The Myth of Paris: City Marketing Before the Letter

Kunstmuseum Den Haag presents a major retrospective on the social upheavals in the second half of nineteenth-century Paris. The cradle of Impressionism has two faces and this most famous new housing estate in the world unmistakably resembles our current society.  New Paris: from Monet to Morisot shows what is cherished about the city, and what was collectively preferred to be forgotten.  On view from 14 February 2025 to 9 June 2025.

Claude Monet, Quay du Louvre, 1867, Kunstmuseum The Hague.

In 1867, Claude Monet painted the view of Paris from the balcony of the famous Louvre. Monet literally turned his back on classical art to capture life on the street, the arbitrariness of his here and now. A radical break with the norm. Paris was in motion in those years, there was life, the world was at his feet. A 'liveable' city with growing pains, which drove those who had the least to the frayed edges. They became three paintings that show the new face of the city. 

In the spring of 2025, Kunstmuseum Den Haag will show New Paris: from Monet to Morisot , a major Impressionism exhibition that focuses on the imagination of that new Paris. In collaboration with the Alte Nationalgalerie (Berlin) and Allen Memorial Art Museum (Oberlin, Ohio), these three cityscapes will be brought together for the first time in the Netherlands. But New Paris will also show 65 works from French Impressionism by Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Édouard Manet, Frédéric Bazille, Gustave Caillebotte, Paul Cezanne, Armand Guillaumin, Mary Cassatt, from collections all over the world. The Impressionist layer will be complemented by prints by Honoré Daumier and photographs by inventor, photographer and hot air balloon pilot Felix Nadar. 

Margriet Schavemaker, director of Kunstmuseum Den Haag: “When we think of Impressionism, we always think of landscapes, but its birthplace is really Paris. In this exhibition, we show how artists from Monet to Morisot dealt with that modern urban ambiguity. Is this city marketing avant la lettre or is there more layering to be found in those soft, rosy images? I am proud of the years of research and the many unique loans that take visitors back to the start of Impressionism and offer new perspectives on the history of a city that we all love.”

Frouke van Dijke, curator of 19th-century art, Kunstmuseum Den Haag: “The Impressionists met during the heyday of Haussmann's urban renewal. Tens of thousands of workers were not only building new houses and streets at that time, but also the myth of Paris: the city of light, beauty and romance. Paris was given a new face. People looked to the future with a mix of optimism and fear at a time when both modern art and the city of Paris were completely transformed. How fantastic to bring together so many works from all over the world, to bring the richness of Paris to The Hague.” 

From Monet to Morisot 
Renowned and recently deceased art historian Linda Nochlin described Monet's three cityscapes from 1867 as "the most meaningful gesture" by an artist towards a museum. New Paris shows the 'birth' of Impressionism and the ten years that followed: the siege of the city by Prussia in 1870, famine, the struggle for equality, civil war and the reconstruction that followed. By mapping the imagination of Paris from Monet to Morisot, the exhibition is a portrait of the modern city in general. 

Charles Marville, Haute de la rue Champlain (vue prize á droit), c.1877, Museé Carnavalet

The ideal city 
Under the leadership of urban planner Georges-Eugène Haussmann, the old medieval city was demolished in record time from 1853 onwards, and rebuilt just as quickly into a modern metropolis. This megalomaniac project emerged from new ideas about a liveable city, with attention to safety and infrastructure, hygiene, social cohesion, nature and leisure. The transformation of Paris reflects these visions of the ideal design of a city – and therefore of society. Yet it became primarily a city for a new elite. The poor population was pushed to the fringes and there was speculation on the housing market from which only a few profited. Labour migration led to exploitation and friction between the different classes in society. Cartoons by Daumier illustrate the impact of these developments on the population with humour and a sharp sarcasm.

Mary Cassatt, Autumn, portrait of Lydia Cassatt, 1880, oil on canvas, Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Pariss

Protest Parisienne 
The fashionable Parisienne becomes the epitome of the new Paris. Suddenly, there are public spaces such as department stores and theatres that offer her much more freedom. It is looking and being looked at. Times are changing, that is exactly what fashion shows in the street scene. In Paris, the new woman is everywhere: from who wears couture, who makes it, who depicts it to who looks at it and what it triggers - the Parisienne as a symbol. 

At the same time, female artists such as Morisot and Cassat have fewer privileges and access to Paris than the other Impressionists. For example, they could not go to the café with male colleagues, that was still not done . Where, for example, Manet or Renoir portray the Parisienne as a type or symbol for the city, Cassatt and Morisot portray women as individuals. The female gaze  as a counter-voice to the prevailing inequality. 

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue and a children's art book by Charlotte Dematons, in the successful series of children's art books that the Kunstmuseum publishes with Uitgeverij Leopold. 

The exhibition is supported by numerous museum and private lenders, with partners including Alte Nationalgalerie (Berlin), Allen Memorial Art Museum (Oberlin), Musée Carnavalet – Histoire de Paris (Paris), and others such as The National Gallery of Art (Washington), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Musée d'Orsay, Musée Marmottan Monet, Museum Barberini and many other collections. 

IMAGES

Auguste Renoir, Le Pont-neuf, 1872, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Charles Marville, Haute de la rue Champlain (vue prize á droit), c.1877, Museé Carnavalet

Claude Monet, Le Jardin De L'infante, 1867, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio

Claude Monet, Saint Germain l'Auxerrois Paris, 1867, Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin

Honoré Daumier, from the series Tenants and Homeowners, 1854, Musée Carnavalet - Histoire de Paris

Berthe Morisot, Jeanne Fourmanoir sur le lac (Jeanne Fourmanoir on the Lake), 1892, oil on canvas, FAMM Museum, Mougins (The Levett Collection)

Mary Cassatt, Autumn, portrait of Lydia Cassatt, 1880, oil on canvas, Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris

Berthe Morisot, In the Woods (Au bois) 1867, pencil and watercolor on paper, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Claude Monet (1840-1926) La Rue Montorgueil, à Paris. Fête du 30 juin 1878 (La Rue Montorgueil, in Paris. Feast day of June 30, 1878), 1878, Musée d'Orsay
Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) Rue Halévy, view from the sixth floor, 1878, Museum Barberini, Potsdam