Exhibition at the museum

Watercolours: studio and open air

From May 27th to September 07th, 2008 -
Musée d'Orsay
Esplanade Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
75007 Paris
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Paul Signac-Relevés d'après des oeuvres du Turner Bequest, Londres (détail)
Paul Signac
Relevés d'après des oeuvres du "Turner Bequest", Londres (détail), 1898
Paris, musée d'Orsay, conservé au département des Arts Graphiques du musée du Louvre
Don Françoise Cachin, 1996
© Musée d'Orsay, dist. RMN-Grand Palais / DR

Throughout the 19th century great strides were made in the technique of watercolour painting, and by 1900 young artists were once again showing interest. Although the established practice of "painting with water" still had its followers, with the development of portable equipment and the popular fashion for open air painting came a new freedom in style. Johan-Barthold Jongkind and Eugène Boudin, as well as Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters, used watercolour for studies from nature. They went on to develop a new style, brought to its height by Paul Cézanne around 1900, freed from the conventions of academic picturesque painting.

The exhibition is now over.

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Detailed presentation of the exhibition

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