Monet, Matisse, Modigliani, and More— New European Works at the High from the Shaheen Collection
These works by French masters are must-sees for lovers of Impressionism and French painting traditions.
By Katie Domurat, Coordinator of Interpretation, High Museum of Art
At the end of November, 24 French artworks went on view for the first time at the High Museum of Art. The Shaheen collection was recently gifted to the High by philanthropists Doris and Shouky Shaheen.
For the past 50 years, the Shaheens have been collecting art. “It’s been a great blessing of our life together to build this collection and live with these incredible works,” said the Shaheens.
“Given our love for this collection, and our love for this city, we knew the High was the best home for these paintings. We’re thrilled that Atlantans will enjoy them for generations to come.”
The Doris and Shouky Shaheen Collection focuses on French art of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Within this timeframe, the paintings represent an array of styles, including the pre-Impressionist realism of Eugène Boudin’s harbor views, the shimmering Impressionism of Claude Monet’s and Camille Pissarro’s landscapes, and the expressive modernism of Amedeo Modigliani’s and Henri Matisse’s figure studies.
Atlantans long have benefited from the Shaheens’ strong philanthropic spirit in the form of important gifts to numerous institutions across the city. The gift of their remarkable collection of French masterworks will forever enrich the lives of all those who visit the High Museum.
A few of the highlights include:
Camille Pissarro (French 1830–1903), Seated Peasant Woman (1901)
While most of the Impressionists preferred to paint the bustling boulevards of Paris and fashionable weekends resorts, Camille Pissarro in the 1880s began to focus his attention on the day-to-day life of French farmers.
By the time he painted this seated woman, he had changed his style from the spontaneous naturalism of the Impressionists to the more obviously “artificial” approach of Pointillism. Pointillism was based on scientific color theories and the systematic application of uniform marks of color side by side.
Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954), Woman Seated at Her Piano (ca. 1924)
Henri Matisse painted this small canvas as a preparatory sketch for a larger composition. It contains a pentimento, or a visible trace of a previous drawing. We can see where he has scraped away and repainted the head and torso, which highlights the artist’s process of making changes to the figure’s pose and position in the picture.
Women playing the piano are a recurrent theme in Matisse’s work. This painting, in fact, is one in a series of similar compositions Matisse painted around 1924. They were staged in his apartment in Nice, identifiable by the distinctively patterned wallpaper.
The young pianist is Henriette Darricarrère, one of Matisse’s primary models.
Amedeo Modigliani (Italian, 1884–1920), Portrait of Beatrice Hastings (1914)
The thick application of paint in short, choppy strokes in this work betrays Amedeo Modigliani’s early association with the art of the Macchiaioli, a group of Italian artists who, like the French Impressionists, painted in colorful patches.
The portrait is of the English writer, poet, and literary critic Beatrice Hastings, Modigliani’s partner between 1914 and 1916. The stylization of her features — elongated nose, almond-shaped eyes, long neck, and sensual, orange-red coloring — is characteristic of Modigliani’s distinctive style.
Hastings and Modigliani met in Paris through friends, and Modigliani painted her fourteen times during their two-year relationship.
Claude Monet (French 1840–1926), Cliffs of Pourville, Rough Sea (1897)
Claude Monet spent the winter seasons of 1896 and 1897 in the small French fishing village of Pourville on the Normandy coast. During these stays he produced many views of that picturesque town and the landscape around it. One of his favorite motifs was the line of cliffs rising dramatically from the sea. He often worked on several canvases at once in order to capture the changing effects of weather and light. In this composition, the perspective is from the edge of the rough sea with a view to the cliffs through a blurring mist and the haze of a passing rainstorm and foam-capped waves.
Come check out these newly acquired European artworks in our galleries!
