Impressionist Places: Revealed in Paintings and Photographs

by Miriam Leimer, Christoph Irrgang (photographer), Ortrud Westheider (foreword)

176 pages, Hardcover

Published September 17, 2024

Reviews

[Servabo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first Impressionist exhibition took place in Paris in 1874 - one hundred and fifty years ago. Claudd Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, and Alfred Sisley displayed their most recent works painted outdoors, en plein air, in the forests of Fontainebleau, on the Normandy coast, and in the duburbs along the Seine. The young artists brought pictures into the French capital that captured impressions of sunrise, frost-covered meadows, or a wheat field in the midday heat. They rejected traditional motifs and celebrated the moment. All that mattered was their own perception, their own judgement. Their paintings, considered provocations at the time, are now among the most famous works in art history. The pictures act to pique our curiosity about the places where they were painted.

The photographer Christophe Irrgang has been following in the Impressionists' footsteps. In France, Holland, Italy and Great Britain, he has tracked down the spots that inspired them, and for his photographs, he has determined the painters' precise standpoint.

Each brushstroke is a piece of information yet spontaneous. Thus, they captured the momentary atmosphere still conveyed today, 150 years later.

1) Berneval - with its sandy path, thick green vegetation, small glimpse of the sea, and summer sky, the photograph is similar in mood to Renoir's painting.
2) Pourville/Dieppe/Le Havre beach - Claude Monet, Edge of the Cliff at Pourville, 1882
3) Étretat stone arch
4) Antibes
5) Albert Dubois-Pillet, Morning on thr Marne at Meaux, 1886
6) Fontainebleau forests
7) Giverny - Claude Monet, The Flowered Meadow, 1885

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I imagine this book was much more fun to make than to read.
didn't even read the words.

snack read 35 of 2025