From Corot to Van Gogh. The exhibition brings together 116 works to analyse the phenomenon of oil painting executed outdoors in its totality. Among the artists represented are pioneers of open-air oil painting such as Pierre-Henri Valenciennes and Thomas Jones, in addition to Turner, Constable, Corot, Rousseau, Courbet, Daubigny, Monet, Sisley, Renoir, Seurat, Van Gogh and Cezanne...
Curated by Juan Ángel López‐Manzanares
By the time the First Impressionist Exhibition opened to the public in 1874, open‐air painting had
been in existence for almost a century. While not the inventors of this type of painting, it was
undoubtedly the Impressionists who took it to its maximum expression. The aim of the first exhibition
at the Museo Thyssen‐Bornemisza for 2013 is to analyse the origins and growth of this new approach
in art, starting with its earliest manifestation among late 18th‐century landscape painters and
concluding with late, expressionist interpretations dating from the early years of the 20th century.
Impressionism and open‐air Painting. From Corot to Van Gogh will be presented in the Museum’s
temporary exhibition galleries from 5 February and will bring together 116 works. Among the artists
represented will be pioneers of open‐air oil painting such as Pierre‐Henri Valenciennes and Thomas
Jones, in addition to Turner, Constable, Corot, Rousseau, Courbet, Daubigny, Monet, Sisley, Renoir,
Seurat, Van Gogh and Cézanne among many other key names. This extensive range of artists will
allow the exhibition to analyse the phenomenon of oil painting executed outdoors in its totality, as
an artistic practice that offered new and unexpected possibilities for landscape painting and which
revolutionised 19th‐century painting as a whole.
Open‐air studies: from the private to the public realm
The custom of painting landscapes outdoors as understood today did not take root among artists
until the 19th century. Traditionally, landscapes were produced in the studio in accordance with the
classical rules of composition, tonal gradation, perspective etc. They did not represent nature as it
was, but rather as it should be; an idealised setting of heroes and legendary figures from history,
mythology or the Bible. This was the case with both private commissions and works painted for
official exhibitions.
From the late 18th century, however, young landscape
painters often practiced during their period of training
in Italy by painting small oil studies outdoors.
Considered minor works by Pierre‐Henri de
Valenciennes, the father of open‐air painting, they
were primarily exercises of skill both for the eye and
the hand. Indirectly, the intention was that through
these works the landscape painter should acquire a
repertoire of motifs for possible use in compositions
produced in the studio and would thus not have to
draw on the imagination or on memory. Whatever the
case, open‐air studies were restricted to artists’ private working practice.
During the first half of the 19th century Italy ceded its central role in the tradition of landscape
painting to other countries such as England, France and Germany. In parallel, the clear‐cut distinction
between works created from life and studio paintings started to break down. From the 1820s there
was a greater degree of cross‐over between the two formats with a more careful finish evident in
open‐air oils and the frequent use of motifs taken from nature in compositions executed in the
studio. Artists such as Corot and Constable extended the practice of painting directly from nature to
their work as a whole. Alongside this, studies painted outdoors gained increasing recognition and
independence and it became increasingly habitual for some landscape painters to present them in
official competitions alongside other, more finished works.
During this period the Forest of Fontainebleau near Paris became
a shared terrain for various generations of artists. The Neo‐
classical landscape painters coincided there with the members of
what would later become known as the Barbizon School, among
them Rousseau, Díaz de la Peña and Daubigny, while Corot
participated in both these trends. This contributed to the survival
and ongoing evolution of open‐air painting and to locating it at
the heart of artistic debate in 19th‐century France. Among the
Barbizon painters, open‐air studies and works executed in the
studio acquired a parallel status, with some placing more
emphasis on the latter and others, such as Daubigny, on the
former.
Monet, Sisley, Renoir and even Cézanne also worked in
Fontainebleau. Spontaneity and rapid execution, previously
characteristic of open‐air studies, now became inherent
characteristics of Impressionist painting. As a result, landscapes
painted outdoors acquired a new status, namely that of finished
works of art. However, even the Impressionists were aware of
the limitations of painting exclusively outdoors and on occasions
returned to working in the studio. At the same time, their interest in achieving a true representation
of the effects of outdoor light gave way to other aesthetic and expressive concerns that would
ultimately prevail in works by Van Gogh, Nolde and Hodler.
An iconography of open‐air painting
The present exhibition is structured thematically around some of the most frequently depicted motifs
in open‐air painting as conceived of by Valenciennes: trees, rocks, streams, etc. Dedicated to one of
these themes, each room displays examples of art from different periods and schools with the aim of
firstly emphasising the continuity of the tradition of open‐air painting and secondly the diversity of
the visual solutions achieved.
1. Ruins, terraces and roofs:
In the 18th century, architectural ruins were one of the key
elements within landscape painting, giving the work a
picturesque character. As such they were the subject of
attention on the part of the young painters who trained in
Italy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, following the
tradition of 17th‐century ideal landscape and 18th‐century
vedute. However, in open‐air studies this picturesque element
diminished in favour of an attention to veracity encouraged by
Valenciennes who looked not so much for strict attention to
detail as to a correct representation of the motif as a whole
with regard to forms, textures and tonal values.
