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00:00:00Early in the 1860s, a few young artists began to paint modern life as they saw it around them.
00:00:21They had quietly rejected the idea that art was to tell stories of religion, mythology, or history.
00:00:31Their subject had nothing to do with the past.
00:00:36They wanted to capture not just the present, but a moment, the modern moment.
00:00:44This idea of capturing the ephemeral, that modernity consists in pinning down what goes by so quickly,
00:00:54that modernity is captured in a minute, a second, a fraction of a second.
00:00:59This was part of the Impressionist impulse.
00:01:03Impressionism is not a style. It's an attitude towards the relationship between life and art.
00:01:09And it was a movement that believed it should express what people care about in their day-to-day lives.
00:01:15And we still feel that now.
00:01:19The Impressionists were Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, and the Impressionists were Claude Monet,
00:01:47Auguste Renoir, Bert Morisot, Camille Pissarro, and Edgar Degas.
00:01:59This small group of artists dared to throw off the shackles of the past.
00:02:07They created art that was ahead of its time, challenging, and evocative.
00:02:21That's what I uncles said to other people are sisters like that, they retrospective.
00:02:22That was what we thought to other people want,
00:02:40the Once A Bourbonespace moderacy can be dragged the two members of the ночi on the style of transport.
00:02:45THE END
00:03:15Early in 1873, Claude Monet invited several of his painter friends to a meeting at his Argenteuil home.
00:03:31He had decided it was time to find an alternative to the old system.
00:03:39For over 80 years, French artists had lived at the mercy of the Salon Jury.
00:03:45For success at the Salon, the state-run art exhibition was the only path to a successful career.
00:03:52Monet called the meeting to begin planning a group show that would be independent of the Salon.
00:04:10This move would mark the group not only as avant-garde, but revolutionary.
00:04:17The artists planning the exhibition included Monet, Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, and Alfred Sisley.
00:04:32To pull off an independent exhibition, the group desperately needed money.
00:04:39To get money, they collected dues and looked to expand their membership.
00:04:45Edgar Degas invited his friends Berthe Morisot and her sister, Edma.
00:04:54Degas wrote, you know, Berthe Morisot and Edma Morisot, they have real talent and they should join our group.
00:05:04Nothing about, despite the fact that they're women, or even though you think this may be a strange idea.
00:05:11No, he just said, because they have talent, they should join this group.
00:05:16And it's one of the most perfectly non-sexist, completely meritocratic moments, I think, in the history of 19th century art.
00:05:26Edma declined Degas' offer. She was married and had given up her art career.
00:05:35Berthe, on the other hand, immediately became a member of the group, despite the advice of her good friend, Edouard Manet.
00:05:44Manet, the leading avant-garde painter of the day, had himself declined to join.
00:05:50He was determined to make his name at the Salon.
00:05:55When Degas heard that Manet would not be participating, he was incensed.
00:06:00I definitely think, Degas quipped, that he is more vain than intelligent.
00:06:07Manet refused to exhibit with the Impressionist painters because he thought, in fact, that this whole exercise would marginalize his art.
00:06:15He still, till the end of his days, hoped for government patronage and success according to the system that he understood and that he had been taught when he was a young man.
00:06:27Camille Pissarro was busy helping to organize the show when he got word that his nine-year-old daughter, Minet, was ill with a respiratory infection.
00:06:43The family doctor could do little, and the infection grew worse.
00:06:59Pissarro etched one last view of his young daughter as she lay still on her bed.
00:07:06Minet died on April 6th, 1874.
00:07:15Pissarro's wife, Julie, was five months pregnant.
00:07:19She felt such pain in mourning that she worried her unborn baby would be hurt.
00:07:24Pissarro, on the other hand, went right back to work.
00:07:30This somehow did not seem to arrest him in his career.
00:07:42And yet, one shouldn't think, I think for a moment, that he was this sort of hard, callous, insensitive personality.
00:07:50It's just that he had this capacity to take on very huge emotional charges and go on with his artistic pursuit, call it obsession, as if nothing happened.
00:08:08Pissarro rejoined his friends in making final preparations for the show.
00:08:21They found a space for the exhibition in one of the poshest sections of town, on the Boulevard des Capucines.
00:08:29Monet, who showed a real instinct for marketing, painted the view from the window.
00:08:40Now, when people came to the show, they could compare Monet's painting with the actual scene of modern life below.
00:08:48They had banners, they sold catalogues, they printed tickets.
00:08:54But it was very different than the salon, because it was smaller.
00:08:58The works of art were hung in a different way, so you only saw one of them at a time, rather than seeing lots of them together.
00:09:05The rooms were small, so that people could envision the works of art in their own domestic spaces.
00:09:11And you could actually purchase from the exhibition.
00:09:16So there was a sense in which it was a kind of one-stop-shopping capitalist artistic endeavor.
00:09:24The exhibition opened on April 15th, 1874.
00:09:48It immediately captured the attention of the art critics.
00:09:52In fact, it seemed that every art critic in Paris had something to say.
00:09:57Over 50 publications commented on the exhibition.
00:10:02Quite simply, the negation of the most elemental rules of drawing and painting.
00:10:07What do we see in the work of these men?
00:10:08The debaucheries of this school are nauseous.
00:10:10Nothing but a defiance.
00:10:11Revolting.
00:10:12Almost an insult to the taste and intelligence of the public.
00:10:15We have seen an exhibition by these impressionists on looking for the difficulty.
00:10:19Looking at the first rough sketch, and rough is the right word.
00:10:23Pissarro.
00:10:24You simply shrug your shoulders.
00:10:26Appear to have declared war on beauty.
00:10:28Seeing the lot, you burst out laughing.
00:10:31But with the last ones, you finally get angry.
00:10:38Not all reviews were negative.
00:10:40Let us examine what we are told is so monstrous, so subversive to the social order in these thorough-going revolutionaries.
00:10:50I swear there is talent, and a great deal of talent among them.
00:10:55Their art is lively.
00:10:57It is vivid.
00:10:58It is delicate.
00:10:59In short, it is ravishing.
00:11:04The painting that became the cause célèbre of that exhibition was Impression sur le Levent, Impression
00:11:11Sunrise, by Monet.
00:11:13And the word impressionism comes from the title of that painting.
00:11:16A critic said, oh, these are nothing but impressions, meaning these are not finished works.
00:11:25These are nothing but streaky-looking sketches, where you can actually see the individual brushstrokes.
00:11:32They haven't been all blended together the way they should be.
00:11:36It was a very negative term.
00:11:39It was not meant to be a compliment.
00:11:49The group of Impressionist painters had moved from anonymity to notoriety in a matter of
00:11:55five weeks.
00:11:59But they did not sell enough to even cover their expenses.
00:12:04They were so disappointed that it would take them two years before they could regroup to exhibit again.
00:12:10I never had a fighter's temperament.
00:12:26And I would have given up many times over had not my good friend Monet, who had himself a fighter's temperament, bucked me up.
00:12:32Renoir.
00:12:41Renoir had been inspired by Claude Monet since the day he'd met him in 1862.
00:12:49With Monet, Renoir seemed to push himself, to take more chances, to work harder, and to never give up.
00:12:58Renoir painted with Monet whenever he could.
00:13:04And he loved to have Monet and his wife Camille pose for him.
00:13:16Especially Camille.
00:13:21Over the course of a few years, Renoir painted Camille no less than 15 times.
00:13:27In fact, Renoir dropped by Monet's Argentoy home so often, that a bed was always kept open for him.
00:13:42Edouard Manet also showed up at Argentoy to paint with Monet.
00:13:50Manet had long been seen as the leader of the avant-garde, but he had yet to experiment with the Impressionist technique.
00:13:59He came because that first Impressionist exhibition had generated enough press to make it clear that these younger artists,
00:14:08with their newer forms of expression, were becoming the avant-garde.
00:14:13And Manet, the older man upon that block, had to keep apace.
00:14:18The kinds of pictures that Manet paints indicates that he came as a student of these younger artists.
00:14:26Also, it's true that there are pictures where he paints a kind of homage to Monet himself,
00:14:32as if he recognizes that Monet is indeed a leader of a new group of artists.
00:14:37Edouard Manet painted Monet at work in his studio boat.
00:14:44He painted the Monets in their garden.
00:14:47And one sunny afternoon, he began to paint Camille and Jean.
00:14:52Then Renoir showed up.
00:14:55Manet and Renoir were both painting in Monet's backyard.
