EXHIBITION OVERVIEW

Held in celebration of the Tokyo Fuji Art Musuem’s 30th anniversary, “Impressionists at the Waterside—Depicting Urban Resorts: Paris, the Seine, and Normandy,” features some 80 works of such timeless art as “Dance at Bougival” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) and “The Japanese Bridge” by Claude Monet (1840-1926). Among the exhibited pieces are those on loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, USA; Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France; and Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne, Germany. The Impressionism movement flourished in the second half of the 19th century and it corresponded with a growing association of the waterside, particularly in France, with leisure and recreation, enriching the quality of people’s lives. Impressionists at the Waterside is a two-part exhibition, the first focusing on Impressionist painters and their works featuring the Seine, a motif inspired as much from the uniquely eloquent depictions of reflections on the water as it was from the simple, yet elegant lifestyles of Parisians drawn to the river and nearby resorts that sprung along it. The second part introduces artists and their paintings of the beautiful swimming beaches, villas and hotels, sheer cliffs and bustling ports along the 600-kilometer Normandy coastline. “Impressionists at the Waterside” also attempts to explore light and landscapes—two salient characteristics of Impressionist paintings—by examining the lives of urbanites in 19th-century France through a unique thematic perspective of resorts and the pursuit of a more leisurely life.