Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

On View: West Building, Main Floor

127 artworks on view.

A dozen men, women, and children walk, stand, or sit on a waterside wharf that spans this horizontal painting. A jetty stretches into the distance at a right angle, starting to the left of center. Dozens more people pack the jetty. The people close to us all appear to have pale skin. The men wear suits and hats in brown or black, and the women wear long hoop skirts, capes, and hats, some with veils, in shades of sky blue, red, gray, or mustard yellow. A man and woman sit on an ice-blue bench near a solitary streetlamp at the center of the composition. A small brown dog runs toward the bench from the right, and a black and white dog sniffs the ground to the left. Facing away from us, a man and woman lean onto a white fence at the water’s edge near the entry to the jetty. A dock is across a strip of topaz-blue water, where a sailboat kicks up some white ripples. Two flag-topped masts rise beyond the crowded jetty, and a steampipe between them pours charcoal-gray smoke into the pale blue sky. Paler gray clouds line the top edge of the painting, and a loose band of white clouds lines the horizon, which comes about a quarter of the way up the composition. The scene is loosely painted so people’s features and many details are indistinct. The artist signed and dated the lower right, corner, “E. Boudin. 63.”

Jetty and Wharf at Trouville

Eugène Boudin

1863

Oil on wood Accession ID 1983.1.9

On View: West Building, Main Floor, Gallery M82

We look slightly down onto a woman dressed in golden yellows, sitting in a pale green chair, with a nude child sitting in her lap as they both gaze into a mirror in this vertical portrait painting. Both the people have pale, peachy skin. The chair is angled to our left so the woman’s knees and child cant down toward the lower left corner of the composition, and the woman leans onto the arm closer to us. The chair is painted mint green and the rose-pink upholstery is visible on the seat and a corner behind the woman’s shoulder. To our right, the woman’s vibrant, copper-colored hair is pulled loosely to the back of her head. She has a rounded nose, flushed cheeks, and her full, coral-pink lips are closed. Her long dress has a low, U-shaped neckline. The fabric shimmers from pale, cucumber green to light sunshine yellow. The sleeves of the dress split over the shoulder and a second long, goldenrod-yellow sleeve falls from her elbow off the bottom edge of the canvas. An oversized sunflower, larger than the woman’s face, is affixed to her dress near her left shoulder, closer to us. She looks with dark eyes down toward the small, gold-rimmed mirror she holds in her right hand, farther from us. The child also holds the handle of the mirror with both hands, and in the reflection, the child looks back at us with dark eyes, a button nose, and pink lips. The child’s hair in the reflection is the same copper color as the woman’s, but the child on her lap has blond, shoulder-length hair. The woman rests one hand on the child’s left shoulder, closer to us. The child has a rounded belly and smooth, rosy limbs. The woman and child are reflected in a second mirror hanging on the wall alongside them, opposite us. Their reflections are very loosely painted. The wall behind the pair is sage green across the top and it shifts to fawn brown across the bottom. Brushstrokes are visible throughout, especially in the woman’s dress and hair, and are more blended in the bodies and faces. The artist signed the painting in the lower right corner, “Mary Cassatt.”

Woman with a Sunflower

Mary Cassatt

c. 1905

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1963.10.98

On View: West Building, Main Floor, Gallery M86

A woman bends double to tend a garden that stretches before us in front of two houses in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is painted with short, visible brushstrokes with a palette dominated by spring, pine, and celery green and earthy tan, peanut, and chestnut brown. Touches of canary yellow, pale pink, coral, and ruby red suggest sunflowers, roses, and other flowers. The woman wears a long, steel-gray skirt and a long-sleeved olive-green shirt. Her brown hair is bound up, and her face and hands, indicated with only a few short swipes of paint, are pale peach. She stoops over a light green patch to our right of center near a bundle of sticks or a group of tall dried stems, to our right. Leafy greens have been planted in rows to our left. Across from us, beyond the cultivated rows, masses of flowers grow in a band that nearly spans the width of the composition. Beyond, a gray stone house with a dark gray roof and a second brick red roof rise above the plants and trees. The pale blue sky above is dotted with cotton-white clouds. The artist signed and dated the work with dark paint in the lower left corner: “C. Pissarro 1898.”

