LANDSCAPES OF WATER FROM THE ARKAS COLLECTION

20 September 2017 – 31 March 2018

“Landscapes of Water” emphasize the importance of landscape Western painting. This selection, dating from the first half of the 19th century to the second half of the 20th century, features some of the most prominent artists of European landscape painting. The 90 works from the Arkas Collection, most of which are being shown for the first time, illustrate the flourishing artistic scene that prevailed when Paris was the capital of art. The 19th century was one of innovations and revolutions, both historically and artistically. Landscape painting had begun to be recognized as an independent artistic genre in the first half of the 19th century. Until that time, artists preferred to paint in studios. Then, breaking with the strictures of academicism, they began to experiment with plein air (outdoor) painting. During this period, when art itself was being redefined, artistic movements were evolving according to the pictorial tradition. Nature was represented through diverse modes of expression and new artistic movements came into being, such as the Barbizon School, Impressionism, Symbolism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism and Expressionism.

Landscapes of Water “reflects” the historical evolution of the pictorial medium over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. Here you will find the remarkable works of Eugéne Boudin, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Maurice de Vlaminck, Francis Picabia, Henry Lebasque, and Hippolyte Camille Delpy, among others. They invite the viewer on a fabulous odyssey through diverse geographic areas, from the banks of the Seine and the Scottish lakes to the summits of the Alps, by way of the warm light of the Mediterranean, the North Sea and the rivers of Europe.