The Lens of Impressionism: Photography and Painting Along the Normandy Coast, 1850-1874 December 31, 2009

This exhibition advances a new argument for the origins of what was called "the new painting," namely that a unique convergence of forces-social, artistic, technological, and commercial-along the Normandy coast of France dramatically transformed the course of photography and painting (as well as of the region itself). Within this framework, the invention of the camera and the development of early fine art photography in that particular setting will be seen as the specific catalysts that brought about a new approach to painting. The project will showcase paintings, photographs, and drawings by some of the most treasured artists in the Western canon-Gustave Courbet, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, and Edgar Degas among them-as well as pioneering photographers such as Gustave Le Gray and Henri Le Secq. Inspired by the scenic Normandy coast of France, these works-including representations of beach scenes, seascapes, fishing villages, resorts, and the region's pastoral beauty-will be brought together with archival materials related to early tourism and regional expressions of French nationalism from popular culture for an innovative examination of the impact of the then-new medium of photography on ideas of image making, the recording of passing time, the capacities of painting, and the rise of Impressionism itself.