French Moderns. Monet to Matisse 1850-1950

The years between the Revolution of 1848 and the end of World War II were characterised by profound social, intellectual, and political change in France. The art world, centred in Paris, also witnessed remarkable transformations as artists experimented with bold, expressive styles. Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism... All emerged in and around the French capital during this period, and had profound impacts on the Western artistic canon. This splendid volume featuring 59 works from the Brooklyn Museum`s renowned European collection, celebrates France as the artistic centre of international modernism from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Ranging widely in scale, subject matter, and style, these paintings and sculptures were produced by the era`s leading artists, both French born and others who studied and worked in France. The 47 artists represented include Bonnard, Caillebotte, Cezanne, Chagall, Degas, Matisse, Monet, Redon, Renoir, and Rodin. Organised into four sections, the works in this book exemplify the successive avant-garde movements that defined modern art in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, tracing a shift from naturalism to the rise of abstraction.