Bonnard was intimate with all the women he painted: he knew them, as it were, by hand. In his soft, blurred splotches of bright color lies the closeness of the caress, the insights the fingers have divined. Indeed, Bonnard did not ask his models to sit for long, if at all; from a brief sketch he fill

Bright, Domestic, Erotic, Post-impressionism, Sensual, Serene, The nabis, Tranquil

Georges Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" (1886) remains a landmark painting. It established the Parisian artist as one of the figures who would push Impressionism towards its logical conclusion. And push he did, in the direction of abstraction and a radically scientific

Bright, Clean, Mathematical, Pioneering, Pointillism, Tense

Modernity meant the abandonment of myth, symbolism, and classical ideals in favor of science, the natural, and "real life;" these changes are well represented in the paintings of Camille Pissaro. Pissarro developed his style by exploring the roads, countryside, and urban landscapes of France. He woul

Charming, Impressionism, Organic, Pastoral, Rhythmic, Tranquil

French Impressionism was not just a style, an approach to brushwork, or a sensitivity to light. It was a new kind of content: a focus on the middle-class life of afternoons at the park, outings to the seashore, and a domestic world of well-appointed interiors. This turn toward familial and private sc

Clean, Demure, Domestic, Impressionism, Serene, Tranquil