Floor plan

East wing: The Nineteenth CenturyImpressionism

Impressionism

Conversation: Ludovic Halévy and Madame Cardinal (The Conversation) for "La Famille Cardinal" by Ludovic Halévy, by Edgar Degas, c. 1880–83
A Woman Seated at a Bench on the Avenue du Bois, by Berthe Morisot, 1885
Two girls in acrobatic uniforms stand in an arena, one holds oranges.
Painting composed of short, dense brushstrokes depicts two domed stacks of wheat that cast long shadows on a field. The angled light indicates either a rising or setting sun.
Painted portrait dominated by loose, large brushstrokes of a woman, seen from the back, wearing a gauzy white off-the-shoulder dress and black choker, blond hair swept up, examining herself in a mirror at left. The background is a feathered swirl suggesting floral pattern in cool pale tones of gray, purple, pink, and blue.
A work made of oil on canvas.
From a high perspective, we look beyond two overlapping, emerald-green hills to a body of powder-blue water dotted with sailboats in this loosely painted horizontal landscape. Closest to us, the hills create a shallow V that spans the lower third of the composition, with the right-hand hill rising to more than halfway up the right edge. The hills are painted with dashes and long strokes mostly in seafoam, shamrock, and celery green, with some swipes of peach, goldenrod yellow, and royal blue. On the hill to our left, one woman sits and the other stands next to her. They wear hats, long-sleeved, fitted jackets, and long skirts in tones of dusky pink and dove gray. A touch of peach on the seated woman, to our left, gives the impression of a pale face. A red veil or scarf at the back of the other woman’s hat is lifted, as if in the wind. The water is painted with blended strokes of pale blue, light turquoise, smoky mauve pink, and touches of soft peach. The horizon comes two-thirds of the way up the composition, and the sky is painted with the same tones of blue, green, and peach to suggest a screen of clouds. Triangles and dashes of slate blue suggest about three dozen sailboats, rowboats, and one steamship in the rippling water. Squiggles of teal and sage green create reflections for some of the boats. The brushstrokes are visible throughout. In some areas, the paint is so thinly applied that the texture of the canvas shows through, especially in the sky. The artist signed the work in the lower left corner: “Claude Monet 82.”

The works in this room are listed below.

Works in this room

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

First room, north 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. 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
  3. Two girls in acrobatic uniforms stand in an arena, one holds oranges.
    Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando (Francisca and Angelina Wartenberg)Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1879Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  4. Painting composed of short, dense brushstrokes depicts two domed stacks of wheat that cast long shadows on a field. The angled light indicates either a rising or setting sun.
    Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer)Claude Monet, 1890–91Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

First room, south wall

  1. Painted portrait dominated by loose, large brushstrokes of a woman, seen from the back, wearing a gauzy white off-the-shoulder dress and black choker, blond hair swept up, examining herself in a mirror at left. The background is a feathered swirl suggesting floral pattern in cool pale tones of gray, purple, pink, and blue.
    Woman at Her ToiletteBerthe Morisot, 1875–80Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. A work made of oil on canvas.
    Alfred SisleyPierre-Auguste Renoir, 1876Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  3. From a high perspective, we look beyond two overlapping, emerald-green hills to a body of powder-blue water dotted with sailboats in this loosely painted horizontal landscape. Closest to us, the hills create a shallow V that spans the lower third of the composition, with the right-hand hill rising to more than halfway up the right edge. The hills are painted with dashes and long strokes mostly in seafoam, shamrock, and celery green, with some swipes of peach, goldenrod yellow, and royal blue. On the hill to our left, one woman sits and the other stands next to her. They wear hats, long-sleeved, fitted jackets, and long skirts in tones of dusky pink and dove gray. A touch of peach on the seated woman, to our left, gives the impression of a pale face. A red veil or scarf at the back of the other woman’s hat is lifted, as if in the wind. The water is painted with blended strokes of pale blue, light turquoise, smoky mauve pink, and touches of soft peach. The horizon comes two-thirds of the way up the composition, and the sky is painted with the same tones of blue, green, and peach to suggest a screen of clouds. Triangles and dashes of slate blue suggest about three dozen sailboats, rowboats, and one steamship in the rippling water. Squiggles of teal and sage green create reflections for some of the boats. The brushstrokes are visible throughout. In some areas, the paint is so thinly applied that the texture of the canvas shows through, especially in the sky. The artist signed the work in the lower left corner: “Claude Monet 82.”
    Cliffs at PourvilleClaude Monet, 1882Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Second room, south wall

