Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity

I enjoyed this so much I decided to repost my notes from this 2013 exhibition.

This was an incredible exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. It included some of the most engaging works of French Impressionists: Manet, Monet, Morisot, Degas, and Tissot, to name just a few of my favorites, all in one place centered on  an unusual theme of fashion and its relationship to "art of the moment."

There are no landscapes here just portraits of average (and not-so-average!) Parisian women and men (mostly the former though), intermingled with fashions from that era; in one case the actual dress being modeled in the painting. And if you ever wanted to know what a corset really looked like, go no further.

Fascinating!

Located in the Tisch Galleries, which is right next door to the 19th century European Painting. Ask directions, because if you're like me getting around the Met can be a bit daunting, especially if you're looking for something very specific, and frankly the map isn't all that helpful.

No photography but there is a special room set up to sell various reproductions and a number of books on Impressionism, and of course the catalog itself. Buy it and help the Met.

"Paris Street: Rainy Day" (1877) by Gustave Caillebotte, The Art Institute of Chicago

"In the Conservatory" (1881) by Albert Bartholome, Musée d'Orsay (model Bartholome's wife)

"Le Repos" (1871) by Edouard Manet, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (model: Berthe Morisot)

"Women in the Garden" (1866) by Claude Monet, Musée d'Orsay

"Young Lady in 1866" (1866) by Edouard Manet, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (model: Victorine Meurent)

"Luncheon on the Grass" central panel (1865-66) by Claude Monet, Musée d'Orsay

"Camille" (1866) by Claude Monet, Kunsthalle Bremen (model: Camille Monet)

"The Swing" (1876) by Auguste Renoir, Musée d'Orsay

"The Loge" 1874) by Auguste Renoir, The Courtauld Gallery, London

"July" Specimen of a Portrait" (1878) by James Tissot, The Cleveland Museum of Art