00:15:01And there are two paintings of exactly the same subject, of Camille and Jean lying upon the grass, in exactly the same location.
00:15:10And the story was that Manet went to take a look at Renoir's picture, and he said to Monet,
00:15:15this boy just can't paint, you really better tell him to pack it up.
00:15:19This is something that was said absolutely as a joke,
00:15:22because he recognized that the Renoir was one of the devastatingly successful sketch,
00:15:27and indeed a sketch that makes Manet's own work look slightly staid.
00:15:30While Manet was painting with Monet in Argenteuil, his brother Eugène was vacationing in Faucon on the Normandy coast.
00:15:47Also on vacation in Faucon were the Morisot's.
00:15:54Berthe Morisot and Eugène Manet, an amateur artist, spent days on end painting together.
00:16:05One afternoon, while on a painting expedition, Berthe and Eugène decided to marry.
00:16:16While Madame Morisot didn't think much of Eugène, she was thrilled that her daughter, now 33 years old, was getting married.
00:16:35The wedding was on December 22nd, 1874.
00:16:40Eugène wrote on the church register that he was a man of property.
00:16:45Berthe wrote that she had no profession.
00:16:54Berthe Morisot listed herself as having no profession as one of the canny strategies she used throughout her life to manage both a professional career and a satisfying personal life.
00:17:10What difference did it make to her what was on a document?
00:17:13But it made a difference to other people and she knew that.
00:17:16So she gave them what they wanted and at the same time did what she wanted.
00:17:19When Morisot set up house with Eugène Manet, she did not build a separate studio.
00:17:28When people would visit the Morisot household, she would hide her work, she would put it away.
00:17:34She would want to appear as the conforming upper middle class lady rather than as a professional artist.
00:17:43In the spring of 1876, the Impressionists began organizing their second group exhibition.
00:17:52This time, the group presented itself less as simply an association of independent artists and more as a movement.
00:18:02What the second exhibition did was to get rid of some of the riffraff, some of the people who were brought on because they would pay the dues to finance the first exhibition.
00:18:15And it had more works of art by each of the members who were thought to be central to the movement.
00:18:21The second exhibition opened March 30th, 1876.
00:18:39While only a few thousand would actually attend the show, newspapers from around the world were quick to cover the story of these independent artists.
00:18:50Some of the press played into their hands by saying that they represented, you know, dangerous tendencies or this was a kind of degenerate art.
00:19:01Sunday, April 2nd.
00:19:05Five or six lunatics, among them a woman, have joined together and exhibited their works.
00:19:12Try to make Monsieur Degas see reason.
00:19:16Tell him that in art there are certain qualities called drawing, colour execution, control, and he will laugh in your face.
00:19:26Or try to explain to Monsieur Renoir that a woman's torso is not a mass of flesh in the process of decomposition, with green and violet spots which denote the state of complete putrefaction of a corpse.
00:19:41There is also a woman in the group called Berthe Morisot.
00:19:46In her case, a feminine grace is maintained, amid the outpourings of a delirious mind.
00:19:54Albert Wolfe, Le Figaro.
00:20:00One visitor, though, saw what the critic Albert Wolfe failed to see.
00:20:05Mary Cassatt, an American artist living in Paris, could not get enough of the groundbreaking work.
00:20:13She was particularly taken by the art she saw by Edgar Degas.
00:20:18I absorbed all I could of his art.
00:20:22It changed my life.
00:20:25I saw art then as I wanted to see it.
00:20:31Mary Cassatt.
00:20:34By the time the doors closed on the second exhibition, the Impressionists had sold enough paintings to allow each artist to receive the grand total of three francs in profit.
00:20:47When the second Impressionist exhibition closed in May of 1876, the group took solace in the fact that they did not lose money.
00:21:08And they were pleased that the show had piqued the interest of a handful of new collectors.
00:21:16But it was only a handful.
00:21:19Not enough to support the needy artists, Pissarro, Renoir and Monet.
00:21:26The principal collectors of the Impressionists in the 1870s were a real ragbag.
00:21:31There was a retired government official, Monsieur Chocquet.
00:21:35There was a pastry cook, Monsieur Murat.
00:21:39There was the department store owner, Hochte.
00:21:42And then there was a famous baritone singer from the opera.
00:21:46It's a group of people who, in a sense, became personal friends.
00:21:49They were a sort of support system that the artists could call on.
00:21:52The pastry cook, Murat, who himself had limited funds, came up with a novel idea to help Pissarro.
00:22:01A raffle.
00:22:04He sold tickets at one franc apiece.
00:22:07The proceeds would go to Pissarro, a painting to the winner.
00:22:12When the winner, a local servant girl, came to collect her Pissarro painting,
00:22:17she took one look at it and another at Murat's own works of art.
00:22:22She asked if she could have a cream bun instead.
00:22:26Murat gave her the cream bun and kept the painting.
00:22:31In the fall of 1876, Claude Monet left Camille and their nine-year-old son
00:22:48to work in Mont-Geran on a series of paintings for his best patron, Ernest Ochede.
00:22:54Ernest and his wife, Alice, were immensely wealthy.
00:23:03They not only had a chateau, but a private train to bring in their guests.
00:23:11Ernest liked to spend money, and he spent quite a bit of it on art.
00:23:17Ernest asked Monet to paint several large-scale works depicting scenes around his chateau.
00:23:29Monet set up a studio on the estate and moved in with Alice and her children.
00:23:36Meanwhile, Ernest was in Paris tending to his business.
00:23:40That December, Alice Ochede became pregnant with her sixth child,
00:23:51a boy she would name Jean-Pierre.
00:23:54Jean-Pierre grew up to believe that his father was Claude Monet.
00:24:01Monet did develop in the late 1870s a relationship with Madame Ochede,
00:24:09Madame Ochede.
00:24:11But it's very hard to know exactly what that relationship was like.
00:24:14There are suggestions that, in fact, they actually produced a child.
00:24:18But he was not a ladies' man, however.
00:24:21He was not someone who seemed to be a philanderer.
00:24:27In the spring of 1877, Ernest Ochede's business went bankrupt,
00:24:32and he lost everything, including the chateau.
00:24:36The Ochede's were forced to find a new place to live.
00:24:41But they had little money left.
00:24:47Monet was also in a difficult situation.
00:24:50He was broke, and his creditors were out of patience.
00:24:57Monet, Camille, and Jean moved to Veteuil,
00:25:00and began sharing a house with Alice and her six children.
00:25:05They hoped to save money by joining their families together.
00:25:11Ernest Ochede stayed in Paris.
00:25:16They moved into a small house.
00:25:18Camille had been ill, perhaps as early as 1876, 77.
00:25:23They were 11 people together in this house.
00:25:27It must have been rather chaotic.
00:25:30To make matters even more difficult,
00:25:32Camille was pregnant with her second child.
00:25:38She gave birth to a boy, Michel, in March 1878.
00:25:43But Camille seemed unable to recover after the delivery.
00:25:46By the summer of 1879, she was alarmingly weak,
00:25:56and in constant, debilitating pain.
00:26:01Monet borrowed 1,000 francs to pay for her doctors,
00:26:05but the doctors were unable to help.
00:26:07On September 1st, Alice brought the priest to perform the last rites.
00:26:18Four days later, Camille was dead.
00:26:24She was just 32 years old.
00:26:31As Monet watched his partner of 13 years lay still and cold on her bed,
00:26:36he found that, despite his real grief,
00:26:39he could not help but see her through his painter's eyes.
00:26:49I caught myself, my eyes fixed on her tragic forehead,
00:26:54in the act of mechanically analyzing the succession of appropriate color gradations
00:27:00which death was imposing on her immobile face.
00:27:02Tones of blue, of yellow, of gray.
00:27:06This is the point I had reached.
00:27:09Monet.
00:27:11Camille was buried in a simple plot in the corner of the Vetoy graveyard.
00:27:14In the depths of his sorrow, Monet stood for day after day in the brutal cold that came that winter,
00:27:24and painted the Seine, frozen over, churning with ice.
00:27:28These paintings would soon spark new sales, but for the rest of the winter, Monet, Alice, and the eight children barely had enough to eat.
00:27:42These paintings would soon spark new sales, but for the rest of the winter, Monet, Alice, and the eight children barely had enough to eat.
00:27:56Edgar Degas had never concerned himself with earning a living from his art.
00:28:14Edgar Degas had never concerned himself with earning a living from his art.
00:28:20He had family money, and he sold his works as it suited him.
00:28:25But all that changed in 1878.