The Artist's Garden at Eragny

Camille Pissarro

1898

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1970.17.54

On View: West Building, Main Floor, Gallery M88

An arched bridge faintly materializes in a haze of soft turquoise blue and mint green in this horizontal landscape painting. The bridge has four arches under a flat deck, and it extends off each side of the canvas. Running across the middle of the composition, it angles slightly away from us to our right. The bridge is painted in strokes of slate blue and muted lavender purple, with darker shades on the shadowed undersides of the arches. Touches of rose pink and white along the deck suggest lights moving across the bridge. The water below is sky blue and seafoam green. A few vertical swipes of teal blue in the background suggest towers or tall buildings in the distance on the opposite shore. The sky above is painted with long strokes of lime green and robin’s egg blue. The artist signed the painting with cobalt blue in the lower right corner, “Claude Monet.”

Waterloo Bridge, London, at Dusk

Claude Monet

1904

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1983.1.27

On View: West Building, Main Floor, Gallery M80

From high up, we look down and out at a river with seven ferries and barges, the waterway lined with buildings on the bank to our right, in this loosely painted, horizontal landscape. Dashes of muted blue, fern green, and tan create the rippling surface of the river, which fills most of the bottom half of the painting. A dark tugboat chugs out of the scene near the bottom center of the composition, and the other vessels create diagonals along the river, angled down toward the bottom right corner. Closer to us in the lower left corner of the painting, a platform edge with a railing juts out to or over the water. At least six people stand on the platform alone or in pairs. They are loosely painted with touches of black, gray, yellow, plum purple, and peach. The platform itself is painted with swipes of sky blue, oatmeal brown, butter yellow, and rose pink. Each person creates a reflection in the surface of the platform, suggesting it is wet, perhaps with rain. The spiky branches of a row of trees along the far side of the platform are sharp against the landscape beyond. The buildings on the far bank are several stories high and lined with windows. Buildings farther in the distance have triangular rooflines or domes, which become slate blue along the hazy horizon. An arched bridge with a flat deck spans the river about halfway back along the river as we see it. In the top half of the picture, fog-gray and cream-white clouds fill the sky with patches of hazy powder blue showing through. The artist signed and dated the painting in sable brown in the lower left corner, “C. Pissarro. 1900.”

The Louvre, Afternoon, Rainy Weather

Camille Pissarro

1900

Oil on canvas Accession ID 2014.136.59

On View: West Building, Main Floor, Gallery M89

About two dozen men and women sit in straight-backed, wooden chairs gathered along a sandy expanse around pockets of water under a slate-blue sky that fills the top two-thirds of this horizontal landscape painting. Most of the people sit with their backs to us but the faces we can see suggest they all have light skin. The people gather in a loose crowd that crosses the left two-thirds of the composition. The women wear dark hats and long dresses with full skirts, their shoulders wrapped in shawls in black, red, dark yellow, or cream white. The men also wear hats, most of them black bowler hats, and suits in black or pecan brown. A few women hold up blue parasols in harvest gold, slate blue, teal, or gray. Two women and a man sit on the sand to the right. Three changing huts stand behind the group across the left half, and two brown horses stand at the water’s edge nearby. Three poles march into the distance to the right near where more people gather across a pocket of water. The artist signed and dated the lower right corner, “E. Boudin – 65.”

Bathing Time at Deauville

Eugène Boudin

1865

Oil on wood Accession ID 1983.1.8

On View: West Building, Main Floor, Gallery M82

We look across a river at a bridge that spans the center of this horizontal landscape, which is painted entirely with broad, visible brushstrokes in muted blue, pink, and brown. The straight deck of the bridge crosses the center of the composition but angles slightly away from us as it moves to our right. The four low arches of the bridge are ash brown on their face, and their curved undersides are cobalt blue. Marigold-orange and teal-blue marks on the deck above suggest traffic, and shell-pink smoke or steam billows over our side of the bridge. Three long, narrow forms in the water between and in front of the bridge pilings suggest boats. The sky above is painted loosely with icy blue and pale peach around the slate-blue silhouettes of buildings and smokestacks lining the far bank. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner: “Claude Monet 1903.”

Waterloo Bridge, Gray Day

Claude Monet

1903

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1963.10.183

On View: West Building, Main Floor, Gallery M80

The painting contains two full-body depictions of a man with dark skin in different postures and clothing, placed next to each other against a dark background. On the left, the man stands upright, holding a cane. He has a dark mustache and a red hat over his dark hair, and he is wearing a white tunic with a red detail on the chest, brown trousers, a sash, and red-and-gold footwear. On the right, the man is seated on a chair with his arm on the armrest, with his dark hair visible and a gold scarf over the same white tunic. The background is dark brown.

