Impressionists after the exhibitions
from 1886

While the differences of opinion between the painters had already broken out violently long before the eighth exhibition in 1886, in the years after 1886 the artists largely continued to live side by side. The time of joint, self-organised projects had come to an end after a period of around 20 years. They saw each other only rarely, some friendships remained, some relationships broke down completely.

Some artists struggled to renew their art, such as Renoir. Or they tried a new style of painting, like Pissarro until around 1892, but the latter returned to a freer, more Impressionist style. Gauguin would turn away from Impressionism and initially move towards a more planar style of painting in Pont-Aven, before later travelling to the South Seas and breaking new ground.
Mary Cassatt found new inspiration in Japanese woodcuts and successfully tried her hand at this art form. Degas, with his difficult human nature, became increasingly lonely and quiet. Contact with his old friends broke off. Gustave Caillebotte only had a few years left in his life, which he successfully devoted to boatbuilding alongside painting.
Paul Cézanne had long been dedicated to his own ideas and had spent many years searching for new solutions that would later have a major impact on art. Initially, his success was rather limited.
Monet, Sisley and Berthe Morisot, and to a large extent Armand Guillaumin, remained true to their Impressionist style.

The initiative of the artists, generally labelled as Impressionist, which led to the eight exhibitions between 1874 and 1886, was now replaced by the work and influence of gallery owners and art dealers. Paul Durand-Ruel, who had long been committed to the group of painters and who was able to overcome his financial difficulties during this period, and his fiercest competitor Georges Petit, now took on the task of bringing the artists' paintings to the world. Ambroise Vollard also contributed to its dissemination. Theo van Gogh, Vincent van Gogh's younger brother, who worked in the Paris branch of the Brussels art dealership Goupil & Cie and constantly endeavoured to find Impressionist painters and sell their paintings, is also important.
Impressionism was thus finally recognised and accepted in the art trade, and for some, prices rose so that they could live without financial hardship, especially Monet. Others, such as Alfred Sisley, would have to deal with hardship for the rest of their lives.

Over the following years, Durand-Ruel organised many solo and group exhibitions for his artists, and his sphere of influence spread throughout Europe and the USA. Georges Petit began organising exhibitions before 1886, in which very different artists were represented. There, painters such as Monet, Sisley and Renoir were forced to meet their unpopular colleagues, such as Jean-François Raffaëlli, for whom they had avoided the eighth exhibition.
However, it slowly began to be recognised by society and the number of sales increased thanks to the work of art dealers, as did the prices for the works. However, it would take until after 1900 for Impressionism to be widely recognised as art in the world.

 

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A brief overview of the artistic work of the well-known participants in the Impressionist exhibitions in Paris in the years after 1886

 

Gustave Caillebotte

1848 - 1894

Gustave Caillebotte contributed a great deal to the organisation and funding of the eight exhibitions. In the years after 1886, he devoted himself increasingly to garden art and boat building in addition to painting.

 

Chrysanthèmes blancs et jaunes, jardin du Petit Gennevilliers
1893 - 73 x 62 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris >

Linge séchant au bort de la Seine, Petit Gennevilliers
1892 - 105 x 150 cm - Oil on canvas
Museum Walraff-Richartz, Köln >

Paysage d'Argenteuil
1889 - 60 x 73 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire Baron-Gérard, Bayeux / Musée d'Orsay >

 

Voiliers à Argenteuil
nach 1888 - 65 x 55 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, Paris >

 

Caillebotte collected works of contemporary Impressionist art. The artist bequeathed his collection of over 60 works to the French state. However, the state did not accept all, but only the majority of the paintings in the collection. Among the 38 paintings accepted by the state were 'Moulin de la Galette', 'The Swing' and 'Nude in the Sunlight' by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, a 'Gare Saint-Lazare', 'The Breakfast' and 'Regatta at Argenteuil' by Claude Monet, 'The Balcony' by Édouard Manet, 'The Red Roofs' by Camille Pissarro, the painting 'L'Estaque' by Paul Cézanne as well as several pastels by Edgar Degas and works by Alfred Sisley.

 

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Mary Cassatt

1844 - 1926

 

Mary Cassatt became famous during the 1880s as a painter of mother-and-child scenes, the close connection to Degas dissolved. Her style became more generous and more flat in colour. Japanese painting influenced her style and above all her prints. In the last years of her life, she gave up her artistic activity due to an eye condition.

