Sur Papier: Works on Paper by Renior, Chagall, and Other French Moderns

Sur Papier, or On Paper, was organized to complement Monet to Matisse: A Century of French Moderns, and is drawn entirely from the McNay’s outstanding collection of modern French prints. This exhibition showcases works on paper by many of the artists in Monet to Matisse, which traces the development of modern French art from the realism of Henri Fantin-Latour and Édouard Manet, to the intimate Impressionism of Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, to the sensuous lines of Henri Matisse and the dream-like works of Marc Chagall.

Some of the other artists in Sur Papier are Jean-François Millet, Jacques Villon, Paul Cezánne, Berthe Morisot, Édouard Vuillard, Odilon Redon, Raoul Dufy, Robert Delaunay, and Fernand Léger.

This exhibition is a great opportunity to see treasures from the collection that haven’t been on public view in over twenty-five years.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.

Whether or not you go, French Moderns: Monet to Matisse 1850-1950 features well-known works by Bonnard, Caillebotte, Cézanne, Chagall, Degas, Matisse, Monet, Redon, Renoir, and Rodin. A stunning book dedicated to the most important movements in Modern Art.

The years between the Revolution of 1848 and the end of World War II were characterized by profound social, intellectual, and political change in France. The art world, centered in Paris, also witnessed remarkable transformations as artists experimented with bold, expressive styles. Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism...all emerged in and around the French capital during this period, and had profound impacts on the Western artistic canon.

This splendid volume featuring 59 works from the Brooklyn Museum's renowned European collection, and celebrates France as the artistic center of international modernism from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Ranging widely in scale, subject matter, and style, these paintings and sculptures were produced by the era's leading artists, both French-born and others who studied and worked in France. The 47 artists represented include Bonnard, Caillebotte, Cézanne, Chagall, Degas, Matisse, Monet, Redon, Renoir, and Rodin.

Organized into four sections, the works in this book exemplify the successive avant-garde movements that defined modern art in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, tracing a shift from naturalism to the rise of abstraction. Chapters on 'Landscape,' 'Still Life,' 'Portraits and Figures,' and 'The Nude,' invite the reader to discover comparisons and contrasts across time and mediums.

French Moderns: Monet to Matisse 1850-1950