[Review] For its exhibition “With All the Senses! French Paintings,” the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart presents 60 selected Impressionist pieces, some never before displayed in public. The show fascinates with a fresh concept of exhibition-making, appealing to all senses, both online and onsite.
The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, one of Germany’s leading art institutions, possesses approximately 5,000 paintings and sculptures from the Middle Ages to the present. In the course of its ongoing show “With All the Senses! French Paintings,” 60 Impressionist masterpieces, partly originating from anonymous private collections and scarcely presented in public before, invite visitors to experience a holistic journey addressing all the senses.
The Impressionists, a collective of innovative, free-spirited, like-minded French painters, revolutionized the art world in the late nineteenth century. Displeased with prevailing academic provisions and standards, they detached from the prestigious Salon de Paris, the art show organized by the Parisian Académie des Beaux-Arts, and set up their own independent exhibitions. Initially mocked by critics due to their “unfinished,” sketchy way of painting, they eventually gained public recognition over time. Today, Impressionist works can be classified as highly sought-after objects, regularly fetching record sums at international art auctions.
In the context of “With All the Senses! French Paintings,” the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart presents precious pieces by most renowned French Impressionists such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, and Édouard Manet. Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt, the two main female representatives of the versatile nineteenth-century art epoch, are on display in Stuttgart as well. Accounting for the Impressionists’ approach of conveying the atmosphere felt in front of their subjects, the Staatsgalerie encourages visitors to experience the pieces on exhibit with all their senses. What could a gaily colored flower meadow in one of Monet’s numerous landscape canvases have smelled like? How could it have felt to slowly stride through the dull-green grass displayed in one of his works? What might the breaking waves portrayed in multiple of the artist’s ocean paintings have sounded like when hitting the shore?
For visitors to holistically experience the artwork, the exhibition’s organizers — led by museum director Christiane Lange and curator Christofer Conrad — dedicated every month to a particular sense. When, for instance, taste was the subject of interest in October, a new recipe for one of Monet’s favorite dishes was revealed under the hashtag #cookitlikemonet on the museum’s Instagram account every week. In talks regarding hearing, the online community was invited to name a song they associated with Pissarro’s “The Seine Near Port Marly” (1872). Various tunes, including “Roscoe” by Midlake and “River” by Leon Bridges were later released in a Spotify (an audio streaming provider) playlist.
In regard to the Impressionist pieces on exhibit, “With All the Senses! French Paintings” impresses with a broad variety of selected high-class masterworks. There is, to name but one example, Pissarro’s “Rouen, Place de la Republique in the Rain,” dating back to 1883. In a sense reminiscent of Renoir’s “Pont Neuf, Paris” from 1872, it captures a fleeting moment that is well poised to live on as a snapshot in history. Depicting the hustle of a busy town square in Rouen during a heavy rain shower in the late nineteenth century, the work comprises multiple Impressionist hallmarks: rapid and visible brushwork, blurriness, and, most importantly, liveliness captured en plein air, meaning outdoors, directly in front of the subject. As viewers observe the artwork, they could very likely be driven by the desire to step into the piece to experience the bustle of Rouen’s Place de la Republique themselves with all the sounds, scents, impressions, and sensations a hustling port town of 1883 might offer.
Visitors also have the possibility to observe a typical Edgar Degas painting picturing two Paris Opera ballerinas backstage: “Two Dancers Resting,” created in 1874. Catching the young girls in an allegedly unobserved moment, the artist shows them unadorned and honest, while scratching their backs and adjusting their ballet slippers. The painting perfectly displays Degas’s talent of capturing motion as well as his fervor for depicting genuine and sincere moments and his overall passion for ballet. Beyond that, “With All the Senses! French Paintings” features further top-level Impressionist works such as an almost obligatory water lily painting by Claude Monet dating to 1907, on loan from the Parisian Musée Marmottan Monet, and Morisot’s “Nurse and Baby (Blanche Pontillon)” (1872). Another highlight is Renoir’s “The Greenhouse” from 1876.
Overall, “With All the Senses! French Paintings” fascinates with a new, modern, and fresh approach to the concept of exhibition-making, particularly appealing to a younger target group (keywords “Instagram” and “Spotify”). Especially in times of social distancing and remaining at home due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the online offering around this Impressionist show delivers a great alternative to the classic physical museum visit. The organizers made every effort to create a wonderful world of the senses.
The exhibition “With All the Senses! French Paintings” at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart will run until July 4, 2021.
Website: Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
Interview with Prof. Dr. Christiane Lange, director of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
