1841 -1870 · Birth of impressionism, modern and outdoor figure

Shared workshops, life-size figures, gardens of the South and clear light give Frédéric Bazille a decisive place in the origins of impressionism.

Jean Frédéric Bazille was born in Montpellier in 1841 into a wealthy Protestant family. He began studying medicine before settling in Paris in 1862 and entering the studio of Charles Gleyre. There he met Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley. With them, he painted outdoors, shared models, workshops and expenses, and participated in the formation of an artistic community still lacking official recognition. Bazille seeks above all to bring together the modern figure and the luminous landscape. In his family scenes, portraits of friends, workshops and bathers, the characters maintain a monumental construction while breathing the air of the garden or the countryside. His palette becomes clearer through contact with the South, Fontainebleau and Monet's research. The Atelier on rue Furstenberg documents the work spaces where young painters circulate. Auguste Renoir testifies to their friendship and this culture of portraiture between artists. The Young Woman with Peonies associates the presence of the model with an ambitious study of flowers, whites and colors. In the Fontainebleau Forest, Bazille observes trees and light as natural architecture. He materially supports several of his friends by purchasing their works or sharing his workshops. Mobilized during the Franco-Prussian War, he observed trees and light as natural architecture. He materially supports several of his friends by purchasing their works or sharing his workshops. Mobilized during the Franco-Prussian War, he was killed in Beaune-la-Rolande in November 1870, at twenty-eight years. His interrupted career leaves a tight corpus, but his large formats, his light and his taste for contemporary life directly announce the impressionist research of the 1870s. The "Frédéric Bazille" selection notably compares Atelier de la rue Furstenberg and Auguste Renoir. His reading favors composition.

Bazille brings the figure into real light: the workshop, the garden and the landscape become places of modernity experienced between friends.