Les Impressionnistes à Londres / Impressionists in London: the layout of the exhibition

The exhibition Les Impressionnistes à Londres / Impressionists in London begins with the reasons why these artists came to London: France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

A brief historical reminder: in spite of the French Emperor's surrender after defeat at Sedan, fighting continued until the Prussian army attacked Paris on 19 September 1870, beginning the Siege of Paris. For several months, the population was subjected to a war of waiting, exacerbated by the rigours of a cold winter, lack of food and bombardments.

The armistice was signed on 26 February 1871 and Germany annexed Alsace and part of Lorraine. An intolerable decision for Parisians who rose up against the French government. The Paris Commune was proclaimed.

In May 1871, the government armies put an end to this insurrection in Paris: there were no less than 20,000 victims and major monuments were burned down. This became known as "Bloody Week".
This room presents a series of works to shed light on this difficult episode in the history of Paris.
 

This third room presents works by Monet, Pissarro and Daubigny, three artists in the circle of future Impressionists.

With its thriving art market, London was an attractive destination for artists in exile. The landscape painter Charles-François Daubigny met Paul Durand-Ruel who had opened a gallery on New Bond Street. His gallery became a base for promoting French painting, especially the Barbizon school.

Monet arrived in the autumn of 1870 but painted only six views of London parks and the Thames. His works were deemed too out-of-step with the English art scene; they were not what the English art market was looking for and, in spite of encouragement from Daubigny, Monet was disheartened and left London in 1871.

Camille Pissarro joined up with some close relatives in London where he used to frequent the French quarter between Soho and Leicester Square. He married his wife on June 14, 1871.
 

This 5th room presents works by James Tissot (1836-1902), dandy and painter of city life, whose first name was actually Jacques Joseph. He lived in England for eleven years and was highly successful.

The paintings he did in England show how Tissot adapted his style to suit a public that was fond of genre scenes.

His meticulous representations of contemporary life offer a nuanced and slightly ironic view of England's social rituals.

As a painter of city life, Tissot attached great importance to fashion and the complex rules of etiquette dictated by high society.

His commercial popularity continued after he returned to France in 1882.

The second section focuses on the career of the sculptor and former communard Jules Dalou, who was forced to move to London for a period of eight years.

Warmly welcomed by his English counterparts, Jules Dalou exhibited a terracotta statuette, Le Jour des rameaux in Boulogne (Palm Sunday in Boulogne), at the Royal Academy in 1872. It was the first of a series of highly successful works.

The subjects that Dalou modelled usually involved intimate matters. His clients saw him as an artist in the tradition of 18th century French sculptors. His mastery of modelling, and the combination of realism and charm that characterised his English works, influenced a whole generation of students.

This 9th room features the series of views of the Houses of Parliament that Monet painted from the window of his room in the Savoy Hotel.

Monet first painted Westminister Palace in 1871. In 1900, the year he turned sixty, Monet had an urge to revisit subjects on which he had previously worked "to recapture in one canvas, sometimes two, the impressions and feelings [he] had had in the past.

Maintaining the same point of view from one canvas to another, the artist strove to capture the infinite variations of that very distinctive light where the river and the sky meet.