2. Rocks:
Rocks appear in the earliest examples of landscape
paintings. The first separate studies of rocks were painted
in Italy in the late 18th century but it was the Barbizon
School that made this motif a preeminent one, and it is
not by chance that the rock formations of the Forest of
Fontainebleau occupied about a quarter of its entire
surface area. The Barbizon painters frequently imbued
these images with a sense of melancholy, solitude and
desolation. In contrast, with American artists art and
geology frequently went hand in hand. Towards the end
of the 19th century Cézanne returned to the motif of rocks
in order to analyse the spatial construction of his works
without having to make use of shadow or perspective.
3. Mountains:
Mountains were not the subject of aesthetic interest until the 18th century. Among the artists
working in Italy, most produced distant views intended as backgrounds for the composition of
paintings in the studio. One exception was Vesuvius, which
was the subject of numerous depictions. However, it was in
central Europe that the iconography of mountains gave rise
to the most original expressions, often located mid‐way
between Romantic idealisation and scientific interest.
Open‐air studies of mountains were also produced in
countries such as Austria, France and Spain. In the early
20th century mountains acquired a symbolic, monumental
character in the work of the Swiss painter Ferdinand
Hodler.
4. Trees and plants:
The practice of executing open‐air studies of the finest and most picturesque trees and plants
became widespread in late 18th‐century Italy. In addition, the work of the Swedish naturalist Linnaeus
gave rise to a new interest in botany that spread rapidly in the English‐speaking world. However, it
was in early 19th‐century France that this type of study was
most widely deployed due the preparatory work required for
entry into the Grand Prix de Rome de paysage historique,
founded in 1817. For the Barbizon painters, trees became
silent protagonists of the landscape. In the early 1860s the
Impressionists also painted trees in the Forest of
Fontainebleau, but in contrast to the Romantic interest in the
sentiments transmitted by great oaks and beeches, artists
such as Monet focused on the visual sensations of light as it
filters through branches. Studies of trees acquired an
essentially expressive nature in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries.
5. Waterfalls, lakes, streams and rivers:
Water added variety and freshness to the composition, as seen in the earliest examples of landscape
paintings onwards. Cascades and waterfalls appear in studies
of locations near Rome such as Tivoli and Terni, famous for
their cascades, and the region of the “Castelli Romani” with
lakes Nemi and Albano, depicted in a synthetic manner by
the Neo‐classical landscape painters. In England, oil studies
of rivers reached their high point in the early work of Turner
and Constable. Water is also notably present in the paintings
of Courbet, who gave it a particularly material feel, and of
Daubigny who introduced it into the subject matter of the
Barbizon School and had a studio‐boat built, from which he
painted his views of the Seine and the Oise. Among the
Impressionists it was Monet who paid most attention to the
changing effects of water.
6. Skies and clouds:
The depiction of the sky was a subject of interest to art
theoreticians since the time of Leonardo. However, it was in
the 18th and early 19th centuries that the custom of executing
cloud studies became widespread, with examples by the
French and German artists who trained in Italy. It was
Constable, however, who undertook the most systematic
observation of this subject. In a quest for greater integration
of the sky and landscape in his major compositions, he
painted more than one hundred studies of clouds during his
two principal painting campaigns in Hampstead between 1820
and 1822. Another important sky painter was Boudin, who influenced artists such as Courbet and Monet. Among the Impressionists, however, it was Sisley who conceded most
importance to skies and clouds, following the example of
Constable. This room concludes with examples by Van Gogh and Nolde, both of whom had a stylised,
subjective and almost abstract conception of clouds.
7. The sea:
Like mountains, the sea was contemplated with fear until
the 18th century. While some Neo‐classical painters
produced outdoor sea studies on the Gulf of Naples, it was
once again Constable who was responsible for the first
important examples painted outdoors. The fashion for
beach holidays (shared by Constable) spread from England
to northern France, and from the second quarter of the
19th century writers and painters began to discover the
Normandy coastline. This was also where Courbet
executed his first “landscapes of the sea”, which have a
material quality comparable to the rocks of his native
region of the Franche‐Comté. Among the Impressionists,
Monet was particularly attracted to the sea and it is not
by chance that he spent his youth on the Normandy coast where he subsequently undertook six
painting campaigns between 1880 and 1883, depicting the cliffs, sea and sky.
Image: Vincent van Gogh. Hospital at Saint‐Remy, 1889.The Armand Hammer Collection. Gift of the Armand Hammer Foundation, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.
More information and images please contact:
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Opening times: Tuesdays to Fridays and Sundays, 10am to 7pm. Saturdays, 10am to 9pm. Last entry
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Ticket prices:
Temporary exhibition:
General ticket: 10 Euros
Reduced price ticket: 6 Euros for visitors aged over 65, pensioners, students with proof of status and
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General ticket: 15 Euros
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