Impressionist works and iconic paintings

First titled The Bath, this painting was part of the Salon des Refusés in 1863. The public of the day was shocked by the nudity of the woman set against the clothed men. A founding work of the Impressionist movement, one that opened the way for an entire generation of painters.

This canvas depicts La Grenouillère, a fashionable spot of the time on the banks of the Seine. It included a restaurant and was a favorite summer destination for bathing and boating. Renoir contributed greatly to the Impressionist body of work, as this painting, chosen among many, attests.

Edgar Degas chose to paint a place that captured the cultural and social life of Paris at the time: the Opéra on rue Le Peletier. The scene shows a dance studio in the midst of a ballet rehearsal. This work conveys life in movement, a theme dear to the painter.

Through this canvas, Berthe Morisot evokes the theme of motherhood and all the tenderness of a mother toward her child. A work that expresses the delicacy of a woman painter in a world then largely dominated by men.

Alfred Sisley painted the bridge and the banks of the Seine along Villeneuve-la-Garenne in summer. He also painted Banks of the Seine, Villeneuve-la-Garenne. The play of light is a constant in Impressionist work, and Sisley meets the challenge with brilliance.

Pissarro chose to paint a simple, unadorned nature: a countryside covered in frost as the sun rises, with a peasant making his way, laden with a bundle of wood. This work belongs to a flourishing period for the Impressionist movement.

At this time, Paul Cézanne was deeply influenced by Impressionist work and set out to analyze the style in search of his own. He was guided by Camille Pissarro, whom he joined at Pontoise in 1872, and then by Vincent van Gogh in 1873 at Auvers-sur-Oise. A truly fascinating painting, a witness to a period of intense exploration.

Manet paints a portrait of his friend Claude Monet as the latter is himself painting aboard his boat at Argenteuil. A picture within a picture that captures the heart of Impressionism: the work is painted before the subject itself, no longer in the studio.

Who does not know this painting, among the most famous of all Impressionist works? It was shown at the Impressionist Salon of 1877. Renoir painted some of his friends among the crowd, capturing a scene full of joyful, luminous atmosphere.

Alfred Sisley painted the bridge at Moret-sur-Loing, a town that has kept traces of its medieval history through ramparts that recall its fortifications. The painter devoted a series to this town where he lived and where he died in 1899.