Impressionism: The Art of Landscape
The inaugural exhibition of the Museum Barberini was devoted to Impressionist landscape painting as a field of experimentation and the modern era’s understanding of nature.
Precise observations of nature not only gained importance in the natural sciences during the nineteenth century—the Impressionists also reacted to this trend by painting outdoors and recording ever-changing light and weather phenomena. Although the city of Paris offered many motifs, landscapes provided the most important subject matter for Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, and Gustave Caillebotte. Their landscape motifs were no longer charged with historical or symbolic significance. Impressionist artists instead focused on capturing the transitory moment.
Helge Mundt
“In Impressionism, large, rigorously structured paintings were created outdoors for the first time. Regardless of whether the painters were depicting Parisian boulevards, a café scene, or the Seine at Argenteuil, they were interested in the here and now and the rejection of the great narratives of the art of past centuries.”
This exhibition presented the new themes of landscape painting, which enabled the Impressionists to leave tradition behind. Through their depictions of forest paths, fields, and coasts, they emancipated themselves from earlier generations. They found new ways of using color in their pictures of gardens. They experimented with the color white in winter landscapes. They surrendered to the shimmering visual effects of southern light, and they returned again and again to the reflections of the river Seine. The landscapes of the Impressionists captivate visitors to this day, addressing all of the senses.
The exhibition was based on the collection of the museum’s founder and presented ninety-two paintings from thirty-two international museum and collections, including the Denver Art Museum, the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main, the Israel Museum in Tel Aviv, the State Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Retrospect
The museum celebrated its grand opening on January 20, 2017, with Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, Minister President Dietmar Woidke, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates in attendance. During the 112-day run of the exhibition, around 1,480 tours and workshops were offered, including 220 for school classes and kindergarten groups.
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