00:28:28Edgar Degas's father had died a few years earlier, and when the estate was finally settled, he learned that he was no longer a wealthy man.
00:28:41When his father died, there were enormous debts.
00:28:45Degas had to pay off large sums, and the only way he knew to pay off large sums was to make art and sell art.
00:28:52Degas increased his production and concentrated on only a handful of subjects.
00:29:04He concentrated the most on ballet dancers.
00:29:15Degas would spend hour upon hour watching the young dancers,
00:29:19then returned to his studio to paint from memory.
00:29:37The writer Edmond de Goncourt visited Degas one cold February day,
00:29:42and described the event in his journal.
00:29:44I spent my afternoon in the atelier of a strange painter named Degas.
00:29:51The painter shows you his pictures,
00:29:54from time to time adding to his explanation by imitating one of their arabesques.
00:29:59What an original fellow, this Degas.
00:30:02He is the man I've seen up to now, who has best captured the inner nature of modern life.
00:30:08The dance pictures did sail well from the beginning.
00:30:17Everybody said, Degas, ballet.
00:30:19They called him the painter of dancers.
00:30:24Degas would paint ballet dancers for the rest of his life.
00:30:27Roughly half of all the pictures he would make over the next 40 years were of ballet dancers.
00:30:34But he was not always enamored with painting dancers.
00:30:38But he was not always enamored with painting dancers.
00:30:43Dancers, Degas complained in a letter,
00:30:46are the only thing people want from your unfortunate friend.
00:30:55Degas did paint other subjects.
00:30:57He painted laundry girls.
00:31:08And cafe singers.
00:31:14Nudes.
00:31:16And prostitutes.
00:31:18All of Degas's subjects were taken from everyday modern life.
00:31:22Degas called his brand of art, realist.
00:31:27It was shocking, titillating, engaging.
00:31:31And it sold.
00:31:33In the 1870s, Degas did a series of monotypes based on brothels.
00:31:40There is no way of telling from the prints themselves whether he was there to observe,
00:31:45whether he was there to participate, shall we say.
00:31:47There are a lot of these.
00:31:50There are 30, 40, 50 of these prints.
00:31:53And they suggest that he had an acquaintance with those kinds of establishments.
00:32:02Degas was a confirmed bachelor.
00:32:05Still, he did have several close friendships with women,
00:32:07including Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt.
00:32:12Cassatt was an American painter living in Paris.
00:32:16When Degas first met her in 1877,
00:32:19he admired her work enough to ask her to join their next exhibition.
00:32:24Degas was also close to Morisot.
00:32:27They'd been friends since Edouard Manet introduced them a decade earlier.
00:32:35In 1878, Degas learned that Morisot was pregnant.
00:32:46Morisot had longed for a baby since she'd married Eugène Manet four years earlier.
00:32:50And finally, at the advanced age of 37, she got her wish.
00:32:59On November 14th, 1878,
00:33:02Berthe Morisot gave birth to a baby girl she named Julie.
00:33:06Julie.
00:33:17Degas, despite his often hard manner, had a soft spot for children.
00:33:24I don't know why people say Degas is disagreeable, Julie said as a teenager.
00:33:29He has such a nice way about him and kisses us in such a fatherly manner.
00:33:33He regretted that he hadn't married and didn't have children.
00:33:44I don't think he could have ever made the kind of personal sacrifice
00:33:49that was necessary in order to sustain a relationship with one person.
00:33:57Living alone without any family is really too hard.
00:34:01I never would have suspected it would cause me so much suffering.
00:34:06People think me cheerful because I smile idiotically, resignedly.
00:34:11I am quickly sliding downhill, rolling I know not where.
00:34:17Wrapped up in lots of bad pastels as if in so much packing paper.
00:34:24Degas.
00:34:25He was one of those people, I think, who moved from low points to tremendous high points.
00:34:33And there are even hints that he might have been contemplating suicide,
00:34:37bringing the whole thing to an end.
00:34:39But within a very short time we find himself throwing himself artistically into another project,
00:34:47getting excited about a new technique or another exhibition.
00:34:50Degas always kept busy.
00:34:54When he wasn't painting, he was at the opera, holding court at the café,
00:35:01or he was visiting friends.
00:35:03Degas also threw himself into organizing the Impressionist exhibitions.
00:35:19But he was abrasive, combative, and only interested in his own opinion.
00:35:24Degas was a bit of a control freak, and he tried to mold the Impressionists in a way that suited him.
00:35:36And he was very active in the organization of Impressionist exhibitions
00:35:40to try and push it one way rather than another.
00:35:44For the 1879 exhibition, Degas issued an ultimatum.
00:35:48Members of the group could no longer choose to submit works to the salon and still exhibit with the Impressionists.
00:35:57Wanting to gain access to larger commissions and better collectors and whatever,
00:36:03certain of the artists, and Renoir was the first, decided to do both.
00:36:08The artist who was the most steadfastly against this was, of course, Degas,
00:36:14who believed completely that, you know, you're either with us or against us,
00:36:18and if you exhibit with the salon, you're with those conservative bastards,
00:36:22and it's awful, and you shouldn't do it, and out you go.
00:36:25There are, in Paris, hardly fifteen art lovers capable of liking a painter unless he's in the salon.
00:36:34My contribution to the salon is completely commercial.
00:36:38In any case, it's like certain medicines.
00:36:42If it doesn't do any good, it doesn't do any harm, either.
00:36:46Renoir.
00:36:47Degas would not forgive Renoir for showing at the salon.
00:36:52But Renoir had made a wise business decision.
00:36:56His 1879 salon submission, Madame Charpentier and her children, was a huge success.
00:37:04And Renoir was on his way to becoming a sought-after portrait painter.
00:37:08Renoir's in his mid-thirties. He's not a debutant. He's not a newcomer.
00:37:17And he's eager to be painting large canvases of what we might call Parisian sociability.
00:37:26And to paint these pictures, he needs models.
00:37:30And to have models, he can use some of his friends, but he has to pay for certain models.
00:37:34He needs income to forward his ambitions.
00:37:39Renoir finally had the money to paint what he wanted.
00:37:44In the summer of 1880, he traveled to Chateau and began a large-scale work.
00:37:51He would call it the Luncheon of the Boating Party.
00:37:59The painting trip to Chateau was quite successful.
00:38:02One of his models, a laundry worker named Aline Charigot, became his mistress.
00:38:08And Renoir's dealer was so pleased with Luncheon of the Boating Party that he purchased it right away.
00:38:16Renoir was now selling on two fronts.
00:38:23His impressionist art to his dealer, and portraits to the clients he'd won through his good showing at the salon.
00:38:30For Renoir, it seemed that after nearly two decades of struggle, he had finally made it.
00:38:41Claude Monet had spent day after day during the winter of 1879 working in the frigid, damp air.
00:38:53Claude Monet had spent day after day during the winter of 1879 working in the frigid, damp air.
00:39:06He was painting the Seine as it flowed thick with ice.
00:39:16That spring, Monet submitted two of his canvases to the salon.
00:39:21He'd seen how well Renoir had done there the year before.
00:39:25And now he wanted to give the conservative jury a try himself.
00:39:29Something he hadn't done for a decade.
00:39:32But this meant that Monet could not exhibit with the impressionists in 1880.
00:39:39Degas' anti-salon rule kept him out.
00:39:44It's Degas' stubbornness and sense that he should make the rules,
00:39:53and should determine under what conditions others would participate,
00:39:58and that he was as absolute as he was in those rules,
00:40:04particularly the anti-salon rule,
00:40:06that created the biggest tensions in the movement.
00:40:10Degas was divisive, yes, there's no doubt about that.
00:40:14He could be extremely obstreperous.
00:40:16He would fight and fight against plans that other people put up.
00:40:20And it didn't help the future success of the movement,
00:40:25or the group of the impressionists,
00:40:26to have this difficult man there at the center.
00:40:31With Renoir and Monet out, and Degas at the helm,
00:40:35the impressionist group, after years of fighting for recognition,
00:40:39now appeared to be on the verge of collapse.
00:40:41Degas fumed at Monet and Renoir.
00:40:48Monet thought he might fare better in solo exhibitions.
00:40:52And Renoir, a conservative, no longer wanted anything to do with the liberal Pissarro.
00:41:01The art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel saw the group self-destructing before his eyes.
00:41:07He had been buying impressionist art off and on since 1871,
00:41:14and had a large collection of it sitting unsold in his gallery.
00:41:19He's the only dealer crazy enough to buy these paintings,
00:41:24in a sense, that very few people wanted, almost.
