Impressionism: Sensation and Inspiration.
Masterpieces from the State Hermitage Museum
16 June 2012 - 13 January 2013
80 exhibits

From 16 June 2012 to 13 January 2013 at the Hermitage-Amsterdam Exhibition Centre an exhibition is being held with 80 masterpieces including paintings, graphic art and sculptures from the second half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. The display comes from the fine collection of the State Hermitage Museum. Works of impressionist masters Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Camille Pissarro will be on display. These masters opened a new epoch in the development of art and are shown in the context of the broad artistic panorama of their time.

French romanticism is represented by Eugéne Delacroix' famous canvas The Lion Hunt in Morocco (1854), neoclassicists Alexandre Cabanel and Jean-Léon Gérôme - Portrait of Countess Elizabeth Vorontsova-Dashkova (1873) and Slave Auction (1884) respectively. Landscape with a Plowman (1860-1865) by Théodore Rousseau and A Pond (1858) by Charles-François Daubigny characterize the Barbizon school, traditions which developed in its creativity, especially impressionists Camille Pissarro (French Grand Theatre Square, 1898) and Alfred Sisley (Windy Day in Vienna, 1882).

In their turn the impressionists inspired other independent and dissimilar artists such as Paul Cézanne (The Smoker, 1890-1892) and Paul Gauguin (Woman Holding a Fruit, 1893).

The celebrated paintings of Claude Monet (Woman in the Garden, Corner of the Garden at Montgeron) and Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary, Girl with a Fan) are placed beside lesser known sculptures by Auguste Rodin (Eternal Spring, Cupid and Psyche), pictures by Edgar Degas (Seated Dancer Adjusting Her Shoes) and Édouard Manet (Portrait of Madame Jules Guillemet).

From 29 September 2012 the second wing of Hermitage-Amsterdam will house canvases, pictures and letters from Van Gogh while the Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum is undergoing repairs. The viewer will have the rare opportunity to see the legacy of Vincent Van Gogh next to a wonderful collection of artworks produced by his contemporaries from the State Hermitage Museum Collection.

The exhibition curator is D.A. Albert Grigoryevich Kostenevich, the chief scientific advisor for the Department of Western European Fine Art at the State Hermitage Museum.