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Impressionism

Painters in 1870s Paris who worked quickly, often outdoors, to catch light as it changed.

53 works · hang 4262 ·

The rooms are imagined; every work on their walls is real.

Walk this roomRehang this room

First room, north wall

  1. A work made of oil on canvas.
    The LaundressPierre-Auguste Renoir, 1877–79Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. Impressionist painting of seated man, girl with brown, black hues.
    Henri Degas and His Niece Lucie Degas (The Artist's Uncle and Cousin)Edgar Degas, 1875–76Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  3. A Woman Seated at a Bench on the Avenue du Bois, by Berthe Morisot, 1885
    A Woman Seated at a Bench on the Avenue du BoisBerthe Morisot, 1885Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  4. We look down onto a landscape where several laundry lines have been draped mostly with white sheets or cloth to dry in a flat, grassy yard in front of a rustic house and a distant town in this horizontal painting. The scene is created entirely with thick, visible brushstrokes that creates a sense of texture on the canvas’s surface and makes many details difficult to make out. The forms of at least three women wearing skirts hang laundry out along the lines, and a person wearing trousers tends to a flat piece of green ground near the lower left corner. A few pieces of white cloth have been draped over the wooden fence that runs along the bottom edge of the canvas. A dove-gray cart with wooden carriage wheels rests, tipped forward, at the center of the laundry lines. To our right and just beyond the laundry lines, a two-story ivory and slate-blue house with a gray peaked roof sits behind a grove of emerald-green trees. The laundry field and the grassy plane beyond is painted with a pale celery green with long, horizontal strokes. Dabs of moss green and a white streak interrupt the field in the distance. Beyond that, touches of steel and silvery-gray paint suggest smokestacks and smoke in a town along the horizon, which comes about three-quarters of the way up this composition. A few patches of vivid blue sky peek through a screen of shell-pink and cream-white clouds above. The artist signed the work in brick-red paint in the lower left corner, “Berthe Morisot.”
    Hanging the Laundry out to DryBerthe Morisot, 1875Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

First room, south wall

  1. Conversation: Ludovic Halévy and Madame Cardinal (The Conversation) for "La Famille Cardinal" by Ludovic Halévy, by Edgar Degas, c. 1880–83
    Conversation: Ludovic Halévy and Madame Cardinal (The Conversation) for "La Famille Cardinal" by Ludovic HalévyEdgar Degas, c. 1880–83Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  2. Roses in a Vase, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, c. 1890
    Roses in a VasePierre-Auguste Renoir, c. 1890Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  3. Three light-skinned, dark-haired ballerinas, painted in muted tones, wear off-the-shoulder yellow leotards and tutus as they huddle near each other. One adjusts her costume, while one holds her hands clasped above her head. At left is a painted screen with four pairs of feet visible underneath.
    Yellow Dancers (In the Wings)Edgar Degas, 1874–76Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  4. In the Omnibus, by Mary Cassatt, 1890–91
    In the OmnibusMary Cassatt, 1890–91Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art

Second room, south wall

  1. A work made of oil on canvas.
    Fruits of the MidiPierre-Auguste Renoir, 1881Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. Sheet of Studies and Sketches, by Edgar Degas, 1858
    Sheet of Studies and SketchesEdgar Degas, 1858Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  3. A work made of oil on canvas.
    VétheuilClaude Monet, 1901Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Second room, north wall

  1. Color pastel drawing of ballerinas in tutus on stage, watched by audience.
    Ballet at the Paris OpéraEdgar Degas, 1877Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. Two groups of people face off in front of a hilly landscape in this loosely painted, vertical scene. On our left, a pale young man in a white tunic looks with eyes wide and lips parted at a group of three people on our right. The young man's right hand, on our left, is raised to stroke the head of a reddish-brown horse at his right shoulder. He stands with feet planted wide, knees bent, and he curls his left hand into a fist. Behind him, a man holds up a fluttering, light blue cape. A mottled red wall forms a backdrop to this scene on our left. The tight group gathered under a tree on our right stares back at the young man. The trio is made up of a balding, older man, a light-skinned boy also wearing a white tunic, and, closest to us, a brown-skinned woman wearing a marigold-orange shirt and a maroon-red skirt. Behind this group, a pair of pale raised arms suggests a fourth person, but the head is missing or has been painted over. The ground under the people is saffron orange. In the center of the picture, beyond the people, a group of horses stands near a green bank by a river, its surface reflecting white. The far bank is lined with white buildings. Tan and olive-green slopes rise from the opposite riverbank under a pale blue sky with cream-white clouds sweeping along the top edge of the composition. The artist signed his name in red paint in the lower right corner: “Degas.”
    Alexander and BucephalusEdgar Degas, 1861/1862Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  3. The Dance Class, by Edgar Degas, 1874
    The Dance ClassEdgar Degas, 1874Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Third room, north wall

  1. Jalais Hill, Pontoise, by Camille Pissarro, 1867
    Jalais Hill, PontoiseCamille Pissarro, 1867Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. A wide creek winds between a tree-lined bank to our left and hazy mountains to our right in this horizontal landscape painting. The riverbank curves deeply like a backward capital letter B. Marshy grasses grow in tufts, and palm and other trees grow in a grove to our left. One brown-skinned person wearing only a white cloth around the hips carries a long stick near the shoreline. Dabs of brown and muted dark pink suggest other people farther along the riverside. Tree-covered boulders jut into the creek from our right. A band of rocky, mountains are smoky mauve-pink across the rightmost two-thirds of the horizon, which comes a third of the way up the composition. The butter-yellow sun is low on the horizon to our right, peeking through the grove of palm trees. The light pours across the placid surface of the creek, creating a soft yellow streak next to the reflection of the mountain ridge. A few heather-pink clouds drift across the pale turquoise sky. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner, “C. Pizarro. 1856. Paris.”
    A Creek in St. Thomas (Virgin Islands)Camille Pissarro, 1856Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington