Customer Reviews

Impressions of the Riviera: Monet, Renoir, Matisse and Their Contemporaries

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The Portland Museum of Art mounted a sumptuous exhibit entitled "Impressions of the Riviera: Monet, Renoir, Matisse and Their Contemporaries" in June, 1998 which focused on the aforementioned three headliners, but included the art of many other painters, sculptors and photographers working in the the far south of France in the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s. It was a "can't fail" enterprise in that it was all about the beauty of the region's sea/shore landscapes and beautiful people enjoying life in those beautiful settings. The artworks themselves have been appealing to generations--they are lush with color and are all virtual advertisements for the good life in the sunny south. Easy for the viewer to buy into the fantasy.

This 80-page soft bound book is the catalog for the exhibit and is full of well-reproduced color illustrations of the paintings and intriguing and highly evocative black-and-white photos. The impressionists, pointillists, fauvists, nabis, dadists, cubists, etc. all have some representation here, though a few notable artists are missing. On the other hand, the curators of the show went to some lengths to include several Americans in the show/catalogue, including Hartley, Glackens, and Avery. In this banquet of gems, my absolute favorite is a 1892 landscape/seascape by Edvard Munch entitled "The Beach at Nice." Gorgeous color and interesting historic moment that shows the area as a natural wonder absent the resort constructions that were well on the way even at that time.

This book--which can still be occasionally found--is something that belongs in any collection of anyone interested in post-impressionism, modernism and France. It's marvelous to pull it out in the middle of a North American winter and escape into different and wholly wonderful climate and time for a while.