00:41:26You could say no one else wanted.
00:41:28But he believed in these artists.
00:41:31He admired these paintings.
00:41:32He put together an extraordinary collection of works by these artists.
00:41:35Durand-Ruel felt his fate was tied to the success of the group,
00:41:42and decided it was time to take action.
00:41:45He stepped in and organized the 1882 show himself.
00:41:49When the exhibition opened on March 1st, the Impressionists and Durand-Ruel were in for a surprise.
00:42:10The critics expressed less outrage, and collectors were starting to express more interest.
00:42:17More interest.
00:42:33But after the 1882 exhibition, Durand-Ruel felt that the Impressionist artists were simply too difficult to organize.
00:42:40He decided it was time to hold solo exhibitions in his gallery.
00:42:50The one-man shows marked the end of an era.
00:42:54Monet, Renoir, Degas, Morisot, and Pissarro would never again mount their own group exhibition.
00:43:01One of the reasons why there ceased being Impressionist exhibitions was because the various Impressionists began to think that not only could they have their work shown at dealers,
00:43:15but also that it might be a better idea, certainly it would be less trouble, and they would make more money that way.
00:43:27The Impressionists had split apart.
00:43:29They were no longer a working group.
00:43:38But in the end, the personal bonds they had forged over the years were so strong, they could not be broken.
00:43:45The Impressionists had been in the first place.
00:43:46The Impressionists had been in the first place.
00:43:47The Impressionists had been in the first place that the Impressionists had, and they would never again be broken.
00:44:04Early in 1886, the art dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel,
00:44:13shipped more than 300 Impressionist works across the ocean to America.
00:44:23Durand-Ruel was desperately short on cash
00:44:26and needed to find a new market for his crowded inventory of Impressionist works.
00:44:36In April 1886, he opened an exhibition in New York City.
00:44:43It was the largest show of Impressionist art ever held anywhere.
00:44:50And the show was a resounding success.
00:45:05Do not believe that the Americans are savages.
00:45:09On the contrary, they are less ignorant and less conservative than our French art lovers.
00:45:17I have been very successful with paintings that took me 20 years to get people to accept in Paris.
00:45:25Paul Durand-Ruel.
00:45:26With his New York show, Durand-Ruel opened up a huge new market for Impressionist works.
00:45:35But just at the moment that financial success was at hand,
00:45:42both Renoir and Pissarro decided it was time for them to do something different.
00:45:49I've gone to the end of Impressionism.
00:45:53And I've reached the conclusion that I don't know how to paint or draw.
00:45:58Renoir.
00:45:58I am much disturbed by my unpolished and rough execution.
00:46:06I should like to develop a smoother technique while retaining the old fierceness.
00:46:13Pissarro.
00:46:15Each of them in their own way has a sort of crisis.
00:46:18In Renoir's case, it's this sense that he doesn't know how to draw,
00:46:22that he didn't know anything, that he has to go back to basics.
00:46:26And Pissarro experiments with a different type of technique.
00:46:31In some ways, each of the artists is looking at this language that was so radical
00:46:34and finding it in some ways lacking.
00:46:39Renoir thought that his work was too concerned with the effects of light,
00:46:43that it lacked composition, that it was monotonous.
00:46:47Around 1885, 1886, he did this major painting,
00:46:55which has loads of sketches and so on, called The Great Bathers.
00:47:01The figures themselves are solid, rigid,
00:47:06though they're in kind of moving positions.
00:47:09They're frozen.
00:47:12And this is like a declaration.
00:47:14I am not going to do Impressionism anymore,
00:47:17or I'm not going to do pure Impressionism anymore.
00:47:21My figures are going to be clear.
00:47:26But Renoir himself felt that his new paintings were failing.
00:47:30I wipe out, I start over.
00:47:35I think the year will go by without one canvas.
00:47:39I want to find what I'm looking for before giving up.
00:47:43I've gone too deeply into the series of experiments to give up without regret.
00:47:48Success may be at the end.
00:47:51Renoir.
00:47:51While Renoir was struggling to find his way,
00:47:56Pissarro quickly shifted his style after meeting a painter half his age,
00:48:0126-year-old Georges Seurat.
00:48:05Seurat painted using tiny, distinct dots,
00:48:09a method called Neo-Impressionism,
00:48:11and later, Pointillism.
00:48:15Pissarro hoped the new method could help him create more vibrant works,
00:48:19and he took it up with great excitement.
00:48:23Now, instead of painting quickly outdoors,
00:48:26he was working in his studio, day after day,
00:48:29laying on innumerable, tiny, distinct strokes.
00:48:36And when he finally had a few works to show for his efforts,
00:48:40Durand Ruel rejected them.
00:48:43His dealer simply felt that these paintings were unsellable.
00:48:48Not only were they unsellable,
00:48:50but Pissarro took a considerable amount of time
00:48:53to produce a single painting,
00:48:55weeks and weeks as opposed to days.
00:48:59Pissarro worked long and hard,
00:49:01but brought no money in to support the family.
00:49:05His wife, Julie, had had enough.
00:49:09In the fall of 1887,
00:49:11she wrote to her eldest son, Lucien.
00:49:13Lucien.
00:49:13My dear son, Lucien,
00:49:19I have no money,
00:49:22and nobody will want to give me any more credit.
00:49:25We are eight at home to be fed every day.
00:49:30When dinner time comes,
00:49:32I cannot say to them,
00:49:33wait,
00:49:34this stupid word your father repeats and repeats.
00:49:38I had decided to send the three boys to Paris
00:49:45and then to take the two little ones for a walk by the river.
00:49:50You can imagine the rest.
00:49:53Everyone would have thought it an accident.
00:49:55But when I was ready to go,
00:50:00I lacked the courage.
00:50:03My poor Lucien,
00:50:05I'm terribly unhappy.
00:50:08Goodbye.
00:50:10Maman.
00:50:13Julie was the one who carried the brunt
00:50:16of the irregularities,
00:50:18of the unevenness of their lifestyle.
00:50:20If one wants to take Julie's side,
00:50:23which is definitely, you know,
00:50:25very legitimate,
00:50:26one can see in Pissarro a selfish bastard.
00:50:34Pissarro did his best to move forward with pointillism.
00:50:38Not only was it slow going,
00:50:41but he struggled with a recurring eye infection.
00:50:43I shall try to work with one eye,
00:50:47he reported to Lucien.
00:50:50Degas does it
00:50:50and gets good results.
00:50:56With one eye bandaged shut,
00:50:59Pissarro continued working.
00:51:03Renoir, though,
00:51:04felt he was not making progress.
00:51:07His career was at a standstill.
00:51:09Both Renoir and Pissarro
00:51:15had been painting for over 30 years.
00:51:19Still, they struggled with their craft
00:51:21alone in their studios.
00:51:23Late in 1888,
00:51:51August Renoir was busy painting
00:51:53in his drafty Paris studio.
00:51:56He caught what he thought was a cold,
00:51:59but he suddenly found
00:52:01that he could not move
00:52:02an entire side of his face.
00:52:06Renoir had developed
00:52:07rheumatoid arthritis.
00:52:10He tried everything to overcome it,
00:52:13including electric shock therapy.
00:52:16But nothing helped.
00:52:17With stiffened, painful fingers,
00:52:24Renoir did his best to keep working.
00:52:31He found it more comfortable
00:52:32painting with less detail,
00:52:34using broader strokes.
00:52:36So he shifted his style
00:52:38back to Impressionism.
00:52:40The shift paid off,
00:52:46for within months
00:52:48he was again selling
00:52:49to Durand Ruel.
00:53:00Pissarro also moved back
00:53:02to Impressionism.
00:53:03He had become excruciatingly bored
00:53:07with painting dots.
00:53:13But his pointillist experiment
00:53:14had helped him.
00:53:16His new canvases were more vibrant.
00:53:19He still uses
00:53:24the Neo-Impressionist palette
00:53:26to a very great extent.
00:53:28There are still lots of greens
00:53:30and purples
00:53:30that create this kind of
00:53:32quivering,
00:53:33symphonic palette
00:53:34of colors
00:53:35on his canvas.
00:53:37So he has learned
00:53:38a big lesson from Seurat,
00:53:40and he picks up the ball
00:53:41and runs with it.
00:53:44Durand Ruel was thrilled
00:53:46with Pissarro's new work
00:53:47and quickly purchased
00:53:48his latest canvases.
