Impressionist Art on Display in DC

Knowing how much I love Impressionist Art, last month Don sent me a Wall Street Journal article about an art display taking place at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. This was about the time he sent me an article about a similar exhibit taking place in London. At the time, I really thought we had a better chance of seeing it in London. When we realized our road trip to see Karen and Sam's new home in North Carolina would have us driving around DC, we decided to take a detour an drive through the capital instead.

The exhibit is called Paris 1874: The Impressionist Movement (on display through January 19, 2025). Back in 1874, a group of artists were denied the opportunity to display their masterpieces in the Salon because they were deemed too "out there," and not worthy of the staid Salon. These artists included now household names of Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, and Camille Pissarro -- the founders of the Impressionist art movement that is loved by many all over the world.

Using the Spot Hero app, I found parking a few blocks away.

The exhibit includes about 130 masterpieces, some from the official Salon and others from the rogue Société Anonyme. Next to each was a description of the piece, and identifying in which exhibit it hung.

Don said it reminded him a 2-D version of Hamilton, NJ's Grounds for Sculpture. Certainly some of the pieces we saw served as inspiration for J. Seward Johnson's art.

Some of my favorites:

The closest thing to a photograph
of what it looked like inside the exhibition.
I've long admired tiny paintings inside larger ones.

Degas ... a favorite since I had to research an Impressionist
artist in high school French class.

The netting looks sheer.

Paintings of the ordinary --
part of what made Impressionism new

The original Christ on the Cross by Leon Bonnat is
seldom loaned out by by Musee des Beaux-Arts
de la Ville de Paris, so they created this copy.

The artist's father was a woodcutter, so
Eduoard Dantan created this painting in his honor.

Pastels created by Monet's first art teacher, Boudin.

Another highlight in the exhibit were 19th century photographs blown up and on display. Some were so large you could imagine using them as a time traveling portal. The quality of the photographs to withstand being enlarged was outstanding! A patron in the process of moving from DC to Princeton told us the original photographs were on display in the museum's library (located in the other side of the library, accessible through a tunnel). That was worth the detour!

After we left the exhibit we strolled through the other temporary exhibit, The 70's Lens: Reimagining Documentary Photography. Wandering the halls I felt had portable photography existed in 1874, this is what the artists would have done. Most of the photography was done in black and white because that was deemed the artistic standard of the 1970s. This made the room with a few color photographs really pop.

The description next to this
made mention that the man and
woman are dressed alike, which
shows just how new an idea that was!

An early selfie! You can see the wire in
his right hand that he used to take this picture.

A picture of people sitting around reading, albeit
comics and the TV Guide.

We then wandered into the familiar turf of Impressionist art. The guard encouraged us to take as many pictures as we could before they closed in two minutes. That was our only indication that it was nearing closing time. Suddenly the announcement came to move to the nearest exit. As I took a picture of the exhibit sign, the guard encouraged me to go outside to get a better picture of the large banner. Nicely played, guard!

Inside

Outside

As always, the National Gallery of Art is free, even the special exhibit was free. There is a line to ensure not too many people enter at a time. No reservations. No groups. No tours. They are open from 10-5. The Smithsonian Museums are open until 5:30.