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French Impressionist artists coming to Tampa Museum of Art

 
Rockwell’s self-portrait
Rockwell’s self-portrait
Published April 25, 2014

Impressionism is one of the most beloved movements in Western art and a collection of 49 Impressionist works, including a number of paintings, will come to the Tampa Museum of Art for "Renoir to Chagall: Paris and the Allure of Color," opening Oct. 11 through Jan. 11.

They are being loaned by the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, Tenn., a museum focused on French and American Impressionism. Among the individual artists in the show will be Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne, Camille Pissarro, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, and Marc Chagall.

Paris was the art capital of the world in the mid-19th century when a group of upstart painters rebelled in their individual ways, against the rigid rules of the then all-pervasive academic tradition. They worked with freer brush strokes and often forsook the studio for plein-air, or open-air, painting. Their subjects tended to be contemporary life rather than the monumental historical and religious ones favored by the academy. Impressionism became a popular style with the public and gradually received the critical acclaim it continues to enjoy today.

Coming to the Tampa Museum of Art next year is "American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell," from March 7 through May 31, 2015. Rockwell, too, was a beloved artist, famous for his Saturday Evening Post magazine covers for more than 30 years. This show will include more than 300 of them as well as original paintings.

These works will come from the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass.

Lennie Bennett can be reached at lbennett@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8293.