Normandie Impressioniste: A Festival of Light and Inspiration
Text: Aran Cravey In 1863, the artistic powers that be slammed the salon doors in the faces of
those who would ultimately go on to change the face of art. What the Paris
art elite lost, the rest of world gained, as Manet, Pissarro
and those who followed redefined painting with their impressions and, according
to most art history books, started the wheels
turning for an artistic revolution.
But, according to art historian Jacques-Sylvain Klein, it took more than a rejection letter to bring about a revolution. In fact,
it was the capricious skies above Normandy that
helped inspire a new approach to painting and a new way of thinking about
art.
This summer and continuing into the fall, more than 250 events will take place
as part of a province wide festival dedicated to Normandy's proud role in the
birth of Impressionism. Klein, along with other organizers of the festival, builds a strong case for
Normandy's influential role in the history of art.
It would seem that everyone from Delacroix to Degas, Corot and Morisot lived in
or regularly visited France’s northern province.
What they found there was a mesmerizing luminescence, unlike any light found in Paris or elsewhere. So transfixed was Monet by the changing shadows and shades cast on the facade of Rouen's cathedral that he painted the scene close to thirty times. Eleven of Monet's cathedral series, as well as twenty-eight studies by Pissarro and countless other works by the masters of light are exhibited at the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Rouen.
The festival provides an extraordinary opportunity to not only see
Impressionist masterpieces side by side, but also a chance to delight in
Normandy's luminescent wonders in the series of concerts, lectures and
spectacles organized throughout the festival’s run.
Whether, Normandy is to thank for Impressionist painting
and the trajectory of art that followed might be a hasty declaration to make.
Fortunately for us, Normandie Impressioniste offers a plethora of delightful
opportunities to find out.
Various events running through September 2010
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