s like to try to see everything in a finite time frame. Cruel choices must be made, masterpieces must be missed, and croissant or two wolfed down in the name of maximizing viewing. If only the great museums of Paris could somehow travel the world and come to our doorstep. Until September 6^th, nearly 100 masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay, the preeminent art museum for Impressionism in the world, will count San Francisco and the de Young Museum as their temporary home in the exhibition Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay. Thanks to the Musée d’Orsay’s refurbishment and reinstallation in anticipation of the museum’s 25th anniversary in 2011, Americans unable to travel to Europe can stay within national borders and see works by Paul Cézanne, Gustave Courbet, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and native son James McNeill Whistler. It’s a big, beautiful French kiss to America and a chance to see masterpieces that may never travel again as a group. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "From Paris With Love."

[Many thanks to the de Young Museum for providing me with press materials and the catalogue to Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay, which runs through September 6^th.]