Impressionism and fashion on display at the Orsay Museum Automatic translate

An exhibition “Impressionism and Fashion” has opened at the Orsay Museum in Paris, which displays 60 masterpieces by artists such as Manet, Renoir and Degas. The exposition is dedicated to the history of male and female costume.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Paris was not only the capital of modern architecture, but also concentrated the whole color of artistic Europe, including the best representatives of the fashion industry. Impressionism gratefully met such sentiments. The same trend can be observed in costumes of Parisian dandies of those years, also presented as part of the exhibition.

“The Impressionists fed on fashionable ideas, but brought their own vision into them,” said Gloria Groom, curator of the exhibition, an employee of the Art Institute in Chicago. “In paintings inspired by fashion, we see a lot of white, black and blue colors that best allow you to play with light,” she continues.

One of the most outstanding works at the exhibition is Claude Monet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe, but there are many works by other impressionists: Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Gustave Caillebotte and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The success of the exhibition, according to its organizers, is in the original combination of works of art, original costumes and photographs of that time. The implementation of such an unusual project was made possible with the assistance of the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute de Chicago) and the Gallery - Paris Fashion Museum (Museo Galliera de la Moda de la Ciudad de París).

“It is very good that the exhibition, in addition to the works of the impressionist men, presents paintings by Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot and Eva Gozalès, because their relationship with fashion is completely different,” Gloria noted Groom. “The work of these artists is distinguished by the fact that women are portrayed in a more intimate situation, focusing on accessories, shoes, hats.”

The opening of the exhibition coincided with the first day of high fashion week in Paris, thus combining the art of painting and the art of sewing.

Anna Sidorova