00:53:52Pissarro could now afford
00:53:53to take painting trips
00:53:55away from his Eragny home.
00:53:59While he was painting
00:54:00in London in 1892,
00:54:02Julie was forced
00:54:03to make a decision.
00:54:05Buy the house
00:54:06they had rented
00:54:06for the last decade
00:54:07or face eviction.
00:54:11Julie wanted to buy.
00:54:13So she called on
00:54:15an old friend for help,
00:54:16Claude Monet.
00:54:18Monet gave her a loan,
00:54:20and in return,
00:54:21he received
00:54:22a Pissarro painting.
00:54:25Pissarro comes back
00:54:26from London,
00:54:26and he hears this story,
00:54:27has a fit,
00:54:29and feels absolutely terrible
00:54:32about the fact
00:54:32that his wife,
00:54:33behind his back,
00:54:34went to beg,
00:54:36as he put it,
00:54:37to beg Monet
00:54:38to give them money.
00:54:41Pissarro worried
00:54:42that he might not be able
00:54:43to repay his friend.
00:54:45But this time,
00:54:46he had little reason
00:54:47for concern.
00:54:50Pissarro's sales
00:54:51would only get better.
00:54:57In fact,
00:54:59sales were getting better
00:55:00for all the Impressionists.
00:55:04It had taken nearly 30 years,
00:55:07but the Impressionists
00:55:08had finally won over
00:55:10the French public.
00:55:19The Impressionists
00:55:21become quasi-established artists,
00:55:24people who were still pushing
00:55:25the envelope,
00:55:26so to speak,
00:55:27but who were providing
00:55:28French public
00:55:28with pictures
00:55:29that they wanted to see.
00:55:30August Renoir
00:55:35was well on his way
00:55:36to becoming
00:55:37a wealthy man.
00:55:39He painted
00:55:39almost constantly,
00:55:41seemingly in defiance
00:55:43of his debilitating arthritis.
00:55:47We know that Renoir
00:55:48is literally crippled,
00:55:50literally crippled
00:55:51by the most hideous
00:55:52deformations,
00:55:53pain,
00:55:53and incapacities.
00:55:56It is a very moving story
00:55:58to look at the last production
00:55:59and see how,
00:56:00in the end,
00:56:01his craft,
00:56:02his capacity for painting,
00:56:04his commitment to painting
00:56:05doesn't subside,
00:56:07doesn't diminish,
00:56:08doesn't die.
00:56:12Renoir was painting
00:56:13nude after nude.
00:56:16He used to say
00:56:17to his models,
00:56:18it is with my brush
00:56:19that I make love.
00:56:23Renoir's models
00:56:24had to be a certain type.
00:56:26He insisted
00:56:27that he could only paint
00:56:28a woman
00:56:28who did not think.
00:56:32Renoir especially liked
00:56:33women
00:56:33who did household chores.
00:56:37Women are best off
00:56:38when they kneel
00:56:39to clean the floor,
00:56:41light the fire,
00:56:42or do the washing.
00:56:43These movements
00:56:45benefit their stomachs.
00:56:48Renoir.
00:56:50He made a lot of statements
00:56:52about how stupid women were,
00:56:54how anything but being pretty
00:56:58and being a wife
00:56:59and mother
00:57:00was being a total fool.
00:57:02This is not his idea alone.
00:57:05This is part of the doxa,
00:57:08part of the belief system
00:57:09of men of his times.
00:57:13Renoir's views of women
00:57:15did not extend to his good friend,
00:57:17Berthe Morisot.
00:57:20In the summer of 1891,
00:57:22Renoir painted with Morisot
00:57:24at her country house.
00:57:27While he was there,
00:57:29Berthe Morisot's husband,
00:57:30Eugène Manet,
00:57:31became seriously ill.
00:57:37For months,
00:57:39he wasted away.
00:57:40Then, on April 13th, 1892,
00:57:45Eugène Manet died.
00:57:51I want to go down
00:57:53into the depths of pain
00:57:54because it seems to me
00:57:56it must be possible
00:57:57to rise from there.
00:58:00But now for three nights,
00:58:02I've wept.
00:58:04Mercy.
00:58:06Mercy.
00:58:06I don't want to live anymore.
00:58:15Degas and Renoir
00:58:17rallied around Morisot
00:58:19and became companions
00:58:22in her life
00:58:23in a way which made
00:58:26the end of her life
00:58:27very, very rich.
00:58:33When they were young,
00:58:34they embarked
00:58:35on an artistic project
00:58:37which required them
00:58:39to become
00:58:40like a fighting squadron.
00:58:46But as they got older
00:58:47and they didn't need
00:58:48to fight anymore,
00:58:50the people who had been
00:58:51the battle companions
00:58:52became the companions
00:58:54of old age,
00:58:56the companions of success.
00:58:58In 1889,
00:59:21Claude Monet got caught up
00:59:23with a new idea,
00:59:25painting a series of canvases
00:59:27covering the same subject.
00:59:31In his series paintings,
00:59:33Monet's interpretation
00:59:34of light and color
00:59:36became central.
00:59:45Monet had found focus
00:59:46for the rest of his career
00:59:48capturing the atmosphere itself
00:59:50and rendering it on canvas.
00:59:56It was a way for him
00:59:57to be able to reveal
00:59:58how versatile he was.
01:00:02To take a single subject,
01:00:04hone in on it,
01:00:05and create different pictures
01:00:06from that same motif.
01:00:11And these pictures sold fabulously,
01:00:14and they made him
01:00:15a very wealthy man.
01:00:36In 1889,
01:00:38Monet bought the house
01:00:40he and Alice had been renting
01:00:41for the past six years
01:00:42in the Norman village
01:00:44of Giverny.
01:00:47He could finally afford
01:00:49his expensive lifestyle.
01:00:52He brought in a butler,
01:00:54a cook,
01:00:54and he hired gardeners.
01:00:58Monet had always enjoyed gardening.
01:01:00Now it became his passion.
01:01:03He designed his garden,
01:01:06ordered greenhouses built,
01:01:07and traded plants with friends.
01:01:11I'm good for nothing,
01:01:12Monet said,
01:01:13but gardening and painting.
01:01:21In 1892,
01:01:23Monet traveled to Rouen
01:01:24to paint the cathedral.
01:01:28He struggled to apply
01:01:30what he had learned
01:01:31about painting a series
01:01:32of poppy fields,
01:01:33or haystacks,
01:01:34to a building.
01:01:37My dear Elise,
01:01:40I had a night
01:01:42filled with bad dreams.
01:01:45The cathedral
01:01:46was collapsing on me.
01:01:48It seemed to be blue
01:01:50or pink
01:01:51or yellow.
01:01:54Claude.
01:01:57What you have
01:01:59with the Rouen Cathedral series
01:02:01was the absolutely
01:02:03startling
01:02:04range
01:02:06of emotions
01:02:07and of situations.
01:02:10You realize that
01:02:12the building itself
01:02:15is
01:02:15an armature
01:02:17on which to hang
01:02:18the strokes.
01:02:23It's a skeleton
01:02:25to be clothed
01:02:27with paint.
01:02:29This guy
01:02:32was flying
01:02:33by the seat
01:02:34of his pants.
01:02:35This is
01:02:36pure innovation
01:02:38and invention.
01:02:39We left this morning
01:02:52for Giverny.
01:02:54It rained
01:02:54all day.
01:02:57Monsieur Monet
01:02:58showed us
01:02:58his cathedrals.
01:03:00There are 26
01:03:01of them.
01:03:03They're magnificent,
01:03:05painted in broad areas,
01:03:07and yet one
01:03:08can see
01:03:09every detail.
01:03:12Julie Manet.
01:03:15In 1895,
01:03:17Julie Manet
01:03:18was 16 years old.
01:03:21She had spent
01:03:22nearly every day
01:03:23of her life
01:03:23with her mother,
01:03:24Berthe Morisot.
01:03:26Morisot painted her,
01:03:28gave her art lessons,
01:03:30and schooled her
01:03:31at home.
01:03:31Late that winter,
01:03:37Morisot became ill,
01:03:39had trouble breathing,
01:03:41and was so weak
01:03:42she could barely
01:03:43pull herself
01:03:44out of bed.
01:03:46She had contracted
01:03:47pneumonia,
01:03:48and there was little
01:03:49her doctor could do
01:03:50to help her.
01:03:54My dearest
01:03:55little Julie,
01:03:56I love you
01:03:58as I die.
01:03:59I will still
01:04:01love you
01:04:01when I am dead.
