Plein air. From Corot to Monet: The birth of Impressionism (1860-74)

The painter Giuseppe De Nittis, founder of the School of Resina, a group of landscape painters based near Naples, was heavily influenced by the experiences of the Macchiaioli group. Around 1860, De Nittis thus declared: "I sometimes stayed, happy under the downpours. The atmosphere, you see...I know it well. I had to paint it. I know all the colours, all the secrets of nature, the air and the sky. Oh! The sky! I have made paintings of it! Nothing but skies with beautiful clouds! You see, I am very close to nature. I love it! It has given me joy, joy! " (Giuseppe De Nittis, "Notes et souvenirs du peintre Joseph de Nittis", Paris, former Maison Quantin, Librairies-Imprimeries Réunies May et Motteroz, 1895)

Having been living in France since 1868, De Nittis was invited by Edgar Degas to participate in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. A friend of Gustave Caillebotte, he met up with the latter during his stay in Naples in 1872. That year, De Nittis explored the slopes of the volcano, where he painted a series of studies from nature.

As for Caillebotte, he painted the ruins of Pompeii against the backdrop of Vesuvius. He probably depicted his friend De Nittis here, hidden behind the frame of a canvas laying on a horse-drawn carriage, with the volcano in the background.

From the early 1860s onwards, Eugène Boudin, born in Honfleur, worked very productively along the Normandy coast. The artist, admired by Baudelaire for his “meteorological beauties”, never tired of observing the effects of the sky and the light of the Seine estuary. He used watercolour, pastel or (as here) oil on paper to transcribe his impressions. He sometimes wrote the time or the time of day on his studies. However, it is a sensation that he indicates here – "frais" or fresh – followed by a mysterious "tout calbotté" which, in the local Cauchois dialect, indicates curdled milk.

Boudin became famous for his delicate scenes of "crinoline" beaches which illustrated the high society lifestyle of the elegant, finely sketched figures who frequented the fashionable seaside resorts of the Second French Empire. He sought to capture the fleeting impressions of the atmosphere. On 30 August 1869, he wrote to his friend, the painter Ferdinand Martin: "I am still struggling with my figures of ladies, which are truly tormenting me. I have however sketched a number of them, but I had to draw a lot before succeeding. We are also being ravaged by the east wind, which brings with it the most boring weather imaginable for painting."

Having long been condemned to working on small panels, artists were now free to work outdoors with medium-size formats, as revealed in particular by this photograph showing Eugène Boudin on the pier in Deauville in 1896. Boudin would go on to give his friend Ferdinand Martin valuable advice on the essential equipment for outdoor painting: the ingenious easel-stool, the articulated parasol, the small English Radney pocket boxes, although he preferred the French pastel colours of Panier Paillard, and even the small satchel worn across the shoulder.

During the summer of 1865, in the Fontainebleau forest in Chailly, Claude Monet took on the ambitious project of a landscape with figures. The dimensions were remarkable: around 4.60 by over 6 metres. Monet intended it to be for the 1866 Salon. The artist worked by creating small studies in nature and then composing the ensemble in his workshop. "The Walkers. Study for ‘Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe’", in which he depicts his future wife, Camille Doncieux, as well as his friend, the painter Frédéric Bazille, is one of these quickly finished studies, yet it is the size of a painting.

La Grenouillère was a baths located on the island of Croissy, opposite Bougival. Linked to Paris by train, this place enjoyed its heyday from 1860 to 1889.

In 1869, Claude Monet was living with Camille in the hamlet of Saint-Michel in Bougival. Auguste Renoir, living with his parents in Voisins near Louveciennes, paid him regular visits. They carried their easels to La Grenouillère, where they made a series of sketches from nature. On 25 September 1869, Monet revealed his quest to his friend Frédéric Bazille: "I do have a dream, a painting, the La Grenouillère baths, which I have done some poor sketches for, but it's just a dream. Renoir, who has just spent two months here, also wants to paint this picture." The large painting did not see the light of day, but in 1876 Monet presented one of his studies, three versions of which are known to us, as a standalone work at the second Impressionist exhibition.

This perspective is the one adopted in the compositions by Boudin and Monet: behind the beach cabins, which are no longer there today, lies the Hôtel des Roches Noires.