The Boating Party
1893/94 - 90 x 117 cm - Oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C >

In the Garden
1903 - 68 x 83 cm - Oil on canvas
Detroit Institute of Arts >

 

The Banjo Lesson
1894 - 71 x 57 cm - Pastel over oil crayon on wove paper
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond >

 

The Lamp
1890/91 - 32,3 x 25,2 cm - Coloured aquatint, drypoint on laid paper
Art Institute Chicago >

 

Woman Bathing
1890/91 - 36,4 x 26,9 cm - Colour aquatint, with drypoint on laid paper
Art Institute Chicago >

 

Summertime
1894 - 101 x 81 cm - Oil on canvas
Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago >

 

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Edgar Degas

1834 - 1917

 

From 1888 onwards, Degas' paintings continued to focus on the figure, whether ballerinas, women bathing or combing their hair. "His sincerity is never tactless, the bodies are naked but never exposed." (Götz Adriani). His other favourite painting technique was pastel, alongside some oil paintings. He also mixed techniques such as print and pastel. In the last decade of his life, he began to have difficulties with his eyesight, as a result of which the paintings became coarser in the drawing, which contained strong black lines to outline the movement.

Degas is considered an Impressionist not so much because of his painting style, but perhaps more because of his resolute rejection of the prevailing conventions. He was concerned with the truth of the fleeting moment - in this he agreed with Monet. However, he sought this truth more in the figure. He was a driving force behind the eight exhibitions between 1874 and 1886, albeit a contentious one. He did, however, threaten to prevent these exhibitions from being labelled Impressionist - he only saw Monet as someone for whom this label was appropriate.

 

Les femmes dans une loge
ca. 1885/90 - 62 × 87 cm - Pastel on paper
The Burrell Collection, Glasgow >

 

Les jupes de ballet rouges
ca. 1900 - 77 × 58 cm - Pastel on paper
The Burrell Collection, Glasgow >

Peigner les cheveux
ca. 1896 - 114 x 147 cm - Oil on canvas
The National Gallery, London >

Danseurs sur un banc
ca. 1898 - 55 × 76 cm - Pastel on paper
Glasgow Museums: Art Gallery & Museums, Kelvingrove

 

Deux danseurs
ca. 1900 - 79 x 51 cm - Pastel on paper
Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal >

Chevaux de course dans un paysage
1894 - 48 x 63 cm - Pastel on paper
Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid >

Avant le Ballet
1890/1892 - 40 x 89 cm - Oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. >

 

Femme peignant ses cheveux
ca. 1888/90 - 61 x 46 cm - Pastel on wove paper
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York >

 

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Armand Guillaumin

(1841-1927)

 

Guillaumin, relieved of financial worries by a lottery win, travelled extensively through France and other countries from 1891 onwards and painted tirelessly. His works bear witness to his direct and objective way of seeing as an impressionist landscape painter who retained a certain amount of freedom. He later moved closer to Fauvism.

Paysage de neige à Crozant
ca. 1895 - 60 x 73 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée d’art moderne André Malraux - MuMa, Le Havre >

Vue de Hollande, bateaux à voiles
ca. 1904 - 60 x 75 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, Paris >

Moret sur Loing
1902 - 60 x 73 cm - Oil on canvas
Tate, London >

 

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Claude Monet

(1840 - 1926)

 

From 1883 onwards, Claude Monet lived in Giverny with a large garden, which he greatly modified according to his own ideas by adding ponds and plantings. The paintings, now often created in series of ten to even a hundred works, became increasingly subjective in their observation of nature and focussed on the impression and sensation of nature in its interplay. As the most impressionistic painter in the group, he was concerned with the staging of his experiences, which he translated into pictures with great deliberation. He created a fascinating perspective in painting with series of the same motif, whether grain stacks, poplars, Rouen Cathedral, London and others.

As with the other Impressionists, they became estranged from each other after 1886, and their opposition to Degas could no longer be denied. They still met from time to time at exhibitions, but their dialogue had almost ceased. Monet, like the other important artists in the eight exhibitions, was now looking for new ways to present paintings and offer them for sale. For example, Monet attempted to be placed in solo and group exhibitions with gallery owners (Durand-Ruel, Petit and others), which saved him the tedious work of organising and discussing content. But the official Salon in Paris also became interesting. Monet enjoyed success and became a recognised and sought-after artist all over the world.

