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.

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

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.

Claude Monet | The Rose Bushes in the Garden at Montgeron, 1876

Claude Monet was commissioned to create this garden scene on the grounds of the textile merchant Ernest Hoschedé’s home in the Parisian suburb of Montgeron.

The artist disrupted the classically composed picture space by placing the blossoming bushes unusually close in the foreground.

This arrangement could be due to the purpose of the composition as a wall decoration that was to simulate a view into the landscape.

Claude Monet: The Rose Bushes in the Garden at Montgeron, 1876 | Museum Barberini

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | L'allée Couverte, 1872

Like the painters of the previous generation in Barbizon, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet also visited the forest of Fontainebleau.

In this view of a forest path, which actually shows a painter at work, Renoir seems to follow the models of his predecessors.

However, the dissolution of form is a characteristic of Impressionism.

Images of forest paths and wooded thickets had already played an important role in the painting of the Barbizon School.