01:04:06I beg of you,
01:04:08do not cry.
01:04:10This parting
01:04:10was inevitable.
01:04:13I would have liked
01:04:14to be with you
01:04:15until you married.
01:04:17You have never
01:04:18caused me
01:04:19one sorrow
01:04:19in your little life.
01:04:23Tell Monsieur Degas
01:04:24that he is to choose
01:04:25one of my manets,
01:04:27a keepsake for Monet,
01:04:28one for Renoir.
01:04:32Do not cry.
01:04:34I love you
01:04:35more than I can tell you.
01:04:38Maman.
01:04:45Berthe Morisot died
01:04:46Saturday morning,
01:04:47March 2nd,
01:04:481895.
01:04:51She was 54 years old.
01:04:53One year after
01:05:02Morisot's death,
01:05:03Renoir,
01:05:04Degas,
01:05:04and Monet
01:05:05organized a
01:05:06retrospective
01:05:07exhibition of her
01:05:08work at
01:05:08Durand-Ruel's.
01:05:13Degas,
01:05:14as always,
01:05:15argued over
01:05:16every possible
01:05:17detail,
01:05:18refusing to
01:05:19compromise
01:05:19on even a
01:05:20single point.
01:05:21As he grew
01:05:23older,
01:05:24Degas became
01:05:25increasingly
01:05:25difficult
01:05:26and obsessive.
01:05:30He was
01:05:31consumed by
01:05:32nearly anything
01:05:33that he found
01:05:34of interest.
01:05:34when Degas saw
01:05:47Rose Caron
01:05:48play
01:05:48Brudhilde
01:05:49in the opera
01:05:50Sigurd,
01:05:50he was so
01:05:51enraptured
01:05:52that he painted
01:05:53her,
01:05:53composed sonnets
01:05:54to her,
01:05:55and went back
01:05:56to see her
01:05:56perform the
01:05:57same role
01:05:5837 times.
01:06:00But not all
01:06:04of his
01:06:04obsessions
01:06:05were quite
01:06:06so benign.
01:06:08In the
01:06:09mid-1890s,
01:06:10Degas,
01:06:11who'd had
01:06:12Jewish friends
01:06:12all his life,
01:06:14became
01:06:14rabidly
01:06:15anti-Semitic.
01:06:17His shift
01:06:18came as a
01:06:19result of a
01:06:20political
01:06:20controversy,
01:06:21the Dreyfus
01:06:22Affair.
01:06:25Captain
01:06:25Dreyfus was
01:06:26Jewish,
01:06:27and he was
01:06:28accused of
01:06:28espionage.
01:06:30The trial
01:06:31that followed
01:06:32fueled an
01:06:32explosive
01:06:33national debate
01:06:34over Dreyfus'
01:06:35guilt or
01:06:36innocence,
01:06:37and it gave
01:06:38rise to
01:06:39virulent
01:06:39anti-Semitism
01:06:40all across
01:06:41France.
01:06:45Degas'
01:06:45behavior over
01:06:46the Dreyfus
01:06:47Affair was
01:06:48simply unforgivable
01:06:49in our terms.
01:06:50He was,
01:06:51um,
01:06:53he was
01:06:54openly
01:06:54anti-Semitic
01:06:55in his
01:06:56conversations,
01:06:57and it
01:06:57brought out
01:06:58the very
01:06:58worst
01:06:58in him.
01:07:00He had
01:07:01an old
01:07:01servant
01:07:02who'd
01:07:02been with
01:07:03him
01:07:03for
01:07:03many
01:07:03years.
01:07:04She would
01:07:05read him
01:07:06excerpts
01:07:06from the
01:07:07anti-Semitic
01:07:08press.
01:07:10He cut
01:07:10himself off
01:07:11from the
01:07:12Jew
01:07:13Pissarro,
01:07:14who had
01:07:14been one
01:07:14of his
01:07:14closest
01:07:15associates.
01:07:17He said
01:07:18that he
01:07:18could not
01:07:19look at
01:07:19Pissarro's
01:07:20work with
01:07:21unprejudiced
01:07:22eyes.
01:07:22The
01:07:25Dreyfus Affair
01:07:25was not
01:07:26easy for
01:07:26Pissarro,
01:07:27for a
01:07:28number of
01:07:28reasons.
01:07:29He was
01:07:29in
01:07:30Paris
01:07:31working,
01:07:33and he
01:07:33realized
01:07:35that he
01:07:36had this
01:07:36terrible
01:07:36problem,
01:07:37which is
01:07:37that he
01:07:37couldn't
01:07:38go out,
01:07:39because
01:07:39Pissarro
01:07:40looked like
01:07:42a Jew.
01:07:43It was a
01:07:44very, very
01:07:44difficult thing,
01:07:45and one of
01:07:45his greatest
01:07:46and most
01:07:47moving
01:07:47self-portraits,
01:07:48he only
01:07:49painted himself
01:07:49four times
01:07:50in his
01:07:50life in
01:07:51oil,
01:07:51was made
01:07:52in the
01:07:53hotel room
01:07:53that he
01:07:53couldn't
01:07:54get out
01:07:54of.
01:07:58Pissarro
01:07:59painted many
01:08:00of his
01:08:00Paris scenes
01:08:01from his
01:08:02hotel room
01:08:02window.
01:08:08And,
01:08:09despite the
01:08:10trouble that
01:08:10confronted him
01:08:11on the
01:08:11streets,
01:08:12his paintings
01:08:13were a hit
01:08:14in the
01:08:14galleries.
01:08:18Camille
01:08:18Pissarro's
01:08:19time had
01:08:20finally come.
01:08:50at the
01:08:54turn of the
01:08:55century,
01:08:55Camille
01:08:56Pissarro's
01:08:56paintings
01:08:57began selling
01:08:58like never
01:08:59before.
01:09:01He had
01:09:02spent much
01:09:03of his
01:09:03adult life
01:09:04barely earning
01:09:05enough to
01:09:05get by.
01:09:07Now,
01:09:08the Pissarro's
01:09:09were living
01:09:10comfortably.
01:09:12He began
01:09:13to make
01:09:14marketable
01:09:15paintings,
01:09:16and he
01:09:17actually thought
01:09:18about that.
01:09:19He was
01:09:20making images
01:09:21of La Belle
01:09:22France,
01:09:23and the
01:09:25paintings
01:09:25were
01:09:26extraordinary,
01:09:28and the
01:09:28paintings sold.
01:09:32Pissarro's
01:09:33paintings sold
01:09:34for over
01:09:345,000 francs
01:09:35apiece.
01:09:36And he
01:09:44turned out
01:09:44nearly a
01:09:45painting a
01:09:45week.
01:09:50But he
01:09:51would enjoy
01:09:51his success
01:09:52for only a
01:09:53short while.
01:09:55In October
01:09:55of 1903,
01:09:57the 73-year-old
01:09:58Pissarro fell
01:09:59sick.
01:10:01In the depth
01:10:02of his
01:10:03illness,
01:10:04he relived
01:10:04the discomfort
01:10:05he had felt
01:10:06years earlier
01:10:06when his
01:10:07wife had
01:10:08borrowed money
01:10:09from Claude
01:10:09Monet.
01:10:11He started
01:10:13having
01:10:13hallucinations,
01:10:15in which
01:10:16he imagines
01:10:17that Monet
01:10:18is absolutely,
01:10:20fiercely angry
01:10:21with him
01:10:22and his wife
01:10:23for having
01:10:24borrowed that
01:10:24money,
01:10:25and that
01:10:26this is
01:10:26staining
01:10:26their
01:10:26relationship.
01:10:29It's over
01:10:30a decade later,
01:10:31Pissarro is
01:10:32dying,
01:10:32and he
01:10:33relives
01:10:33that
01:10:34episode.
01:10:41When Monet
01:10:42heard not
01:10:43only of
01:10:44Pissarro's
01:10:44illness,
01:10:45but of
01:10:46his anguish,
01:10:47he immediately
01:10:48wrote a note
01:10:48to reaffirm
01:10:49their friendship.
01:10:52But the
01:10:53letter arrived
01:10:54too late.
01:10:55On November
01:10:5813th,
01:10:591903,
01:11:01Camille
01:11:01Pissarro
01:11:02died.
01:11:11Monet
01:11:12travelled to
01:11:12Erigny
01:11:13to say
01:11:13goodbye
01:11:14to his
01:11:15friend
01:11:15of 43
01:11:16years.