Some examples of his works:

Grain stacks at Clos Morin
(1890 - 91)

Meule de foin (dégel, coucher de soleil)
1890/91 - 64 x 92 cm - Oil on canvas
Art Institute Chicago >

Meules de foin (effet de la neige et du soleil)
1891 - 65 x 92 cm - Oil on canvas
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York >

 

Rouen Cathedral
(1891-94)

 

Cathédrale de Rouen, brume matinale
1894 - 101 x 66 cm - Oil on canvas
Museum Folkwang, Essen >

 

Cathédrale de Rouen, coucher de soleil
1892 - 100 x 65 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris >

 

Cathédrale de Rouen, lumière du soir
1892 - 100 x 65 cm - Oil on canvas
Pola Museum of Art, Hakone (Japan) >

 

Poplars on the banks of the Epte near Limetz
(1891)

 

Peupliers, trois arbres en automne
1891 - 93 x 74 cm - Oil on canvas
Philadelphia Museum of Art >

 

Les Peupliers au bord de l'Epte
1891 - 92 x 74 cm - Oil on canvas
Tate Galery, London >

 

Japanese bridge in the garden in Giverny
(ab 1895)

Nymphéas et pont japonais
1899 - 90 x 90 cm - Oil on canvas
Princeton University Art Museum, USA >

La passerelle japonaise
ca. 1920/22 - 90 x 116 cm - Oil on canvas
Museum of Modern Art, New York >

 

London - Parliament, Charing Cross Bridge, Waterloo Bridge
(1899 - 1904)

Le Parlement, Coucher de soleil
1904 - 81 x 92 cm - Oil on canvas
Kunsthaus Zürich >

Les Chambres du Parlement dans le brouillard
1903 - 81 x 98 cm - Oil on canvas
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, USA >

Pont de Waterloo
1902 - 65 x 100 cm - Oil on canvas
Hamburger Kunsthalle >

Pont de Charing Cross, la Tamise
1903 - 73 x 100 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux_Arts de Lyon >

 

Water lilies in Giverny
(ab 1903)

Nymphéas
ca. 1915 - 151 x 201 cm - Oil on canvas
Neue Pinakothek München >

Le bassin aux Nymphéas
ca. 1918 - 131 x 197 cm - Oil on canvas
Museum Barberini, Potsdam >

Nymphéas
1916/19 - 130 x 152 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris >

 

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Berthe Morisot

(1841 - 1895)

 

Berthe Morisot remained largely faithful to the aims of Impressionism, even if she felt that it clung too much to atmospheric details and that the problems of form were pushed too far into the background. Seurat recognised the visible grace and freshness of her paintings, the immediacy of expression. In 1892, Berthe Morisot had a very successful solo exhibition at the gallery owners Boussod & Valadon in Paris.

La Lecture
1888 - 39,8 x 31,5 cm - Oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts Saint Pétersbourg (Florida) >

 

Devant la psyché
1890 - 55 x 46 cm - Oil on canvas
Private property

Paysage à Tours
1892  - 27 x 35 cm -  Oil on canvas
Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris >

 

L'Hortensia
1894 - 73 x 60 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée d’Orsay, Paris >

Sur un banc au bois de Boulogne
1894 - 38 x 55 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée d’Orsay, Paris >

Julie Manet dessinant
1890 - 19,5 x 21,5 cm - blue coloured pencil on paper
Musée d’Orsay, Paris >

 

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Camille Pissarro

(1830 - 1903)

 

Around 1892/93, Camille Pissarro began to doubt whether pointillism, with its rigid painting style, was really his way of painting. He switched from the pointillist style back to the short brushstrokes of earlier times and greatly expanded his colour palette. His paintings regained their original purity and colour. A major retrospective exhibition at Durand-Ruell in 1892 helped to increase his success and improve his living situation. Although Pissarro received inspiration in many different ways and thus probably achieved the broadest spectrum of Impressionist expression, he developed a thoroughly idiosyncratic interpretation of Impressionism in a mixture of expressiveness and form.

