Gustave Caillebotte: The Realistic Impressionist

Gustave Caillebotte - On the Pont de l’Europe - 1876-77 - Oil on canvas, 106 x 131 cm - Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth (click photo for larger image)This painting, by French artist and collector Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) which crops passers-by on the bridge spanning the Gare Saint-Lazare's track approach, is interesting not least for the alert regard Caillebotte, the engineer, had for the new technology. He did several meticulous studies towards two versions of the painting.The lines of receding perspective in Caillebotte's work can often draw us with a disquieting violence into a picture's spatial depth. His perspective recalls the engineer's drawing board.

Jean-Frédéric Bazille: An Arresting Young Artist

Jean-Frédéric Bazille - Bathers (Summer Scene) - 1869 - Oil on canvas, 158 x 159 cm - Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge (click photo for larger image)In the summer of 1869 at Méric, Jean-Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870) had painted one of his most striking works, one that gained acceptance by the 1870 Salon. The Bathers shows a number of youths in a grove of birches, fooling about and bathing in a pool. There are definitely flaws in the execution of the painting. But what is arresting in this picture (by a man still in his twenties) is its view of life and of man, and its determination to rediscover the figurative values of the old masters in modern everyday life. The man leaning against the tree at left resembles a St. Sebastian, the reclining youth an ancient river deity, and the helpfulness of the man at right may recall Christ helping the damned up out of purgatory.

Julian Rossi Ashton: Australian Impressionism

Julian Rossi Ashton - The Gold Washer - 1889 - Oil on canvas, 213 x 117 cm - Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (click photo for larger image)Julian Rossi Ashton (1851-1942) was an Australian painter and writer. He attended the West London School of Art and, following the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, the Académie Julian in Paris. After teaching at the Art Society of New South Wales School from 1892 to 1896, he founded the Sydney Art School in 1896. It became a center of activity for aspiring young Australian artists. He continued to produce Impressionist-style portraits and landscapes throughout his life and influenced ideas of national patronage for Australian art. He encouraged government purchases and in 1913 lobbied for the foundation of the Education Department Gallery in Sydney.

Claude Monet: An Expressive Quality

Claude Monet - Boats on the Beach at Étretat - 1885 - Oil on canvas, 66 x 81 cm - Art Institute, Chicago Impressionism (click photo for larger image)The work is completed in a somewhat unusual palate for Claude Monet (1840-1926). Its expressive quality made a strong impression on Vincent van Gogh who admired the works of Monet. You can learn more about Monet from other articles on this website.

Blanche Hoschedé-Monet: A Lesser Known Monet!

Blanche Hoschedé-Monet - Haystack, Effect of Snow - 1890-91 - Oil on canvas, 46 x 62 cm - Fondation Claude Monet, Giverny. (click photo for larger image)French painter, Blanche Hoschedé-Monet (1865-1947) was the second daughter of Ernest and Alice Hoschedé, and both the step daughter and the daughter-in law of Claude Monet. Ernest was a businessman but also an art collector of Impressionist paintings. The family settled in Giverny in 1883, Ernest died in 1891. Blanche spent long hours in the ateliers of both Claude Monet and Édouard Manet. Blanche became Monet's assistant and pupil and all of her work was done en plein air. She married Claude Monet's son, Jean, in 1897. They lived in Rouen and Beaumont-le-Roger until 1913. When her husband died in 1914, she moved back to Giverny with Claude Monet. Most of her works were done in Giverny and around Rouen. She painted in Giverny from 1883 to 1897 and then from 1926 to 1947. She adopted an almost pure form of Impressionism. At times it was difficult to distinguish her work from Monet's especially during her first period in Giverny.