01:11:16Upon his
01:11:30return to
01:11:31Giverny,
01:11:32Monet
01:11:32focused on
01:11:33a series
01:11:33of paintings
01:11:34he called
01:11:34Nymphaeus,
01:11:36the botanical
01:11:37name for
01:11:38water lilies.
01:11:39A decade
01:11:53earlier,
01:11:54he had
01:11:54started work
01:11:55creating his
01:11:55water landscape,
01:11:57a pond
01:11:58he'd had
01:11:58constructed
01:11:59below his
01:12:00flower gardens.
01:12:01Monet's
01:12:13pond captured
01:12:14his attention
01:12:15like nothing
01:12:16else.
01:12:31But then,
01:12:45early in 1910,
01:12:47all his
01:12:47attention
01:12:48suddenly
01:12:48shifted.
01:12:51Alice,
01:12:52his partner
01:12:53for over
01:12:5330 years,
01:12:55was sick.
01:12:57The woman
01:12:58who had
01:12:58raised eight
01:12:59children and
01:13:00who liked
01:13:00to take
01:13:01Monet to
01:13:01see the
01:13:02local
01:13:02wrestling
01:13:02matches,
01:13:03was now
01:13:04confined
01:13:04to her
01:13:05bed.
01:13:07After
01:13:08months of
01:13:09suffering,
01:13:10Alice Monet
01:13:10died
01:13:11May 19th,
01:13:121910.
01:13:15Monet's
01:13:16loss of
01:13:16Alice
01:13:17was
01:13:17devastating,
01:13:18devastating.
01:13:19He wrote
01:13:20letter after
01:13:21letter to
01:13:21friends about
01:13:22how he
01:13:22simply couldn't
01:13:23survive,
01:13:24he couldn't
01:13:24paint,
01:13:24he couldn't
01:13:25think,
01:13:26and in fact
01:13:26he stopped
01:13:26painting for
01:13:27an entire
01:13:27year.
01:13:30friends visited,
01:13:37trying their
01:13:37best to
01:13:38boost Monet's
01:13:39spirits.
01:13:42But Monet
01:13:43could not
01:13:43bring himself
01:13:44to work.
01:13:49He spent
01:13:50days on end
01:13:51reading and
01:13:52rereading the
01:13:52letters that
01:13:53Alice had
01:13:53written him
01:13:54when he was
01:13:55away on his
01:13:55painting expeditions.
01:13:56Then, one
01:14:00by one, he
01:14:01threw them
01:14:01into the
01:14:02fire and
01:14:03watched them
01:14:04burn.
01:14:16It was just
01:14:17too painful a
01:14:18moment in his
01:14:18past.
01:14:19I think the
01:14:20depth of his
01:14:21feeling for
01:14:22Alice was so
01:14:23powerful that
01:14:24he simply
01:14:24couldn't bear
01:14:25the notion of
01:14:26her presence
01:14:27even in her
01:14:28own written
01:14:28hand.
01:14:31Monet wrote
01:14:31a short
01:14:32note to
01:14:32Durand
01:14:33Ruel.
01:14:34In it, he
01:14:35said simply,
01:14:36I no longer
01:14:37feel anything.
01:14:38Not long
01:14:48after Alice
01:14:48died, Edgar
01:14:50Degas arrived
01:14:51at Giverny
01:14:51to pay his
01:14:52respects.
01:14:54Monet was
01:14:54pleased to
01:14:55see the
01:14:55difficult man.
01:14:57He always
01:14:57thought of
01:14:58Degas as
01:14:59an old
01:14:59friend.
01:15:01Degas was
01:15:02growing deaf
01:15:02and the two
01:15:03had difficulty
01:15:04carrying on
01:15:05a conversation.
01:15:07His sight
01:15:07was so bad
01:15:08that he
01:15:09had trouble
01:15:09discerning
01:15:10the nuances
01:15:10of the
01:15:11paintings
01:15:11in Monet's
01:15:12studio.
01:15:16But when
01:15:17Degas returned
01:15:18to Paris,
01:15:18he kept
01:15:19pressing forward
01:15:20with his own
01:15:20artwork,
01:15:22despite his
01:15:22terrible
01:15:23eyesight.
01:15:27Degas's
01:15:28art had
01:15:28become
01:15:28increasingly
01:15:29abstract.
01:15:31He admitted
01:15:32that the
01:15:32shift reflected,
01:15:33as he put
01:15:34it,
01:15:34not my
01:15:35mind,
01:15:36but my
01:15:36eyes.
01:15:37Then,
01:15:41in December
01:15:41of 1912,
01:15:43Degas gave
01:15:44up.
01:15:46I no
01:15:47longer work.
01:15:49I don't
01:15:49care.
01:15:50I'm letting
01:15:51everything go.
01:15:53It's astonishing
01:15:54how indifferent
01:15:56you become
01:15:56in old age.
01:15:59Degas.
01:16:02Mercy,
01:16:03what a state
01:16:04he is in.
01:16:06He scarcely
01:16:07knows you.
01:16:09He neglects
01:16:10his clothes.
01:16:11He takes
01:16:11no interest
01:16:12in anything.
01:16:14It is dreadful.
01:16:17Mary Cassatt.
01:16:18The end
01:16:21of his life
01:16:21is a sad
01:16:22story because
01:16:23he was
01:16:24solitary.
01:16:25He didn't
01:16:25have a
01:16:26partner.
01:16:26He didn't
01:16:27have any
01:16:27close family
01:16:28by that
01:16:28stage.
01:16:30He lived
01:16:30virtually in
01:16:32isolation.
01:16:36Degas did
01:16:37little other
01:16:37than walk.
01:16:40He walked
01:16:41the streets
01:16:41of Paris
01:16:42aimlessly,
01:16:43alone.
01:16:44and he
01:16:45did it
01:16:46for year
01:16:46after year.
01:16:50It was,
01:16:51it seemed,
01:16:52his final
01:16:53obsession.
01:16:59Edgar Degas
01:17:01died on
01:17:01September 27,
01:17:031917,
01:17:04at the age
01:17:05of 83.
01:17:10It's fortunate
01:17:11for him,
01:17:12Renoir wrote.
01:17:13Any conceivable
01:17:14death is better
01:17:15than living
01:17:16the way he
01:17:16was.
01:17:28Renoir,
01:17:28although his
01:17:29body was
01:17:29ravaged by
01:17:30arthritis,
01:17:31was still
01:17:31painting.
01:17:34He would
01:17:34not allow
01:17:35his pain
01:17:35or discomfort
01:17:36to stop
01:17:37him.
01:17:41He had
01:17:46his brush
01:17:47placed in
01:17:47his hand
01:17:48and he
01:17:49would sit
01:17:49in his
01:17:49wheelchair
01:17:50and work.
01:17:58Painting
01:17:59itself,
01:17:59just the
01:18:00physical act
01:18:00of manipulating
01:18:01this stuff,
01:18:02was his
01:18:03lifeline,
01:18:04just actually
01:18:05doing it.
01:18:06And I
01:18:06think that
01:18:06although the
01:18:08fingers must
01:18:08have been
01:18:08inflexible in
01:18:09some ways,
01:18:10when you look
01:18:10at the
01:18:10delicacy of
01:18:11some of
01:18:11the touches
01:18:12of colour,
01:18:12even in
01:18:13the very,
01:18:13very last
01:18:13works,
01:18:14it's perfectly
01:18:15clear that
01:18:15he had
01:18:15all the
01:18:16control he
01:18:16needed to
01:18:17paint the
01:18:18sort of
01:18:18pictures he
01:18:18was painting.
01:18:30Renoir suffers
01:18:31at times
01:18:31greatly.
01:18:35He is
01:18:36doing the
01:18:36most awful
01:18:37pictures of
01:18:37enormously
01:18:38fat red
01:18:39women with
01:18:40very small
01:18:40heads.
01:18:43His friend
01:18:43Volard
01:18:44persuades him
01:18:44they are
01:18:45fine.
01:18:46Durand
01:18:47Ruel knows
01:18:48better.
01:18:50Mary Cassatt.
01:18:53Late in
01:18:541919,
01:18:56Renoir had
01:18:56just completed
01:18:57his large-scale
01:18:58work,
01:18:58The Great
01:18:59Bathers,
01:19:00and turned
01:19:01to paint a
01:19:01small still life
01:19:02of flowers.
01:19:03before he'd
01:19:06finished the
01:19:07still life,
01:19:08Renoir suffered
01:19:09a heart
01:19:09attack,
01:19:10and on
01:19:11December 3rd,
01:19:121919,
01:19:13he died.
