Impressionists on Paper: Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec @ Royal Academy of Arts, London
So much beauty and Van Gogh as you’ve never seen him before!
There were also stunning landscapes — a beach where the waves seemed to roll into the distance with a very real sense of motion(Beach at Low Tide” (1869), Degas), as well as a stunning layered sunset (Sunset over the Sea (c.1860–70, by Eugène Boudin)). Not to mention Degas’s ballerinas about their steps on eye-popping papers — green and pink, and captured in pastels.
Manet’s beautiful portrait captured a woman walking in the rain, her lovely, peering face veiled beneath a froth of black lace. Manet’s ‘The Rue Mosnier in the Rain’ (1878) depicts a rush of people and lurching carriages. You can almost feel the muddy streets splashing at you.
Van Gogh’s ‘The Fortifications of Paris with Houses’ (1887) was both beautiful and sad — showing a sun-drenched city under siege, hidden by an enormous trench. Meanwhile people go about their business, and life, it suggests, goes on.
Equally eye-catching was the delicacy and detail of Van Gogh’s ‘Thatched Roofs’ (1884). I love the branches twisting outwards and the way he captures every part of the heavy rooves. Although I can’t find an image of it, his portrayal of working people moving through a square was heart-rending; his love and compassion for working people writ large, showing the focus, busy purposefulness and hardness of ordinary lives.
Then there was the shimmering zig-zag of Pissarro’s “White Frost” (1890), which drew in the eye. A tiny work — but beautiful.
There were Degas’s huge nudes of bathing, preening ladies in exotic red slippers, matching their long red hair. Most delightful — and surprising — was Degas’ ‘Lyda, Woman With a Pair of Binoculars’ (c1869–72). We, the viewer, become the watched, suddenly eyeballed by a lady in black observing us shrewdly through binoculars.
I loved too the young woman in pink scrutinising her dance card at a ball. Was she pleased with her card — was it full or awaiting names? Did she want to get to a particular dance and partner, or get some dances over with? Or long for more dances taken? The softness of her full pink dress, the details of a woman lost in thought are exquisite.
Powerful too was woman at a window, caught in the shadows of a Paris under siege in 1870 by Degas.
I don’t normally enjoy Cezanne — but Flowerpots on the Terrace of the Artist’s Studio’ (c1902–06) was wonderful. The soft colours melting into each other highlighting the jaunty row of plant pots. Landscape with La Montagne Sainte-Victoire” (c1904–06) was equally exquisite, highlighting a huge debt to Japanese genius, Hokusai.
Claude Monet’s ‘Cliffs at Étretat: The Needle Rock and Porte d’Aval’ (c1885) made me want to stare and stare, the gap through the jagged arch of cliffs inviting the eye.
Mary Cassatt’s thoughtful women and girls, Portrait de Marie-Thérèse Gaillard (1894) and Eva Gonzalès beautifully detailed, yet very soft, The Bride (1879) as well the many unexpected fan shaped drawings were a marvel.
Two women with a candle was extraordinary. Like a photograph.
Enjoy the drama and the variety! (Federico Zandomeneghi, Waking Up, 1895).
Glory in the Seurat-like images which are not Seurat, but wonderful Hippolyte Petitjean. (Coastal Landscape with Cliffs, c.1905).
Or the depth of Armand Guillaumin’s ‘Landscape with trees and rocks with colour tests, 1872).
I’m not sure I learnt enough about the techniques and effects at play in these works — I was captured by the images. Definitely returning to this for another look through the exhibition catalogue
@ Images are used purely to illustrate The Royal Academy of Arts exhibition, Impressionists on Paper, and are not the artist’s own property. March 2024
https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/start-here-impressionists-on-paper
