Claude Monet | The Rue Montorgueil, 1878

The Rue Montorgueil, Paris was painted by Claude Monet (1840-1926) on 30 June 1878 for a festival declared that year by the government celebrating "peace and work".

This was one of the events organised for the third Universal Exhibition in Paris a few weeks after it opened, and intended to be a symbol of France’s recovery after the defeat of 1870.

Winslow Homer | Summer Night / Notte d'estate, 1890

Winslow Homer started his career as a graphic reporter during the American Civil War, before going on to paint scenes of army life and the rural world with the Naturalist precision which then prevailed in American painting.

After a stay in Paris, Homer used an Impressionist palette for a while then developed a personal style midway between Realism and Symbolism.

Summer Night perfectly expresses this synthesis and may be considered one of the first masterpieces of American art still in search of its identity.

Winslow Homer | Summer Night / Notte d'estate, 1890 | Musée d'Orsay

Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Love

Renoir’s joyful, discreet and tender vision, devoid of any hint of sentimentality, ribaldry or drama, distinguishes him from the other painters of his day.

The artist locates the interactions he depicts in his paintings in the public space, the new, modern social and natural settings - theaters, restaurants, guinguettes, boulevards and gardens - frequented by various social classes.

Theses popular "scenes" of modern love encouraged greater freedom of morals and the blossoming of "illicit" loves, in an era when bourgeois conventions and religious morality still governed romantic and sexual relationships.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | La Balançoire / L'altalena, 1876

Renoir gives us the impression of surprising a conversation - as if in a snapshot, he catches the glances turned towards the man seen from the back.

The young woman is looking away as if she were embarrassed.

The foursome in the foreground is balanced by the group of five figures sketchily brushed in the background.

The Swing has many points in common with The Ball at the Moulin de la Galette.

The two pictures were painted in parallel in the summer of 1876.

Odilon Redon | Apollo's Chariot, 1905-1916 | The Series

About 1900, French symbolist painter Odilon Redon (1840-1916) abandoned his trademark black charcoal drawings and began avidly experimenting with color.

He also explored new subjects, including the mythological horses of the sun.

They are driven by Apollo, god of light and poetry, or by Phaethon, the boy who foolishly tried to steer the horses and fell to his death.

Odilon Redon | Apollo's Chariot, 1905-1916 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Bal du moulin de la Galette, 1876

Bal du moulin de la Galette (Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette) is doubtless Renoir's most important work of the mid 1870's and was shown at the Impressionist exhibition in 1877.

Henri Chapu | Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy, 1873

19th-century France was fascinated by the figure of Joan of Arc, an historical, mythified heroine who figured in the readily anti-British nationalist movement in the second half of the 19th century.

Henri Chapu (French sculptor, 1833-1891), a classical sculptor who explored a sincere, elegant form of naturalism with great finesse, chose to represent not the warrior maiden in a suit of armour but the shepherdess from Lorraine listening to the voices asking her to help the king to liberate the kingdom.

Henri Chapu | Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy, 1873 | Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Cecilia Beaux | Sita and Sarita, 1894

This portrait by Cecilia Beaux (American Impressionist painter and portraitist, 1855-1942) portrays the artist's cousin, Sarah Allibone Leavitt, dressed in white with her black cat on her shoulder.

Beaux was recognized not only for her bold painting technique, but also for her ability to imbue her female subjects with wit and intelligence, rendering them more than just mere objects of beauty.

A student in Paris in the late 1880s, the artist was influenced by her firsthand exposure to French impressionism.

Her light-filled palette and gestural style invite comparisons with many of her contemporaries, including William Merritt Chase, James McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassatt.

Cecilia Beaux | Sita and Sarita, 1894 | Musée d'Orsay, Paris