Works by Monet, Renoir, Degas and Boudin will be included in a notable exhibition, Impressionism: Spirit and Beauty at Trinity House, 50 Maddox Street, London W1S 1AY, from 22 November to 6 December 2014. Trinity House specialises in Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and 19th century works of art and this exhibition coincides with Russian Icons: Spirit and Beauty being staged at the same gallery by Jan Morsink Ikonen of Amsterdam from 22 to 27 November during Russian Art Week (see separate press release).

Simon Mills of Trinity House and Simon Morsink are excited about presenting Impressionist works alongside Russian icons. Simon Mills says “The aim of this show is to juxtapose these two very diverse painterly styles to highlight how they can, in fact, work alongside one another in harmony.  By displaying the two approaches to painting together, the viewer is better able to understand the qualities and active decision-making behind each style through observing the differences and merits found in each.”

Among the highlights of the Impressionist show for sale is Hiver à Giverny, 1886, by Claude Monet (1840-1926).  Giverny was Monet’s home from 1883 until his death and became synonymous with the most innovative compositions of his career.  In the winter of 1885-86, he painted several views of Giverny and the neighbouring Limetz under snow and, according to Daniel Wildenstein who published Monet’s biography and catalogue raisonné, the present work was painted on the road between the two.  It exemplifies the artist’s life-long commitment to painting en plein air, exploring the effects of weather conditions and light at different times of the day on the landscape.  The contrast between the ochre and brown tones of the ground and trees and the icy blue and white tones of the snow-covered hills and water evoke the atmosphere of stillness and tranquillity of a winter day.  The work has an impeccable provenance having belonged to the artist’s son and heir Michel, followed by two private collectors.

Monet was born in Paris but grew up in Le Havre. Close to his home was a small shop owned by the marine painter Eugène Boudin (1824-1898) who recognised the boy’s talent and gave him his first painting lessons.  A charming work by Boudin, Golfe Juan l’escadre dans la baie, 1893, features in this Trinity House exhibition. Exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1893, the scene depicts the bay looking towards Cannes, with fishermen in a small boat hauling in their catch in the foreground and the yachts of those holidaying in Cannes in the distance, all bathed in the silvery light before nightfall with clouds backlit by the setting sun. This play of light was of great importance to Boudin who once wrote: “It is fortunate that the Creator has scattered a little of his splendid and warming light everywhere; it is the world that is enveloped by this light that we painters reproduce”.

Portrait de Femme (Gabrielle Renard) by Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), circa 1912, is a well executed example of the artist’s masterful late portraits.  It demonstrates his pre-eminence at rendering light as it fell upon the human form while the lively brushwork is accentuated by the vivid palette chosen to depict his longstanding model.  Renoir was considered to be the finest portrait painter of the Impressionist circle; his portraits of women in particular received overwhelming praise from his contemporaries and were admired for their sweetness and sensual allure.  The critic Théodore Duret wrote: "I doubt whether any painter has ever interpreted women in a more seductive manner... Renoir's women are enchantresses".

Le Quatorze Julliet à Paris, 1925, by Gustave Loiseau (1865-1935), the Post-Impressionist painter remembered above all for his landscapes and Paris street scenes, is a vibrant example of his Parisian works which brilliantly captures the festive holiday atmosphere.   Money inherited from his grandmother enabled him to devote his life to painting.  He moved to Montmartre and in 1890 he went to Pont Aven in Brittany where he befriended many of the artists there, especially Paul Gauguin and Émile Bernard.  He first employed pointillist techniques and then re-found his pure landscape ideals, painting en plein air, directly from nature and developed a crosshatched technique called en treillis (latticework) which gives his paintings the supple, almost touchable quality for which he is known.

 An earlier street scene is Regent Street, London, circa 1913-14, by Isaac Israels (1865-1934), the Dutch painter associated with the Amsterdam Impressionist movement.  The son of a well-respected Hague School painter Jozef Israels, Isaac studied at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague and, after a year travelling in Belgium,  he moved to Amsterdam in 1886 where he became a painter of the streets, cafés and cabarets.  He went to Paris in 1904 and established a studio yards away from that of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec whose work he admired.  Israels moved to London in the spring of 1913 in search of new and dynamic subject matter, focusing especially on the bustling streetlife of the West End, Piccadilly Circus and Regent Street.  He took a childish pleasure in driving around London on a double decker bus, observing his subject-matter from a high view-point, and this work features such a bird's-eye view of Regent Street.  With broad and impressionistic brushstrokes, Israels rendered numerous figures strolling across the sand-coloured pavement against contrated by the brightly-coloured buses.

A dynamic charcoal drawing, Dancer (Préparation en dedans), circa 1885, by Edgar Degas (1834-1917) was exhibited at the Royal Academy’s major exhibition of his work in 2011.  Degas was brought up in a musical family and was so familiar with the opera that he was able to gain access to its backstage areas where dancers might be practising or warming up for a performance. This level of exposure to the dancers’ world enabled him to capture sophisticated and modern movement on paper.  As a founder member of Impressionism, Degas brought together two significant elements of his work in this particular drawing: it is an accurate depiction of the human figure in movement and demonstrates the artist’s ability to capture a moment in a dancer’s motion that may, in normal circumstances, pass unnoticed. 

www.trinityhousepaintings.com

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Trinity House opens from 11am-6pm (Monday to Saturday) and 11am-5pm (Sunday) during the Spirit and Beauty exhibitions.  Prices start from £40,000 GBP.