MAX PECHSTEIN

The ‘Die Brücke’ artists prided themselves on their crudeness. Like their French counterparts the Fauves, they rejected both total abstraction and realist depiction, disliking Impressionism’s focus on aesthetic beauty and the neutered, domestic subjects of Pointillism. They were the proton-expressionists, informed by primitive art and the raw expression of emotion, in subject matter explicit and erotic charged. Their very name ‘Die Brücke’, translates to ‘The Bridge’, an acknowledgement the group made that they were to be a bridge to the art of the future, a self fulfilling prophecy that ensured both their importance and their brief life. It was in the early days of this creatively enthused rebellion that a young Max Pechstein joined the group, and became the only artist with formal training to do so. This led, unsurprisingly, to a fractious relationship and resentment between the members, especially as Pechstein gained more commercial success than the others. He was expelled in 1912, and became a darling of the art world until he was vilified as a degenerate by the Nazi’s and his art removed from all institutions. His career revived after the war and Pechstein continued to paint and create to acclaim and through it all, his style always spoke to the Die Brückes. A member for only 6 years in a more than 50 year career but there was not a brushstroke painted that wasn’t informed by the wild philosophies of his youthful rebellion.

JEAN BÉRAUD

Béraud became so immersed in the city of Paris that he came to represent the very pinnacle of metropolitan life. Charming, eloquent and exquisitely dressed, after moving to the city from his native Russia and abandoning his law degree, the doors of the capital opened for him. He found himself at the centre of the glittering social scene and was calculated in rising through the ranks to become the most talked about figure in contemporary art. His paintings were the height of modernity in both style and subject, depicting everyday urban life on the streets, the seedy underbelly of the city, and the private rooms of high society, not accessible to most Parisians. This confluence of high and low society was testament to how deeply Béraud understood Paris in all of its variation, and the neutral precision of his depictions did not pass judgement against any facet of life. Béraud’s reputation has waned since his death, but the work of the man considered the most modern of artists still retains an urgency when viewed today, more than a century after its conception. 

CLAUDE MONET

Over two years, Monet painted the same facade of the Rouen Cathedral thirty different times. Viewed in their totality, these paintings capture the building from dawn to dusk, examining the changing shape of the architecture as the sun moves across it. This type of painting was not uncommon for Monet; he obsessively documented scenes over and over, trying to capture the extreme present, and would change canvases as the sun moved across the sky. His loyalty was to light and he strove to capture it as accurately as possible. Yet, his work with the Rouen Cathedral feels different, for even in it’s most clear there is an ethereality to it - the grand, circular window that seems to open like a portal into another world regardless of how the sun falls. It epitomises the relationship between painting and architecture at its best, an artist’s eye that can see in a building the infinity of its variation, can interpret the work of one craftsman to another. It forces us to refocus, not just on the Rouen Cathedral and Monet’s depictions, but on the buildings around us, and the ease at which they transform across the day.