Canada and Impressionism: New Horizons

by National Gallery of Canada (Editor)

Follow these Canadian artists as they travel abroad and return home again, over a series of journeys taking place during the last decades of the nineteenth century to the turn of the twentieth. Approximately 130 masterworks by some 35 artists situate Canadian art within the global phenomenon of Impressionism and present a fresh perspective on its reception in the arts of Canada. Adopting a thematic approach, comprehensive essays demonstrate the commitment of these pioneering artists to an innovative interpretation of foreign and familiar surroundings, imbued with an Impressionist vocabulary.

A detailed chronology explores the multifaceted ways in which Canadians contributed to the evolution of Impressionism and to the advent of modernity in their homeland.

This book accompanies exhibitions at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich (DE), July - November 2019; Fondation de l'Hermitage, Lausanne (CH), January - May 2020; Musée Fabre, Montpellier

(FR), June - September 2020; and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (CA), November 2020 - April 2021.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

296 pages, Hardcover

Published August 21, 2019

About the author

The National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum.

Founded in 1880, the National Gallery of Canada is home to more than 90,000 works, including one of the finest collections of Indigenous and Canadian art

In 1988, the Gallery was relocated to a new complex designed by Israeli architect Moshe Safdie. The glass and granite building is on Sussex Drive, with a notable view of Canada's Parliament Buildings on Parliament Hill..

Reviews

[Hugh Coverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the essays were very good. They provided the information one needs to understand the art and stories behind it. The concluding essay comparing Canadian and Australian impressionistic artists traditions is brilliant and brings into focus a neglected side of art in world perspective.

[Juliano · Rating 5 out of 5]

“But what of Canada? No place might seem, at first, less hospitable to the Impressionist vision than our own native land. Impressionism is an urban mode of painting: its delight in seascapes is a cockney delight in escape; its love of the countryside is bounded by parasols and picnic hampers. Canada, at the time Impressionism rose, was only a thinly urban place. […] Not surprisingly, the standard accounts of Canadian art treat Impressionism as a false step before the Group of Seven took the fully national leap forward. This view, now under revision, is the subject of the *Canada and Impressionism: New Horizons* exhibition and a fresh meditation on the possibilities of Canadian painting.” Katerina Atanassova’s Canada and Impressionism: New Horizons, 1880-1930, published to accompany an exhibition of the same name, looks to situate the works of Canadian artists in the movement of impressionism. Alongside a number of great, vivid essays, like Sandra Paikowsky’s ‘Canadian Artists at the Water’s Edge’ and Anna Hudson’s ‘Quiet Pursuits: Canadian Impressionists and the “New Woman”’, the book reproduces various gorgeous artworks, illuminating lesser-known works. I enjoyed works by and writing on Henri Beau, Clarence Gagnon, Marc-Aurèle Fortin, H Mabel May, Maurice Cullen, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté, and Kathleen Moir Morris. I loved the final image of artists who “welcomed the celestial affirming power of light. Light became a symbol not only of place but of home. As they responded to the tangible sense of their homelands, using an Impressionist style in their paintings, they captured opposing prismatic inflections of light”.

[Shirley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found the timeline at the end of the book was immensely helpful. Knew that painting of Impressionists were exhibited in New York.....but found out also in Montreal at the same time period. Cover of book has painting by Clarence Gagnon...now that is an artist worth knowing about !... but Go7 & Tom Thomson seem to get the news headlines.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous collection of images of the paintings, plus written history of impressionism, especially about its spread to Canada and its influence on Canadian art.