I would rather die of passion than of boredom - V. van Gogh.
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Van Gogh’s Nights
3 nights, 3 different worlds.
He didn’t just paint what he saw. He painted how the night made him feel.
A café in Arles. A sky full of stars. The lights of the Rhône on the water.
Which one inspires you the most?
Ramon Casas, The Lazy Morning, 1900
A simple pleasure like enjoying a lazy morning becomes something universal.
Casas translates Parisian and bohemian sophistication to 1900s Barcelona.
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Zinaida Serebriakova is now recognised as one of Russia’s major women painters.
Her talent was never in doubt.
Is she still underrated?
Did Monet know his failing eyesight would influence modern art?
Did he care?
Impressionism and Post-Impressionism marked the shift from traditional painting to modern art.
Worth remembering:
🔹Cézanne → Cubism. Picasso and Braque broke forms into geometric shapes.
🔹Van Gogh → Expressionism. Colours and brushwork influenced artists such as Kirchner and Kandinsky.
🔹Monet → Abstract art. His late Water Lilies anticipated artists such as Rothko.
But the influence went much further 👇
Pablo Picasso: "Cézanne is the father of us all."
Without Cezanne, CUBISM simply would not have existed.
Modern art arrives from traditional art thanks to the bridge of Impressionism.
Impressionism and Post-Impressionism marked the shift from traditional painting to modern art.
Worth remembering:
🔹Cézanne → Cubism. Picasso and Braque broke forms into geometric shapes.
🔹Van Gogh → Expressionism. Colours and brushwork influenced artists such as Kirchner and Kandinsky.
🔹Monet → Abstract art. His late Water Lilies anticipated artists such as Rothko.
But the influence went much further 👇
Impressionism and Post-Impressionism marked the shift from traditional painting to modern art.
Worth remembering:
🔹Cézanne → Cubism. Picasso and Braque broke forms into geometric shapes.
🔹Van Gogh → Expressionism. Colours and brushwork influenced artists such as Kirchner and Kandinsky.
🔹Monet → Abstract art. His late Water Lilies anticipated artists such as Rothko.
But the influence went much further 👇
2/2
Modern art didn't emerge from a single artist or movement:
🔹Toulouse-Lautrec → modern graphic art. His posters helped reshape illustration and graphic design.
🔹Gauguin → Fauvism. Matisse and Derain took his bold use of colour further.
🔹Pissarro and Seurat → Neo-Impressionism. They used dots (Pointillism) and small strokes of colour to explore how we perceive light.
🔹Gauguin → Symbolism and the Nabis. Bonnard and Vuillard explored simplified forms and decorative colour.
🔹Van Gogh → Klimt’s landscapes. A visual connection worth exploring.
🔹 Renoir → Modernism. His later nudes influenced artists such as Picasso and Matisse.
Moder art grew from many experiments that challenged how painting should look.
Which artist got you into art?
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Gustav Klimt, On Lake Attersee, 1900
Klimt spent his first summer at this Austrian lake in 1900.
Away from Vienna, he could take a break from commissions and paint what he wanted. No gold. Just nature and the freedom to experiment.
Did Klimt paint some of his best work when he was painting for himself?
Sunset by Ivan Aivazovsky
Aivazovsky painted over 6,000 seascapes, and almost none of them were painted outdoors.
He did it all from memory.
Underrated?
What would you do differently if money didn't matter?
Klimt had a double life.
In Vienna, he painted gold-covered portraits for wealthy clients. There were deadlines, pressure to deliver, and public scandals.
But every summer, he went to Lake Attersee to relax and paint the landscape. No gold leaf. Just water, trees and quiet villages.
Do we become different people when we're free from obligations?
Gustav Klimt, On Lake Attersee, 1900
Klimt spent his first summer at this Austrian lake in 1900.
Away from Vienna, he could take a break from commissions and paint what he wanted. No gold. Just nature and the freedom to experiment.
Did Klimt paint some of his best work when he was painting for himself?
Gustav Klimt, On Lake Attersee, 1900
Klimt spent his first summer at this Austrian lake in 1900.
Away from Vienna, he could take a break from commissions and paint what he wanted. No gold. Just nature and the freedom to experiment.
Did Klimt paint some of his best work when he was painting for himself?
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In 1877, Monet was far from famous.
Two young children, money problems and a seriously ill wife. Camille died just 2 years later.
Monet needed to sell paintings to support his family.
He threw himself into Gare Saint-Lazare. Smoke, steam, light. He became obsessed.
Painting gave him something to focus on while life outside the studio was hard.
He sold several station paintings within months.
Was painting his refuge, his best chance to earn a living, or both?
Monet’s Iris sold yesterday for €50 million.
Art or speculation?
Art is treated as a financial asset, bought and sold for profit.
Is that fair?
Schiele vs Kandinsky
Two ports, two different styles.
Egon Schiele’s Harbor of Trieste has the lines and forms of Austrian Expressionism.
Kandinsky’s Odessa Port (1898) is still figurative, years before his move towards abstraction.
Same subject, different artistic worlds.
Which do you prefer?
This doesn’t look like a typical Egon Schiele.
He was only 17.
Harbor of Trieste, 1907, shows a different side of the artist. No twisted bodies or raw portraits. Just boats and reflections on the water.
Even here, you can see him searching for his own style.
Japanese Bridge by Monet
Same bridge. Same painter. More than 20 years apart.
1899 vs. 1922
In 1912, doctors found cataracts in both of Monet’s eyes.
Researchers believe they helped push his greens and blues toward reds and oranges.
He painted what he saw.
Monet vs Van Gogh: Poppy Fields
Monet paints poppies in Argenteuil, with his wife and son strolling through the summer landscape.
Van Gogh uses stronger colours and brushstrokes to give his poppy field a different feel.
Same flowers, different eyes.
Monet or Van Gogh?
Gustave Caillebotte, Sunflowers on the Banks of the Seine
Everyone knows Monet created the gardens at Giverny.
Few know who fueled that obsession: his best friend, Caillebotte.
Caillebotte was loaded and turned his property into a botanical paradise.
The two spent hours debating soil, seeds, and fertilizers.
Caillebotte’s home inspired Monet to create Giverny years later.
Konstantin Korovin, Paris Boulevard.
When Korovin first visited Paris in 1885, Impressionism was a revelation.
He later wrote that he had found in the Impressionists everything he had been criticised for back in Moscow.
He didn't just paint Paris. He made it move.
Renoir, The Umbrellas, 1881–86
Renoir started it as an Impressionist.
Then came a creative crisis and a trip to Italy. The Renaissance changed how he saw art.
Four years later, he returned to the canvas with a more classical approach and echoes of Japanese art.
Impressionism, Renaissance and Japonism, all in one painting.
