Thursday Lates: More than just an impression

In this talk, Jess Fahy will explore the influence of French art on Irish artists.

From the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century many Irish artists studied in Paris and lived in artist colonies all around France, building connections that greatly informed Irish art for generations. 

Starting in the 1850s with Nathaniel Hone the younger who followed the Barbizon school of landscape painting and ending with his relative the cubist inspired Evie Hone in the 1920s, this talk will explore the ways in which Irish artists responded to the many diverse French art movements. It is fascinating to consider the excitement and even shock Irish artists may have felt on joining the bohemian art scenes in France and the notable different experiences for male and female artists during this time. We will also examine the changing reactions in Ireland to the ‘French Style’ they brought home.

Some of the artists you can look forward to hearing about included Gustave Courbet, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Paul Cézanne, Sarah Purser, George Moore, Roderic O’Conor, Mary Swanzy, Mainie Jellett, and Pablo Picasso.