The Holburne Museum in Bath is showcasing over 50 prints by artists like Édouard Manet, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Gauguin in a new exhibition titled Beyond Impressionism: Printmaking from Manet to Picasso. The show highlights how these painters, primarily known for their oil works, helped revive printmaking, which had declined by the mid-19th century.
Reviving a Lost Art
Museum director Chris Stephens noted that while impressionist paintings are widely recognized, their contributions to printmaking are often overlooked. The exhibition aims to acknowledge this pivotal moment in art history, spanning from the 1850s to the 1930s. Stephens was inspired to create the show after seeing Gauguin woodcuts at Frieze Masters in London, struck by their immediacy.
Printmaking had been a respected medium in the 17th century, with artists like Rembrandt and later Goya, but by the 1800s it was largely relegated to commercial reproductions. Stephens explained that leading painters of the 19th century returned to printmaking, elevating it as a form of artistic expression.
Key Works and Artists
The exhibition's promotional image features Manet's 1872 lithograph of fellow artist Berthe Morisot. Manet was a key figure in the Société des Aquafortistes, founded in 1862 to promote etching alongside painting and drawing. Stephens emphasized that printmaking's collaborative nature fostered idea exchange among artists, who also drew inspiration from Japanese printmakers.
Notable pieces include Van Gogh's Gardener By an Apple Tree, sketched during a visit to a retirement home, and a series of Pablo Picasso prints, including The Frugal Meal and minotaur etchings from the 1930s. The exhibition also features lithographs by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, which promoted Parisian nightlife through large, colorful prints made possible by advances in lithographic printing.
Stephens expressed particular admiration for James McNeill Whistler's etchings of the Thames in London and Venice, noting how Whistler used soft shading to create a misty effect similar to his paintings.
Public and Private Collections
Many pieces come from public collections like the Courtauld Gallery in London and the Ashmolean in Oxford, while others are borrowed from private collections and rarely seen by the public. The exhibition runs from 23 May to 13 September at the Holburne Museum. A concurrent show, The Transience of Light, at the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath features works by landscape artist and master printmaker Norman Ackroyd.
Stephens said: "It is wonderful to be able to demonstrate the revival of etching from Whistler’s Venetian nocturnes to Picasso’s minotaurs alongside Gauguin’s rare woodblock prints and lithographs by Toulouse-Lautrec."
