Pierre-Auguste Renoir at the Museum Barberini

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | The Pear Tree, 1877

In the early 1860s Pierre-Auguste Renoir had studied in the Paris atelier of Swiss history painter Charles Gleyre.

Together with his fellow pupils Frédéric Bazille, Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley, he belonged to the nucleus of the group that would become known as Impressionists in the mid-1870s.

Renoir’s early experiments with painting in the open air were decisive for the development of his visual language. In a departure from traditional methods, he worked en plein air not merely for studies, but also, like Monet, in order to create independent, finished works.

Marie Laurencin | Pittrice cubista

Marie Laurencin (Parigi, 1883-1956) è stata una pittrice, artista ed illustratrice Francese.

Nel 1907 espose per la prima volta al Salon des Indépendants.

Nello stesso anno Picasso le fece conoscere Guillaume Apollinaire.

Da questo incontro nacque un legame passionale e tumultuoso che durò fino al 1912.

Nel 1914 sposò il barone Otto von Wätjen. La coppia si spostò in Spagna dopo la dichiarazione di guerra, prima a Madrid e poi a Barcellona.

Camille Pissarro at the Museum Barberini

Camille Pissarro | Boulevard Montmartre, Twilight, 1897

In a series of fourteen paintings Camille Pissarro focused on the Boulevard Montmartre in the center of Paris.

From his room in the Grand Hôtel de Russie, with the opera building behind him, he had a view of the busy street on which twenty thousand carriages rattled by every day, past the expensive shops and the popular Café Tortoni.

This picture shows the boulevard with fresh green trees in springtime. | Source: © Museum Barberini

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Champ de bananiers, 1881

Starting in 1881 the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel regularly bought paintings from Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

The painter then undertook all the trips he had previously been unable to afford and which would complete his artistic training.

His first trip took him to Algeria, in the footsteps of Delacroix whom he admired. Renoir's visual experience there was as intense as it had been for the older artist.

Seduced by the colours and the "incredible wealth" of nature here, he produced several pure landscapes, quite rare in his oeuvre. This field of banana trees is in the Essai garden in Hamma, created in 1832 in Algiers.

Alfred Sisley at the Museum Barberini

Located in Potsdam’s historic center (Germany), the Museum Barberini is an art museum that was initiated by Hasso Plattner, the founder of the German software company SAP and a patron of the arts.

Since its opening in 2017, the Barberini has established itself as one of the most popular museums in Germany with international exhibitions and an extraordinary collection of Impressionist paintings.

From Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Gerhard Richter to ancient sculpture, French Impressionism and Baroque painting, the Museum Barberini embraces all styles and eras, and aims to continually offer new perspectives on art.

Alfred Sisley | Near Moret-sur-Loing, 1881 | Museum Barberini

In 1882 Alfred Sisley moved to Moret-sur-Loing, a town to the south of Paris, where he explored the landscape that was crisscrossed by rivers and canals.

The wooden construction in the foreground likely belongs to one of the boatyards that dotted the Loing Canal, which was used for industrial purposes.

The detail of this construction adds a modern element to the timeless scenery.

Élisabeth Sonrel | Art Nouveau painter

Elisabeth Sonrel (1874-1953) was a French painter and illustrator in the Art Nouveau style.

Her works included allegorical subjects, mysticism, symbolism, portraits and landscapes.

She was the daughter of Nicolas Stéphane Sonrel, a painter from Tours, and received her early training from him.

For further study she went on to Paris as a student of Jules Lefebvre at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

Claude Debussy: "Music is the space between the notes"!

(Achille) Claude Debussy (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term.

He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Born to a family of modest means and little cultural involvement, Debussy showed enough musical talent to be admitted at the age of ten to France's leading music college, the Conservatoire de Paris.

He originally studied the piano, but found his vocation in innovative composition, despite the disapproval of the Conservatoire's conservative professors.

He took many years to develop his mature style, and was nearly 40 when he achieved international fame in 1902 with the only opera he completed, Pelléas et Mélisande.

Jacques-Émile Blanche (1861-1942) | Claude Debussy, 1902

Wassily Kandinsky: "Il colore è un potere che influenza direttamente l'anima"!

• "Il colore è il tasto, l'occhio il martelletto, l'anima il pianoforte dalle molte corde.

L'artista è una mano che toccando questo o quel tasto mette in vibrazione l'anima umana".

• "Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings.

The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another purposively, to cause vibrations in the soul".

• "A parallel between color and music can only be relative - just as a violin can give warm shades of tone, so yellow has shades, which can be expressed by various instruments".

• "In generale il colore è un mezzo che consente di esercitare un influsso diretto sull'anima".