01:19:16Pierre-Auguste
01:19:17Renoir was
01:19:1878 years old.
01:19:23The painter
01:19:24Henri Matisse
01:19:25remembered what
01:19:26Renoir had once
01:19:27told him.
01:19:27Pain passes,
01:19:30Renoir had
01:19:31said,
01:19:31but beauty
01:19:33remains.
01:19:40Renoir's death
01:19:41hits me like a
01:19:42painful blow.
01:19:45A part of my
01:19:46life vanishes
01:19:47with him,
01:19:48the battles
01:19:49and the
01:19:49enthusiasms
01:19:50of youth.
01:19:52And here I am,
01:19:54the only one
01:19:55of the group
01:19:55left.
01:19:58It is hard
01:19:59to carry on
01:20:00alone,
01:20:01though it
01:20:01certainly won't
01:20:02be for long.
01:20:05Every day
01:20:06I feel age
01:20:08gaining on me.
01:20:11Monet.
01:20:25Since the death
01:20:34of his wife
01:20:35in 1910,
01:20:37Claude Monet
01:20:37had painted
01:20:38precious few
01:20:39canvases.
01:20:41Any work
01:20:42that he attempted
01:20:42seemed to him
01:20:43only a failure.
01:20:50And to make
01:20:51matters worse,
01:20:53Monet found
01:20:53that he was
01:20:54slowly going blind.
01:20:55It was the
01:21:00thought of not
01:21:01being able to
01:21:01see that made
01:21:03the 74-year-old
01:21:04Monet throw
01:21:05himself into
01:21:06what would be
01:21:07the biggest
01:21:07project of his
01:21:08life.
01:21:11He dreamed
01:21:12of creating
01:21:13not just a
01:21:14work of art,
01:21:15but recreating
01:21:16the sense and
01:21:17feeling of
01:21:18actually being
01:21:19in his water
01:21:20garden.
01:21:20to do it,
01:21:26he would paint
01:21:26on canvas
01:21:27panels as big
01:21:28as 7 feet
01:21:29tall and
01:21:3028 feet
01:21:31wide.
01:21:33He would
01:21:34call the
01:21:34series
01:21:35Les Grandes
01:21:36Decorations.
01:21:37Monet began
01:21:46work just as
01:21:47the first
01:21:48battles of
01:21:49World War
01:21:49I broke
01:21:50out in
01:21:50the summer
01:21:51of 1914.
01:21:56At times,
01:21:57he could hear
01:21:57the sound of
01:21:58artillery fire
01:21:59in the distance.
01:22:00My dear
01:22:05Durand-Rael,
01:22:06if those
01:22:07savages must
01:22:08kill me,
01:22:10it will be in
01:22:10the midst of
01:22:11my canvases
01:22:12in front of
01:22:13my life's
01:22:13work.
01:22:15Monet.
01:22:19While others
01:22:20evacuated
01:22:21Giverny,
01:22:22Monet kept
01:22:23painting.
01:22:24He worked
01:22:24day after day,
01:22:26year after
01:22:27year.
01:22:30When the
01:22:30war ended
01:22:31in 1918,
01:22:32he offered
01:22:33to donate
01:22:33Les Grandes
01:22:34Decorations
01:22:34to the
01:22:35French state
01:22:36in honor
01:22:36of the
01:22:37armistice.
01:22:39But there
01:22:41was a catch.
01:22:43There's a
01:22:44wonderful moment
01:22:44where he exacts
01:22:46his price.
01:22:46He's going to
01:22:47give them to
01:22:47the state,
01:22:48but on one
01:22:48condition,
01:22:49which is that
01:22:50they buy from
01:22:50him his
01:22:51women in the
01:22:52garden that
01:22:52had been
01:22:53rejected at
01:22:53the Salon
01:22:54in 1867.
01:22:56Finally,
01:22:57in 1922,
01:22:59the French
01:22:59government
01:22:59agreed to
01:23:00pay for
01:23:01the once
01:23:01rejected
01:23:01work,
01:23:02and they
01:23:03paid handsomely
01:23:04200,000
01:23:06francs.
01:23:08In return,
01:23:09Monet agreed
01:23:10to go through
01:23:11with his
01:23:11donation to
01:23:12the state.
01:23:15But a year
01:23:16passed,
01:23:17and then
01:23:17another,
01:23:18and Monet
01:23:19refused to
01:23:19release the
01:23:20paintings.
01:23:21He did
01:23:22not consider
01:23:23them done,
01:23:24and he
01:23:24continually
01:23:25reworked and
01:23:26retouched
01:23:26them.
01:23:29in 1926,
01:23:33Monet found
01:23:33that he
01:23:34had little
01:23:34energy to
01:23:35paint.
01:23:36He was
01:23:3686 years
01:23:37old,
01:23:38and only
01:23:38managed a
01:23:39few hours
01:23:39of work
01:23:40a day.
01:23:42September
01:23:4318th,
01:23:441926.
01:23:46My dear
01:23:47Clemenceau,
01:23:48I was so
01:23:50much better
01:23:50that I
01:23:51thought to
01:23:52getting my
01:23:52brushes and
01:23:53palette ready
01:23:54for work
01:23:55again.
01:23:57But relapses
01:23:58and new
01:23:59pain kept
01:23:59me from
01:24:00doing so.
01:24:02If I do
01:24:03not gain the
01:24:04strength to
01:24:05do my
01:24:05panels as
01:24:06I would
01:24:07like to,
01:24:08I have
01:24:08decided to
01:24:09give them
01:24:10as they
01:24:10are.
01:24:11Yours more
01:24:12than ever,
01:24:13Monet.
01:24:14On
01:24:22December
01:24:225th,
01:24:231926,
01:24:25with his
01:24:25friend
01:24:26Georges
01:24:26Clemenceau
01:24:27by his
01:24:27side,
01:24:29Claude
01:24:29Monet
01:24:29died.
01:24:30Amen.
01:25:00Five months after his death,
01:25:03les grandes décorations were installed permanently
01:25:05in the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris.
01:25:18But by the time Claude Monet died,
01:25:21Impressionism was out of favor.
01:25:26The art world had moved on in a radical new direction.
01:25:30Almost no one came to see Monet's last work at the Orangerie.
01:25:42The Impressionists, artists who had ushered in
01:25:45unprecedented change, had been forgotten.
01:25:49Early in the 1950s,
01:26:03almost a quarter century after Claude Monet's death,
01:26:07historians began to slowly rediscover Impressionism.
01:26:10Major museums brought Impressionist art to a new generation.
01:26:21And Impressionism was reborn.
01:26:24Reborn nearly 100 years after Claude Monet,
01:26:34Auguste Renoir,
01:26:36Camille Pissarro,
01:26:39Berthe Morisot,
01:26:41and Edgar Degas
01:26:42first began making paintings
01:26:44that captured their modern moment.
01:26:46The Impressionists defied the conservative art establishment.
01:26:55They challenged the world to see art in a new way.
01:27:02They freed art from the confines of what was expected.
01:27:06Their commitment to a certain kind of vision,
01:27:24a certain kind of language,
01:27:26a certain kind of creation,
01:27:29tells us a heroic story.
01:27:31The thing that still impresses me
01:27:35is just how brave they were,
01:27:37how original they were.
01:27:40Their art was tough and demanding and difficult,
01:27:44and what they did was extraordinarily brave.
01:27:52Art that had been made in the distant past
01:27:55now struck a new chord,
01:27:58reaching out across a century
01:28:00to engage viewers
01:28:01with its sense of the moment,
01:28:04its immediacy,
01:28:06its beauty.
01:28:30one of our dreams
01:28:31was definitely the one to be
01:28:34with us through the love,
01:28:35and the moustache,
01:28:35we had a great opportunity
01:28:35to go to the facts
01:28:36and walk to the girls
01:28:36with the hopes of dreams.
01:28:36It was a great opportunity,
01:28:37to see us,
01:28:37with the next kind of love.
01:28:39Which can we do?
01:28:40We are going to make the next fight,
01:28:40which is the next part?
01:28:41With me and I'm on the edge,
01:28:41and I'm going to make the next fight.
01:28:42I know.
01:28:43With me,
01:28:44I'm going to be in the moment,
01:28:45with you,
01:28:45and I'm going to make the next fight,
01:28:46and I'm going to make the last fight,
01:28:47but I'm going to make the next look,
01:28:47and I'm going to meet the next fight,
01:28:48and I'm going to see you.
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