Modern Masters
“These are some of the most important works of art to have ever been shown in Colorado. Do not miss this show.” – Michael Paglia, Westword
“These are some of the most important works of art to have ever been shown in Colorado. Do not miss this show.” – Michael Paglia, Westword
Court to Café: Three Centuries of French Masterworks from the Wadsworth Atheneum is part of the exhibition Passport to Paris.
It features 50 masterpieces from the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut. Masters such as Nicolas Poussin, François Boucher, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Claude Monet will be among those represented.
An in-depth exploration of Vincent van Gogh’s unconventional path to becoming one of the world’s most recognizable artists, Becoming Van Gogh examines critical steps in his artistic evolution through more than 70 paintings and drawings by Van Gogh, along with works by artists to whom he responded such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Camille Pissarro. Becoming Van Gogh brings together loans from more than 60 public and private collections throughout Europe and North America to tell the story of a number of key formative periods throughout the artist’s career.
Chuck Ceraso's lineage traces back to the French and American impressionists through his teacher, Henry Hensche. Hensche was the student and protégé of Charles Hawthorne. Hawthorne, after painting with William Merritt Chase and Claude Monet, started the first art school, in 1900, devoted to the color discoveries of the impressionists. When Hawthorne died in 1930, he left the school and teaching to Hensche, who continued and further developed the teaching until his death in 1992.
Vincent van Gogh was born in the Netherlands in 1853 and lived there during his formational years as an artist. He briefly attended the Academie des Beaux Arts in Brussels and moved around the Netherlands, immersing himself in the lives of the peasants that he painted. In 1886, he moved to Paris, where he met Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro through his brother Theo, who ran a successful art dealership. He moved to southern France in 1888, where the bright sun and rich landscapes further inspired his vibrant use of color.
In conceiving the narrative for Becoming Van Gogh, one of the Denver Art Museum's main goals was for visitors to connect with Vincent van Gogh personally, as someone struggling to be an artist.
The past few months were incredibly exciting here at the Denver Art Museum. Becoming Van Gogh received overwhelming support from the community, and visitors came from near and far. Due to visitor demand, we were able to add more than 200 additional hours to the exhibition, which is the equivalent of extending an extra month. The final weekend of Becoming Van Gogh, we pulled our first “all-nighter” since the opening of the Hamilton Building and remained open for 40 hours straight.
January 17, 2013, update: The catalog is now sold out. Thank you for your tremendous interest! —DAM