Two Studies of an Indian from Calcutta, Seated and Standing

Eugène Delacroix

c. 1823/1824

Oil on canvas Accession ID 2006.128.19

On View: West Building, Main Floor, Gallery M81

Shown from the knees up, a young girl with pale skin, wearing a coral-peach dress, sits facing and looking at us in this loosely painted, vertical portrait. Her knees are angled slightly to our left, and her hands rest in her lap. She has a round face and smooth, lightly flushed cheeks. She has brown eyes under arched brows, a delicate, snub nose, and her rose-pink lips are closed. Her hair, which is painted with broad strokes of caramel brown and moss green, is parted on one side and pulled smoothly back, presumably tied behind her head. Tendrils fall over her shoulders. Her dress is gathered around her neck and tied with a bow at the back. The loose sleeves fall to just below her elbows, and the dress is belted around the waist. A curving swipe of canary-yellow paint could be a buckle at the front. The fabric of the dress is painted with long, visible strokes of shell and rose pink, butter yellow, and ivory white, and a few touches of sage green and periwinkle blue for shadows. She wears a ring on the middle finger of her right hand. The space around her is loosely painted with strokes of electric and cobalt blue, with unpainted canvas visible at some of the edges. To our left, over the girl's shoulder, a wooden bird cage holds an emerald-green parakeet. The bird is streaked with royal blue along its back, and the area around its hooked beak is apple red. The cage has a mint-green bow and ribbon along the top. The artist signed the painting in green on the lower right corner: “Berthe Morisot.”

The Artist's Daughter with a Parakeet

Berthe Morisot

1890

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1963.10.50

On View: West Building, Main Floor, Gallery M82

Six men on horseback and wearing jockeys’ uniforms line up on a grassy field in front of us in this loosely painted horizontal scene. The jockeys and horses’ features are especially freely painted so much of the detail is indistinct. The horses are all chestnut brown except for two at the middle, which are dark brown. One horse, second from our right, rears up on its hind legs, and one to our left nuzzles its neighbor. The riders all wear brimmed caps or helmets, white pants, and knee-high black boots. Their caps and high-necked shirts are painted in shades of goldenrod yellow, aquamarine blue, white, red, or peach. Their faces and hands are peach-colored or light brown. Some of the horses and the rider’s clothing are outlined in black. One of the riders is set a little farther back than the others. A black silhouette in the near distance to our right suggests a man wearing a suit and tall top hat. Swipes of black, brown, sky blue, and white create the impression of a crowd across from us, gathered on the far side of the grassy area. Light green fields continue back to a line of shamrock-green trees at the foot of gently sloping hills. White clouds screen the ice-blue sky above, which takes up the top quarter of the painting. The paint seems thinly applied in many areas, especially the horses and the grassy fields, so the weave of the canvas is visible under strokes of green and brown. The artist signed the lower right corner, “Degas.”

The Riders

Edgar Degas

c. 1885

Oil on canvas Accession ID 2014.18.7

On View: West Building, Main Floor, Gallery M83

A cleanshaven man wearing a black and red diamond-patterned costume and holding a white wooden sword tucked under one arm stands in a room with a blue background in this vertical painting. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes that make patches of mottled color. The man stands with his body angled to our right and seems to look down in that direction, though the dark eyes are loosely painted. His right eyebrow, closer to us, is a dark, curving arch. Touches of pink suggest rosy cheeks, and only a subtle swipe of pink suggests a mouth, which appears to be missing when seeing this work from afar. An arctic-blue cap curves widely down over the ears like an upside-down crescent moon. Some transparent swipes of black could be a lace or feather collar around the costume’s neckline. The hand we see, near the end of the sword, is oversized and painted in tones of fog blue and beige. The right foot steps in front of the left. He wears black shoes, and the toes are turned out. The wall behind the man is dappled with spruce blue, laurel green, and some touches of pinkish tan. A darker baseboard separates the wall from the floor below, which is made with patches of sky blue, rust red, pale pink, and olive green. The swag of a curtain, in shades of goldenrod yellow and muted teal blue, hangs on the wall behind the person’s head.

Harlequin

Paul Cezanne

1888-1890

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1985.64.7

On View: West Building, Main Floor, Gallery M84

Waterloo Bridge, London, at Sunset

Claude Monet

1904

Oil on canvas Accession ID 1983.1.28

On View: West Building, Main Floor, Gallery M80