Timeline of Art History

School of Paris

A wave of artists of all nationalities gravitated to the French capital and fostered an inspiring climate of imaginative cross-fertilization.
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Bride with Fan, Marc Chagall  French, born former Russian Empire, now Belarus, Oil on canvas
Marc Chagall
1911
Violin and Playing Cards on a Table, Juan Gris  Spanish, Oil on canvas
Juan Gris
1913
Mechanical Elements, Fernand Léger  French, Oil on canvas
Fernand Léger
1920
Ariadne, Giorgio de Chirico  Italian, born Greece, Oil and graphite on canvas
Giorgio de Chirico
1913
The Marketplace, Vitebsk, Marc Chagall  French, born former Russian Empire, now Belarus, Oil on canvas
Marc Chagall
1917
Potato, Joan Miró  Spanish, Oil on canvas
Joan Miró
1928
Reclining Nude, Amedeo Modigliani  Italian, Oil on canvas
Amedeo Modigliani
1917
Guitar and Still Life on a Guéridon, Georges Braque  French, Oil with sand on canvas
Georges Braque
1922
Bird in Space, Constantin Brancusi  French, born Romania, Marble
Constantin Brancusi
1923
Photo: This Is the Color of My Dreams, Joan Miró  Spanish, Oil on canvas
Joan Miró
1925
Dutch Interior (III), Joan Miró  Spanish, Oil on canvas
Joan Miró
1928
Nude Standing by the Sea, Pablo Picasso  Spanish, Oil on canvas
Pablo Picasso
1929
Portrait of Madeleine Castaing, Chaim Soutine  French, born former Russian Empire, now Belarus, Oil on canvas
Chaim Soutine
ca. 1929
The Mountain, Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski)  French, Oil on canvas
Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski)
1936–37
The Terrace at Vernonnet, Pierre Bonnard  French, Oil on canvas
Pierre Bonnard
1939
Woman Grinding Coffee, Jean Dubuffet  French, Plaster, oil, and tar with sand on canvas
Jean Dubuffet
1945

From 1900 until about 1940, Paris was a thriving center of artistic activity that provided unparalleled conditions for the exchange of creative ideas. A wave of artists of all nationalities gravitated to the French capital and fostered an inspiring climate of imaginative cross-fertilization. Because of the enormous influx of non-French artists living and working in Paris, a loosely defined affiliation developed referred to as the School of Paris. The international activity associated with this group in Paris was initially concentrated in Montmartre, but subsequently moved to Montparnasse in the early 1910s. Focusing on conventional subjects such as portraiture, figure studies, landscapes, cityscapes, and still lifes, artists of the School of Paris employed a diversity of styles and techniques including the bold, dynamic colors of Fauvism, the revolutionary methods of Cubism, the animated qualities of Expressionism, and the private worlds of Symbolism.

A leading figure of the School of Paris, the Spaniard Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) moved to France in 1904. Picasso’s variety of creative styles are representative of the kind of cross-fertilization that transcends the works of the School of Paris artists. His groundbreaking collaboration with the Frenchman Georges Braque (1882–1963), which began in 1907, fostered the development of Cubism. Subsequently associated with the Surrealist artists working in Paris in the early 1920s (although never an official member of the movement), Picasso’s use of Surrealist imagery is evident in Nude Standing by the Sea (). His morphed and organic forms are comparable to Joan Miró (1893–1983), another Spaniard living in Paris and a pioneer of the Surrealist movement. The influential Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978) also resided in Paris (1911–15 and again in the 1920s) and is considered a precursor to the magical realism among the Surrealists, as exemplified in his ominous, dreamlike composition Ariadne () of 1913.

Other artists within the School of Paris exchanged styles and ideas about painting and sculpture. The Italian Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) arrived in Paris in 1906 and initially worked alongside the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957), who had been in the city since 1904. Between 1909 and 1915, Modigliani made a series of sculptures, such as Woman’s Head (), with elongated features, oval heads, and thinly incised eyes that show the definitive influence of Brancusi as well as of African sculpture. In Reclining Nude () from 1917, Modigliani used these stylistic elements, for example the almond-shaped eyes, in his distorted depiction of a nude figure. Another artist whose work exemplifies the exchange of ideas and styles among artists living and working in Paris is the expatriate and friend of Modigliani, the Lithuanian artist Chaim Soutine (1893–1943). Soutine arrived in Paris in 1913 and created pictures imbued with torment and personal expression. In his portrait Portrait of Madeleine Castaing () from 1929, he alters the figure’s facial features just enough to create a psychological intensity and agitation comparable to works by Austrian Expressionists Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980) and Egon Schiele (1890–1918).

A prominent figure in the School of Paris, the Russian artist Marc Chagall (1887–1985) initially lived in Paris from 1910 to 1914. Moving into a studio in Montparnasse adjacent to Modigliani and near the Frenchman Fernand Léger (1881–1955) and Soutine, Chagall quickly absorbed the stylistic influences of the avant-garde working in Paris. Chagall’s Bride with Fan () of 1911 displays the charm and luminescence characteristic of his work at this time. In The Marketplace, Vitebsk (), painted in 1917 after his return to Russia, Chagall’s use of unrealistic perspective, sharply defined contours, and figures in various scale show the influence of the French artist Robert Delaunay (1885–1941). Chagall became a leading artist of the School of Paris during the 1920s and ’30s after his exile from the Soviet Union in 1923.

The unprecedented migration to Paris of foreign artists who worked in tandem with French luminaries such as Henri Matisse (1869–1954), André Derain (1880–1954), Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947), and Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985) came to an end with the outbreak of World War II (1939–45). Many artists fled to New York or returned to their homeland, and the frenzied activity experienced by members of the School of Paris concluded.


Contributors

James Voorhies
Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

October 2004


Further Reading

Bougault, Valérie. Paris Montparnasse: The Heyday of Modern Art, 1910–1940. Paris: Éditions Pierre Terrail, 1997.

Franck, Dan. The Bohemians: The Birth of Modern Art, Paris, 1900–1930. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001.

Green, Christopher. Art in France: 1900–1940. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.

Lieberman, William S. Painters in Paris, 1895–1950. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. See on MetPublications

L'École de Paris, 1904–1929: La part de l'autre. Exhibition catalogue. Paris: Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 2000.

Nacenta, Raymond. School of Paris: The Painters and the Artistic Climate of Paris Since 1910. Greenwich, Conn.: New York Graphic Society, 1960.

Rewald, Sabine. Twentieth Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989. See on MetPublications

Wilson, Sarah, et al. Paris: Capital of the Arts, 1900–1968. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2002.


Citation

View Citations

Voorhies, James. “School of Paris.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/scpa/hd_scpa.htm (October 2004)