Grainstack (Sunset)

Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, born in Toulouse in 1750, was one of many French artists who went to Italy. These artists wanted to study the works of Renaissance masters and to absorb the flavor of the countryside around Rome that had inspired the great seventeenth-century French painters resident there, Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin. Valenciennes went to Italy...

There is a dynamic relationship between depicted light – the light effects represented in Impressionist paintings – and the inherent luminosity of the materials and methods of handling used by the painters. Understanding this relationship is crucial in evaluating the modernity and meanings of Impressionist painting. The physical properties of their chosen materials facilitated...