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| The French Connection: Impressionism in French and American Pottery Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum 2220 N. Terrace Avenue, Milwaukee August 23 – October 29 |
The term “Impressionism,” especially in the context of
an art exhibition, conjures up mental images of
canvases sparkling with flickering brushstrokes, high-
keyed color, plus tremendously long entrance lines to
the show and the obligatory gift shop at the end,
stocked full of such tourist paraphernalia as
postcards, coffee mugs, and even water-lily covered
umbrellas.
Impressionism is a movement associated with a
group of artists in the 1870s and 1880s in Paris. The
term “Impressionism,” derived from the title of a
canvas by Claude Monet at the first Impressionist
exhibition in 1874, was not a popular term with the
artists, and it was not a popular style with the public.
Actually, it was laughable and a preposterous offering
of art – these slapdash creations which bore little of
the obvious craftsmanship and technique displayed by
other mainstream artists of the time.
It took a while, but Impressionism did catch on and
gained the cachet of being “modern.” And it developed
prestige in America as well, but well after its advent in
France. This exhibition at Villa Terrace provides a link
between international practices in this painterly style,
but in the medium of pottery.
an art exhibition, conjures up mental images of
canvases sparkling with flickering brushstrokes, high-
keyed color, plus tremendously long entrance lines to
the show and the obligatory gift shop at the end,
stocked full of such tourist paraphernalia as
postcards, coffee mugs, and even water-lily covered
umbrellas.
Impressionism is a movement associated with a
group of artists in the 1870s and 1880s in Paris. The
term “Impressionism,” derived from the title of a
canvas by Claude Monet at the first Impressionist
exhibition in 1874, was not a popular term with the
artists, and it was not a popular style with the public.
Actually, it was laughable and a preposterous offering
of art – these slapdash creations which bore little of
the obvious craftsmanship and technique displayed by
other mainstream artists of the time.
It took a while, but Impressionism did catch on and
gained the cachet of being “modern.” And it developed
prestige in America as well, but well after its advent in
France. This exhibition at Villa Terrace provides a link
between international practices in this painterly style,
but in the medium of pottery.
| Installation view |
The exhibition is displayed through multiple rooms and presents the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in
Philadelphia as the nexus. Impressionist pieces from the Haviland Company of Limoges were
displayed, and American potters took up similar themes and motifs. A small but scholarly catalogue
accompanies the exhibition, but unfortunately its rigor and detail is largely missing from the installation
rooms, as there is little in the way of text or didactic aids to provide historical or artistic context.
Philadelphia as the nexus. Impressionist pieces from the Haviland Company of Limoges were
displayed, and American potters took up similar themes and motifs. A small but scholarly catalogue
accompanies the exhibition, but unfortunately its rigor and detail is largely missing from the installation
rooms, as there is little in the way of text or didactic aids to provide historical or artistic context.
| Terra cotta charger, signed Curly M. Produced by Haviland, 1876-82. |
| Portrait of a Woman (1876-1882) Signed Felix Lafond by Haviland. |
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The pieces in this exhibition come in a variety of shapes
and sizes. There is unity in their subjects through the
predominant display of nature motifs – pink flowers abound
and vines wind around the round bodies of many vases.
The Impressionist connection comes largely through the
depiction of these elements via heavy textures and light
pastel hues. Within this display, the decorative properties of
Impressionism – those qualities that make exhibition
souvenirs so ubiquitously appealing – are amplified.
In the field of Impressionist painting, figures such as Monet
and Camille Pissarro, arguable the two who were most
devoted to landscape painting – used the natural world as a
platform to investigate fleeting qualities of light and the
physical disciplines of composition. There are a couple of
pieces that seem to reflect the work of these two artists,
such as a charger whose stippled and rounded textures
recall the surface treatment of Pissarro’s windblown
landscapes.
Two exhibition highlights depart from the floral and nature
motifs prevalent in the exhibition. The impressive, over
three-foot high Centennial Urn portrays a proud pair of
peacocks. The curious and flattened birds, with round
bodies in profile linked by a graceful curving neck to a profile
head, deviate from naturalistic depth and reflect the taste for
Japanisme or Asian art at the time.
Another unusual piece in the exhibition is a vase titled
Portrait of a Woman. It is a light, delicate image, something
that one would expect to see in the art of Auguste Renoir.
But, the rhythmic surface reaches back even further to the
eighteenth-century paintings of Antoine Watteau. But there
is an Impressionist lineage here, for Renoir was deeply
influenced by the Rococo works of artists such as Watteau.
It was also Renoir who maintained that art should be pretty,
for there are enough ugly things in the world.
It seems that rather than the theoretical investigations the
practice of Impressionism allowed artists such as Monet
and Pissarro, the quality of prettiness as espoused by
Renoir is what truly resonated with these creators of art
pottery in the late nineteenth century, and it is this sentiment
that decorates the surface of this exhibition.
- K. M. Murrell
(Katherine Murrell is a co-publisher of Susceptible to
Images).
Comments? Email kmmurrell@susceptibletoimages.com
and sizes. There is unity in their subjects through the
predominant display of nature motifs – pink flowers abound
and vines wind around the round bodies of many vases.
The Impressionist connection comes largely through the
depiction of these elements via heavy textures and light
pastel hues. Within this display, the decorative properties of
Impressionism – those qualities that make exhibition
souvenirs so ubiquitously appealing – are amplified.
In the field of Impressionist painting, figures such as Monet
and Camille Pissarro, arguable the two who were most
devoted to landscape painting – used the natural world as a
platform to investigate fleeting qualities of light and the
physical disciplines of composition. There are a couple of
pieces that seem to reflect the work of these two artists,
such as a charger whose stippled and rounded textures
recall the surface treatment of Pissarro’s windblown
landscapes.
Two exhibition highlights depart from the floral and nature
motifs prevalent in the exhibition. The impressive, over
three-foot high Centennial Urn portrays a proud pair of
peacocks. The curious and flattened birds, with round
bodies in profile linked by a graceful curving neck to a profile
head, deviate from naturalistic depth and reflect the taste for
Japanisme or Asian art at the time.
Another unusual piece in the exhibition is a vase titled
Portrait of a Woman. It is a light, delicate image, something
that one would expect to see in the art of Auguste Renoir.
But, the rhythmic surface reaches back even further to the
eighteenth-century paintings of Antoine Watteau. But there
is an Impressionist lineage here, for Renoir was deeply
influenced by the Rococo works of artists such as Watteau.
It was also Renoir who maintained that art should be pretty,
for there are enough ugly things in the world.
It seems that rather than the theoretical investigations the
practice of Impressionism allowed artists such as Monet
and Pissarro, the quality of prettiness as espoused by
Renoir is what truly resonated with these creators of art
pottery in the late nineteenth century, and it is this sentiment
that decorates the surface of this exhibition.
- K. M. Murrell
(Katherine Murrell is a co-publisher of Susceptible to
Images).
Comments? Email kmmurrell@susceptibletoimages.com
susceptible to images
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| Centennial Urn |