6 / AMAM.OBERLIN.EDU CONTINUED Paul Cézanne, Camille Pissarro, and Berthe Morisot (one of the fewwomen artists invited to exhibit with the group). This event would later be referred to as the first Impressionist exhibition. The Haussmannization of Paris On April 27, 1867, Monet and Renoir requested permission to paint “views of Paris from the windows of the Louvre.” This effort resulted in Monet’s three paintings, which are the core of the Allen’s exhibition. When Monet was painting these views, Paris was rapidly changing. Like many European cities, Paris was once comprised of narrow, dark, winding streets. During numerous political uprisings (in 1789, 1830, and 1848), revolutionaries used Paris’s medieval streets to their advantage, erectingmakeshift defensive barricades against royal and imperial forces. This changed when Emperor Napoléon III hired Baron GeorgesEugène Haussmann to reenvision Paris as a great imperial city. Napoléon’s plan was twofold: to bringmodern technology and amenities to the city and to widen and regularize city streets. This change not only encouraged the flow of commerce but, more importantly, helped imperial troops suppress political revolts. The “Haussmannization” of Paris brought clean water, modern sewers, and gas lanterns to illuminate the streets—making the fast-growing city much safer andmore hygienic. Haussmann also added scenic parks, theaters, and chic shops; regularized the façades of administrative buildings and apartments; and constructed better hospitals, asylums, and prisons. As much as this development improved Paris for many, it also displaced the working class and pushed vulnerable people to the outskirts of the city. In addition, Haussmann’s radical gentrification cloaked everything in dust and debris for nearly 20 years. While some artists in this exhibition celebrate the myth of modern Paris as the “City of Light,” others, like Honoré Daumier and Charles Marville, show a different side of Haussmann’s Paris. Japan, Paris, and theWorld’s Fair It was at the Japanese Pavilion at Paris’s Exposition Universelle of 1867 that Europeans experienced their first formal exhibition of Japanese arts and crafts. Japanese ports had recently reopened to trade with theWest after a sakoku (closed country) policy that lasted for nearly two centuries. European artists were drawn to the narrow vertical formats of hanging scrolls, as well as the solid areas of bold colors, strong diagonals, and rhythmic patterns in Japanese woodblock prints. Garden of the Princess, Louvre, with its vertical format and sloping, asymmetrical composition, is a significant departure fromMonet’s other Paris cityscapes painted in 1867. The oblique viewpoint and narrow vertical orientation may have been inspired by Japanese prints. Monet’s Cityscapes of 1867 The modern city is the main subject of Monet’s three paintings from the Louvre, romanticizing the beauty of the city rather than focusing on the negative aspects of Haussmannization. Monet captures Paris in a moment of rapid transition—the oldmonuments of previous centuries are juxtaposed with Haussmann’s spacious well-paved boulevards, and the regularized façades of new upscale apartment buildings. Human figures in Monet’s works are reduced to daubs of paint, signifying their movement through an evolving city. Organized by Marlise Brown, Associate Curator of European and American Art Above: Honoré Daumier (French, 1808–1879), Voila donc mon pot de fleurs qui va avoir du soleil... (There now! My flower pot will have some sun...), from the series Les Actualités, 1852. Lithograph. Gift of Eugene L. Garbaty, 1954.145. Left: Utagawa Hiroshige II 二代目歌川広重 (Japanese, 1829–1869), Night Rain at Akasaka Kiribatake (Akasaka Kiribatake uchū yūkei), from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei), 1859. Color woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper. Mary A. Ainsworth Bequest, 1950.1413.
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