  1. Shown from the chest up, a pale-skinned man in a suit sits in a high-backed chair, looking slightly to our right in this vertical portrait painting. His eyes and head are both turned slightly to our right, with only one ear visible on our left. His shoulder on our right and the right side of the chair are slightly cut off by the edge of the painting. He has a straight nose, high cheekbones, and pale pink closed lips. His eyes are dark, with small shadows beneath them. His black, wavy hair is parted on our right and cropped short on the sides of his head, with thick, defined waves on top. He has a light brown mustache that extends past the edge of his lips and flips up at the ends and a small, thin goatee. Beneath his chin, the collar of his white shirt is visible. The man wears an open suit jacket with a black vest, which folds slightly just below his chest, revealing a glimpse of his white shirt beneath it in a gap between buttons. The chair is only visible from the man’s shoulders up and ends at his forehead. It has a curved, round top back with a red frame and dark green upholstery. The part of the red frame on the right side of the painting has white and yellow highlights. The background is dark gray with visible brushstrokes. The artist signed and dated the painting at the top left, “F. Bazille. 1866.”
    Edouard BlauFrédéric Bazille, probably 1869Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. We look up at the exterior of a church that soars the height of this vertical painting. The church is painted with visible dabs and strokes of azure blue, peach, lavender purple, and camel brown to create a blurred look, as if seeing a reflection in the rippling surface of a puddle. The church façade is angled to our left, away from us. The main door and its surround takes up the center of the composition, where a rectangular door is set within nested, pointed arches that lead up to a narrow, tall, triangular gable. The point of that gable overlaps the round, dark rose window, which is the same width as the portal surround below. Spires flank the central section and rise precipitously off the top edge of the painting. The sky above is painted with daubs of white and pale blue. The artist signed and dated the lower left, “Claude Monet 94.”
    Rouen Cathedral, West FaçadeClaude Monet, 1894Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  3. Fishmarket, by Camille Pissarro, 1902
    FishmarketCamille Pissarro, 1902Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  4. Estérel Village, by Edgar Degas, c. 1890
    Estérel VillageEdgar Degas, c. 1890Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art

Second room, north wall

  1. 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
  2. Life-size painting of an urban scene in Paris. A man in a top hat holding an umbrella and a woman in a long fashionable dark dress walk arm in arm toward the viewer as other city dwellers with umbrellas walk in various directions across cobblestone roads and sidewalks.
    Paris Street; Rainy DayGustave Caillebotte, 1877Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  3. Sheet of Studies and Sketches, by Edgar Degas, 1858
    Sheet of Studies and SketchesEdgar Degas, 1858Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art

Third room, north wall

  1. This painting shows a young woman's upper body from the torso up. She is seated and facing the right, with her face seen in profile and one arm bent in front of her, seeming to rest on a brown table or surface. She has pale skin, round, rosy cheeks, a small nose, and pink lips that are slightly parted. Her brown hair is styled into a smooth, glossy bun at the nape of her neck. She is wearing a white garment with thin straps over her shoulders. The background features a yellow section on the bottom half, and on the top half is a colorful, abstract pattern with large, soft, swirling forms in shades of orange and red on a blue-gray background with hints of green.
    Head of a Young GirlPierre-Auguste Renoir, c. 1890Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. The Daughters of Catulle Mendès, Huguette (1871–1964), Claudine (1876–1937), and Helyonne (1879–1955), by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1888
    The Daughters of Catulle Mendès, Huguette (1871–1964), Claudine (1876–1937), and Helyonne (1879–1955)Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1888Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art