Featuring over forty paintings by mainly French Impressionists, this ‘Impressionist Interiors’ exhibition shows its subjects either doing nothing or in their work environment.

Take ‘Portraits in a Cotton Office’ (1873) by Edgar Degas, pictured above. The painting is set in an exclusively male environment, which is populated by clerks and customers, who if you look closely, are actually doing nothing, as the cotton office in New Orleans, is actually going out of business.

There is room for speculation about the possible relationship between the man and the woman in ‘Sulking’, also by Degas.

“These paintings often examine implied and obvious relationships in their composition...”

This information and more we are told by the woman with the distinctive voice on the handset which you are given on entry to the exhibition. She discusses fifteen of the paintings. There is an entrance charge to see these masterpieces, but the unfinished look of the gallery in the Millennium Wing seems to belie the value of the paintings.

When we look at the Claude Monet painting used to advertise the exhibition, ‘Interior After Dinner’– an intimate apres-dinner scene in the cosy dining room of his country home, with his friends quietly enjoying each others’ company by lamplight and firelight, we may forget what makes the paintings priceless.

Having a theme ‘Interiors’ seems to obscure the genius of the art. Yet, it was this informality which defined the Impressionist movement of the second half of the nineteenth century.

The immediacy of the Impressionist technique means that their domestic scenes are intimate and informal, depicting friends and family engaged in everyday activities: slouching on sofas, daydreaming in bed, bathing, reading and dining. These subjects proved powerful antidotes to the historical set-pieces, endorsed by the official salon. For example Edgar Degas’s famous ‘Two Ballet Dancers in a Dressing Room’ circa 1880 shows the dancers in a brief moment of relaxation before a performance. This painting shows off the colourful beauty of the Impressionist style, as does Mary Cassat’s ‘Lydia at a Tapestry Frame’ (1888)– a painting of her sister, who suffered from Bright’s Disease, inspired by Degas. The pink she is wearing is awesomely beautiful.

The development of modern apartment living in the 1860s in Paris meant that the middle class interior took on a new symbolic significance. The collection and display of ornamental objects within the home became a way of indicating the occupants’ taste, knowledge, interests and past experiences. The interiors feature still lives of these objects: for example, there are paintings hanging on the walls, paintings within paintings.

The exhibition continues in the Millennium Wing upstairs at the National Gallery until 10th August.
Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday 9.30am to 5.30pm, Thursday 9.30am to 8.30pm. Sunday 12pm to 5.30pm.

Tickets: €10 (full price), €6 (concessions). Concession price applies all day Thursday. Advance booking is advised. Telephone (01) 663 3513 or online: www.ticketmaster.ie. A timed ticketing system will be in operation.
Last admission to exhibition is one hour before closing.