This exhibition was first hosted in Toronto from 06/01/2004 to 09/15/2004 at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
It takes place as part of the Entente Cordiale centenary celebrations.

TURNER

English painter Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) has anticipated in his latest works the Impressionist style of painting where forms are dissolved in colored atmospheres.

With such paintings as "Rain, Steam, and Speed, the Great Western Railway" - 1844, Turner manifests a sensibility to warm colors, a new informal composition and an interest for modern reality. All concerns that will later be at the heart of Impressionism.

Although Turner's work is in the romantic style, whereas Impressionist painting will stick to realistic principles - the artist representing nothing but what he sees -, one may indeed see in these so extraordinarily modern paintings of Turner, a British component of Impressionism.

WHISTLER

American painter James Abbott Mc Neill Whistler (1834-1903) lived from 1855 to 1859 in Paris, where he attended the courses of the "Ecole des Beaux-Arts" ("School of Fine Arts"), studied in the Workshop of Charles Gleyre - where Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Bazille will follow him a few years later -, and became a friend of French painter Fantin-Latour and a great admirer of Edouard Manet.

Because his works had been refused by the jury of the "Salon Officiel" (the French national annual Exhibition) in 1859, he moved definitely to London, where he shall become a successful painter, while frequently returning to France where he keeps on exhibiting his paintings.

At the French "Salon des Refusés" ("Exhibition for the refused ones") of 1863, his painting "Symphony N° 1, Young Girl in White " - 1862, a work that had been rejected by both French Salon and British Royal Academy, will attract considerable attention.

By 1870, Whistler started painting his first moonligths over the Thames River inspired by similar Turner's works, that he will call "Nocturnes" from 1872.

Whereas Whistler was eccentric and exhuberant, making friendships with the most famous artists of his time, his art was at the opposite discreet and subtle.

The titles of his paintings, "Harmony", "Symphony", "Arrangement", "Nocturne" intend to establish a parallel with musical works.

In his point of view, a painting should not have any narrative or moral content, but be appreciated only by itself, in the same way as one listens to a musical work.

MONET

In 1870, Monet refused to serve in the army of Napoléon III, then engaged in the Franco-Prussian war. He moved with Pissarro to London where he could admire at the National Gallery the works Turner had bequeathed to his country.

As Whistler before him, he will be deeply attracted by Turner's paintings, especially those describing the fog effects over the Thames River which will inspire him three paintings ("Thames River at Westminster" - 1871)

In London, Monet probably also discovered the "Nocturnes" of Whistler, that will later be exhibited in Paris in 1873 by art dealer Durand-Ruel.

Monet will form a friendship and a collaboration with Whistler that will last over time, each one of them being a representative for the other's works in his own country.

Thus, Monet's paintings will be exhibited several times in London, until he will go back there for the first time in 1887, once again attracted by London and Whistler's painting .

Nevertheless, it is only in 1899 that Monet will start a series of journeys in London that will end by 1901, where he shalll paint three of his most famous series, all together more than thirty paintings, on Westminster Parliament, Charing Cross Bridge and Waterloo Bridge .

The exhibition spreads over six rooms, the first of which being devoted to Turner's paintings, which includes the charming and colored "Chichester Canal" and other paintings of a much more modern and pre-impressionist style, the following rooms having Monet and Whistler hold a dialog in presence of many watercolors by Turner.

The room next to last is entirely devoted to the remarkable series Monet made on the Thames River in London between 1899 and 1901 - dated 1904, since he worked a long time on it afterwards -.

The works shown in this exhibition are major masterpieces of the three artists, and it makes a visit quite worthwhile.

As for the comparative purpose of the exhibition, let's quote the opinion of Jean-David Jumeau-Lafond dated 10/13/2004 in "La Tribune de l'Art" :

"... For the conviction with which one leaves this exhibition is that the genius of each one of these three artists remains unique.

...Finally, is there anything in common between the delirious langage and colors of Turner, artist of the beginning of the 19th century fascinated by motion, and his desire to communicate his own feeling of atmospheres through a non realistic synthesis, the retinian look of Monet, his divided touch and his true naturalism, and lastly the still and plane visions of a contemplative and mysterious Whistler ?..."