L’ETA’ DI COURBET E MONET
La diffusione del realismo e dell’impressionismo nell’Europa centrale e orientale

Passariano, Villa Manin - 26th September 2009 – 7th March 2010

The wealth of masterpieces offered in this extraordinary exhibition examines and reveals a very special aspect of 19th century European pictorial culture: the relation between the birth of the so-called Barbizon school in France and the diffusion of Realism and Naturalism in Central and Eastern European countries. It also sheds new light on how - beginning in the 1870s in Paris - the success of Impressionism deeply influenced painting in many of those countries until well into the 20th century.The exhibition consists of 134 paintings from museums worldwide which, instead of being arranged according to the usual division per country, are divided per theme, so that the French paintings can be compared directly with the paintings coming from the different Central and Eastern European countries. Staged in Villa Manin – a spectacular Dogal residence in the heart of Friuli Venezia Giulia – the exhibition focuses on four different topics which obviously reflect the significance of landscapes as the real esprit of the 19th century, but it also touches upon other aspects.

This detailed account of the relations between Paris and the great Central and Eastern European capital cities confirms that as Barbizon and then the Impressionism approached the world of Realism and Naturalism, a certain dialog came into being and succeeded in preserving the fascinating national features that distinguish most of nineteenth-century Central and Eastern European paintings as works of absolute and unforgettable beauty.

The trips that the artists made to Paris – but also those made later by great collectors – are the starting point that is highlighted by the exhibition. The focus then shifts on the new features that that specific wind blew towards Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Munich, Zurich, Vienna, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, Bucharest and many other cities. The collection offered in Villa Manin begins with the works of renown painters such as Courbet, Corot, Daubigny, Millet, and Rousseau, only to mention a few of the great artists who turned the mark of Realism and Naturalism into their forte. It then gradually moves into early Impressionism with a rich and wonderful group of paintings by Manet, Monet, Sisley, Renoir, Pissarro, and Degas, before reaching the height of Impressionism to encompass also Vincent van Gogh.

All the while, it seeks and finds theme and language similarities with the greatest Central and Eastern European painters, the very ones displayed side by side to the French artists on the walls of Villa Manin. Though some are hardly renown in Italy, the works of these painters are often of unequalled beauty, competing at times with the Impressionists in developing certain themes, as in the very remarkable case of the Hungarian painter, Pál Szinyei Merse. But also Levitan and Serov in Russia, Chelmonsky and Rodakowsky in Poland, Grigorescu and Andreescu in Romania, Leibl and Liebermann in Germany, Calame and a young Hodler in Switzerland, Mesdag and Maris in Holland, the early Ensor in Belgium, Schindler and Wiesinger-Florian in Austria, just to mention a few of the many artists who will become known to the international public.

---

INFORMATIONS