Praised and Ridiculed: French Painting 1820-1880

Description

Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism - these are still the most important stylistic labels which acted as slogans for French painting during the 19th century. At that time Delacroix, Courbet, Manet and many others left the "straight and narrow" of painting, the academic-neo-classical manner. Highly controversial at the time, today these painters are celebrated worldwide as precursors of Modernism. The situation is very different when it comes to the Salon painters like Meissonier, Cabanel, Gerome and Bouguereau, who were highly regarded at the time. Today they have been consigned to the fringes, especially in the German-speaking region - unjustifiably, because they play an outstanding role with regard to our understanding of developments in art at the time.

The Zurcher Kunstgesellschaft began with a small social group of artists and art lovers in 1787 who met for friendly discussions and mutual encouragement, and has grown over the centuries to more than 20,000 members. The collection at its museum, the Kunsthaus Zurich, offers insight into Zurich's cultural background as well as European art from the late Gothic to the present day.

"Thought-provoking and thoroughly documented. . . . Illuminating."-- "ARLIS/NA"