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French Impressionists: Painting the Seaside of Normandy with Dr. Alison Bracker
French Impressionists: Painting the Seaside of Normandy with Dr. Alison Bracker

French Impressionists: Painting the Seaside of Normandy with Dr. Alison Bracker


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The opening of train lines from Paris to France's northern coastal villages from the late 1840s to the 1860s gave rise to seaside vacations along the Channel. Fashionable Parisians, including Emperor Napoleon III and his wife Eugénie, frequented seaside resorts to bathe in the therapeutic saltwater, turning them into "the summer boulevard of Paris." Accordingly, many French painters moved away from depicting stormy maritime scenes, fishermen, and local peasant women to capturing the new breed of bathers flocking to the healing waters of such places as Trouville, Sainte-Adresse, Argenteuil, Berck, and Étretat. 

This lecture traces the 19th-century French craze for summer beach holidays from early to late Impressionism. Eugène Boudin, whose paintings of the summer season were described in 1867 as "the first to have captured and preserved for us this piquant aspect of modern life," introduces us to Trouville. Other artists, including Edouard Manet, reveal the changes that tourism brought to coastal towns and contrast the worlds of resident fisherpeople and holidaymakers. Claude Monet highlights aspects of modernity in his paintings of Sainte-Adresse and Trouville, while Gustave Caillebotte portrays the commodification of Villers-sur-mer. 

Led by Dr. Alison Bracker, an expert on modern and contemporary art history, this lecture takes us back to 19th-century coastal Normandy to see how the Impressionists perceived its transformation over the decades. Designed to inform curiosity and future travels, participants will come away with an increased understanding of tourism's rise along the Channel coast and what the Impressionists gained from painting burgeoning seaside resorts and their fashionable visitors. 

Dr. Alison Bracker is an independent art historian specializing in modern and contemporary art. She is an expert in the conservation of unusual materials in contemporary art and co-editor of Conservation: Principles, Dilemmas, and Uncomfortable Truths (Elsevier, 2009), praised as "one of the most significant books in the field of heritage conservation." Alison held a six-year post-Doctoral fellowship at the Royal College of Art and Victoria & Albert Museum before taking over the Royal Academy of Arts' Events and Lectures Program, which she ran for eight years. She continues to lecture and publish on modern and contemporary art and artists, including Hugo Wilson, Lenz Geerk, Ai Weiwei, Anselm Kiefer, Édouard Manet, and David Hockney. After a childhood in Los Angeles and 25 years in England, Alison moved to Nice, France, where she now lives and works.

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

60 minutes

Customer Reviews

Based on 3 reviews
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C
C.F. (Laguna Beach, US)
French

Never miss a chance to listen in on a lecture given by Dr. Alison Bracker. She presents everything with such distinctive style. You come away from a class with her feeling knowledgeable and passionate about a subject that was only of passing interest. This particular lecture tells a lesser-known impressionists (in addition to the famous Renoir) and the intersection of geography, history, and art. Spectacular.

S
S.A. (Atlanta, US)
Great presentation. Dr. Bracker was outstanding.

Guest did not leave comment

J
J.R. (Voorhees Township, US)
Superb talk!

Alison was superb ! Her presentation was thoughtful, informational and beautifully illustrated

Customer Reviews

Based on 3 reviews
100%
(3)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
C
C.F. (Laguna Beach, US)
French

Never miss a chance to listen in on a lecture given by Dr. Alison Bracker. She presents everything with such distinctive style. You come away from a class with her feeling knowledgeable and passionate about a subject that was only of passing interest. This particular lecture tells a lesser-known impressionists (in addition to the famous Renoir) and the intersection of geography, history, and art. Spectacular.

S
S.A. (Atlanta, US)
Great presentation. Dr. Bracker was outstanding.

Guest did not leave comment

J
J.R. (Voorhees Township, US)
Superb talk!

Alison was superb ! Her presentation was thoughtful, informational and beautifully illustrated