Beyond Impressionism: Works from an Esteemed Private Collection

Beyond Impressionism: Works from an Esteemed Private Collection

S panning nearly thirty years of artistic creation, this private collection offers a remarkable insight into the development of art in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The collection encompasses Impressionist compositions by Edgar Degas, wonderfully sensuous portraits by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and an exquisite pastel by the Symbolist artist Odilon Redon.

Seen together the works have powerful synergy, creating a dialogue that illustrates how these pioneering artists built on Impressionist techniques to create a distinctive, modern style of their own.

The two Degas pastels – Le bain and Femme à sa toilette illustrate the artist’s impressive use of pastel to create vivid compositions offering a glimpse of these two women bathing. The subject was one that Degas returned to repeatedly throughout his career, and alongside his depictions of dancers, they constitute some of his most iconic images. Renoir’s portraits epitomise his mature style; their warm palettes and voluptuous lines create a rich evocation of womanhood.

By this point in his career Renoir was enjoying considerable success and no longer reliant on taking on paid commissions for portraits. Instead he was able to freely explore the female form in a series of works that look back to the Renaissance as well as building on Impressionist experiments with colour and light.

The final work in the group is an beautifully-executed pastel by Odilon Redon which explores his personal experience of the spiritual and reveals his wonderful approach to colour – which is no longer used naturalistically but for its symbolic or expressive qualities.

Impressionist & Modern Art

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