Scotland and Impressionism

19 July-12 October 2008

Paintings by Manet, Degas and Whistler are some of the highlights of this exhibition, which aims to showcase this movement’s brightest stars. The Scottish Royal Academy on Princes Street is home to the paintings, which are from both the French Impressionists and the Scottish artists that they inspired.

The Parisian art world which first received these paintings was a little suspicious of their worth. Impressionist was not always a positive adjective for an upcoming artist. It reflects the tendency to attempt lifelike depictions of your muse, and use perhaps heroic subjects as inspiration; whereas Impressionism arguably works to capture the immediate essence of a scene. The artists acted almost as photographers, swiftly committing impressions to canvas.

Impressionism is characterised by unmixed paints applied directly to the canvas using thick, deliberate strokes. The artists were keen to portray real life in both an urban setting and natural landscapes. This late 19th-century artistic revolution was a move towards more what we might today call modernist art, with visible brushstrokes, unusual viewpoints, emphasis on both movement and changing light.