Networks of Impressionism: Artists, Dealers, Collectors
How did a small group of radical painters become the most popular art movement of modern times? Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, and their fellow Impressionists not only changed the way people saw light and color—they also created a network of friends, patrons, and collectors that carried their works around the world. Writers such as Émile Zola and Octave Mirbeau supported them with influential reviews. New groups of buyers were drawn to this revolutionary approach to painting. Some, like department store owner Ernest Hoschedé and opera singer Jean-Baptiste Faure, began collecting Impressionist art on a large scale. The Paris World’s Fairs and Paul Durand-Ruel’s galleries in Paris and New York gave the Impressionists international exposure.
With this exhibition, the Museum Barberini celebrates its tenth anniversary. Paintings from the Hasso Plattner Collection are shown in dialogue with works from museum collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo.