SAM exhibit reveals the "layers of Impressionism"

Ah, Impressionism! A word that brings joy to the hearts of museum administrators with its power to generate box-office magic and gonzo sales at the gift shop. Seattle Art Museum opens a new exhibition on Thursday that manages to get the golden "I" word in the title twice: "Inspiring Impressionism: The Impressionists and the Art of the Past."

Just how important is the word "Impressionism?"

"It's very important, I'm afraid," says British art historian Ann Dumas, co-curator of the show. At London's Royal Academy of Art, where she's an associate curator, some people on the programming committee would be happy to feature Monet in every exhibition, Dumas says. "Impressionism is a very big draw. What I was very happy about here is: Some institutions do shows that don't have a lot of ideas to them. This one does."

"Inspiring Impressionism" brings together nearly 100 paintings and works on paper, some by Impressionists Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne, Mary Cassatt, Alfred Sisley, et al. The rest of the artworks were created by earlier masters — El Greco, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Francisco de Goya, Jean-Siméon Chardin, Diego Velázquez, Frans Hals, to name a few — whose work was the object of study and emulation by the Impressionists. Dumas organized the show with Timothy Standring of the Denver Art Museum, where it opened last year. "Inspiring Impressionism" comes to Seattle from the High Art Museum in Atlanta and was curated here by SAM's European art specialist Chiyo Ishikawa.

For 19th-century artists, it was standard practice to learn by copying artworks at the Louvre or in Italian churches. In "Inspiring Impressionism," the old master artworks go hand in hand with related Impressionist pieces to demonstrate the way traditions were carried on, even by artists perceived as radically different. Those who got lumped together under the name "Impressionist" gave up the notion of academic precision and experimented with something more subjective — "the impression" of things. They didn't mind blurry boundaries, wavering lines, messy thickets of brushmarks and jolts of unexpected color. The public was shocked, of course. Scourged as radical, even degenerate at first, Impressionist paintings have since become the eye candy of the masses and the gold standard of the art market. Who doesn't love looking at Degas women, Monet landscapes, Renoir nudes, Cassatt children, Cezanne still lifes?

Impressions of the past

If "Inspiring Impressionism" sounds like déjà vu all over again, it kind of is. Dumas co-curated SAM's 1999 blockbuster "Impressionism: Paintings Collected by European Museums," which brought together lesser-known paintings by practitioners of the style. And the concept Dumas chose this time is something along the lines of the way Paul Allen's collection was presented in "Double Take: From Monet to Lichtenstein" at EMP in 2006. There, paintings from different periods, including a fair share of Impressionists, were paired up to reveal their similarities, like an art history lesson.

In a recent phone call, I asked Dumas if that's what she had in mind for this show.

"There's an element of it. I don't like to use the word 'lesson,' " she said. "I think it is more enriching for people to learn about the layers in Impressionism. I think we have managed to bring together some rather spectacular paintings. I saw the Paul Allen show and didn't think some of the pairings held up.... We've brought together some very revealing comparisons, judging from reactions at Denver and the High Museum. I think even if you don't care about the story the exhibition is trying to tell, there are some absolutely sumptuous paintings you don't often have the opportunity to see."

The story is simple: No matter how radical art seems, it's never entirely new. "[The Impressionists] saw themselves as breaking with convention. But actually when you look into Impressionism, it's much more complex than it appears on the surface," says Dumas. "Most of the artists were deeply rooted in the art of the past. This isn't surprising because even artists like Andy Warhol are rooted in the past in one way or another. I was interested in exploring that in some depth: what being inspired by the past meant to Impressionists. It meant really rejecting the traditions of the Italian Renaissance and particularly Raphael: His precise and clean outlines and draftsmanship were the standards adhered to by the Salon."

Show highlights

What exactly will we be seeing? Dumas pointed out some highlights of the show:

"There's a rather remarkable picture by Berthe Morisot that is a copy, a detail in fact of some figures by Boucher, the French 18th-century artist, that she copied when she was quite mature. Her brushwork is light and frothy and particularly impressionistic, but actually her technique is much closer to the 18th century. She copied this in the Louvre and never sold it. She had it hanging over her fireplace. It was quite difficult to borrow — it's in a private collection — but I think it shows an unusual side of Morisot."

She also singled out an exceptional Cezanne, "Still life with Apples and Oranges" — "It's one of his late works. I think it's a really magnificent example, very baroque in feeling, set against a white patterned cloth, full of color and richness typical of his work" — and a striking El Greco, "Lady in a Fur Wrap."

"The reason we chose that is because Cezanne actually copied it as a young artist, but his is quite crude whereas the El Greco is a very beautiful, refined painting. The private owner of the Cezanne wouldn't lend, but the El Greco stands for the kind of Spanish painting the Impressionists admired. It's a masterpiece with the fur and velvet against the woman's skin."

Why we love it

Yes, those old masters made gorgeous paintings, all right. But what is it that makes today's audiences go nuts for Impressionism?

"It led to a freeing up and much brighter color," Dumas said. "It led to breaking a lot of rules, so subjective vision became paramount. Before artists were painting to prescriptions really, historical or biblical ... Impressionism is a turning point in art, that made possible the work of van Gogh, Gauguin, Picasso."

Dumas says she's concerned that the tremendous popularity of Impressionism has in a way done it a disservice: "Because it's so attractive and easy to appreciate, the depth and complexity has gotten ironed out. I hope it has been restored with this exhibition."

Sheila Farr: sfarr@seattletimes.com