Baigneur dans les bois
1895 - 60 x 73 cm - Oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York >

 

Le jardinier
1899 - 92 x 65 cm - Oil on canvas
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart >

 

Rue de l'Epicerie, Rouen (Effet de la lumière du soleil)
1898 - 81 x 65 cm - Oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York >

Faire les foins à Éragny
1901 - 54 x 65 cm - Oil on canvas
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa >

Jardin potager, matin gris, Éragny
1901 - 65 × 81 cm - Oil on canvas
Philadelphia Museum of Art >

 

Navire entrant dans le port du Le Havre
1903 - 17,8 x 28,6 cm - Oil on canvas
Dallas Museum of Art >

L'avant-port du Le Havre, matin, soleil, marée montante
1903 - 55 x 65 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée d’art moderne André Malraux - MuMa, Le Havre >

 

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Pierre-Auguste Renoir

(1841 - 1919)

 

From the mid-1980s, Renoir felt that he had found everything with Impressionist painting, but that he now had to overcome it. Until then, he had used colour to create form, but now he remembered his role models such as Ingres and began to integrate drawing very strongly into his paintings again. This style of painting, which did not last too long, is known as Renoir's "dry period". It resulted in a smoother surface, the short brushstroke gave way to a more planar style. However, Renoir could not bear this discipline for long and found a freer style, more in keeping with a spontaneous way of painting, which he continued to pursue in his old age, although he continued to use the dry style again and again. In this way, he once again found pleasure in colourfulness and sensual painting. However, his departure from Impressionism remained, it was definitive.

Increasingly disabled by arthritis, he limited his oeuvre, which was probably the most extensive of all the Impressionists, but did not allow himself to be restricted in his creative urge.

Jeunes filles au piano
1892 - 116 x 90 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, Paris >

 

Fille endormie
1897 - 82 x 66 cm - Oil on canvas
Sammlung Oskar Reinhart «Am Römerholz» >

 

Bouquet
nach 1901 - 40 x 33 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée de l'Orangerie. Paris >

 

La Toilette de la baigneuse
1900/01 - 145 x 97 cm - Oil on canvas
Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia >

Nature morte au melon
ca. 1905 - 34 x 55 cm - Oil on canvas
Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia >

 

Dans la prairie
1888/92 - 81 x 65 cm - Oil on canvas
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York >

La Ferme des Collettes, Cagnes
1908/14 - 55 x 65 cm - Oil on canvas
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York >

 

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Alfred Sisley

(1839 - 1899)

 

Alfred Sisley, who painted almost exclusively landscapes, continued to do so in the years following the Impressionist exhibitions. He received little recognition during his lifetime and was only able to sell a few paintings at low prices. The dealers Durand-Ruell, Petit and others also organised solo exhibitions for him, but these were not very successful. He spent the last years of his life living in Moret-sur-Loing, where he found a variety of motifs for himself.
For Sisley, it was important that all objects were, as he put it, "flooded with light, as they are in nature. The sky must be the means to this end. It must not be treated merely as a background." (Sisley quote)

Bords du Loing
ca. 1892 - 60 x 73 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, Paris >

Prairies de Sahurs au soleil du matin
1894 - 73 x 92 cm - Oil on canvas
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York >

Une clairière forestière
1895 - 56 x 65 cm - Oil on canvas
Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid >

 

L’église de Moret (le soir)
(Sisley painted this church several times, in the style of Monet's series)
1894 - 101 x 82 cm - Oil on canvas
Petit Palais Musée des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris >

La rade de Cardiff
1897 - 54 x 65 cm - Oil on canvas
Musée de Beaux-Arts, Reims >

Craig Storr, Traeth Bach y Forwyn
1897 - 85 x 81 cm - Oil on canvas
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff >

 

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Marie Bracquemond

(1840 - 1916)

 

After the last exhibition in Paris in 1886, Marie Bracquemond slowly withdrew from the public eye into the private sphere. She gave up painting almost completely. Her lack of success and the strong, dominating personality of her husband Felix may have contributed to this.

 

Pierre et sa tante Louise au jardin
ca. 1886/90 - 55 x 40 cm - Oil on canvas
Private collection

Sous la lampe
1887 - 69 x 113 cm - Oil on canvas
Private collection

Art from 1886 Impressionists from 1886 Inspiration Pointillism Post-Impressionism