Artworks in this gallery

• The Speed of Life: Impressionism’s Attitudes Towards The New Urban Landscape (2026) — Welcome to The Speed of Life Exhibit!
• Hoar-Frost, Peasant Girl Making a Fire, Camille Pissarro, 1888, Oil Paint on Canvas — This piece pictures an attitude of fondness that a lot of people held at the time of it’s painting and the time of this great shift for the classic or simple ways of life outside of city limits. Pissarro’s work allows the viewer to see the countryside how he did: bright and full of life. The color variety is reminiscent of spring or the shine of frost off grass, and while the people are the focal point, the piece is clearly trying to communicate an emotion first and foremost in a true impressionist style. Pissarro used measured and meticulously placed strokes to suggest that the rural life, from his perspective, was ordered yet serene. The elements throughout this piece create an affectionate picture of rural life, serving as an entryway or starting point for the emergence of industrialization.
• Montmartre, Vincent van Gogh, 1886, Oil on Canvas — Notice the line of the lightposts leading the eye to the people at the outlook, making the audience curious to what they may be looking at, or perhaps creating the feeling of walking down the sidewalk to view it yourself. Such a simple piece might seem more like a study than a completed piece, which is a critique common for the Impressionist movement. There is no distinct messaging beyond the feeling of this location, which shifts the importance then to that feeling itself. Unlike some of Van Gogh’s other pieces with a lot of visual weight, this piece is rather light, giving the audience an idea of his headspace in this setting. Everything is naturalistic and tender, working as your bridge into the new urban world. Perhaps Van Gogh was less nostalgic than Pissarro, and instead curious about the change around him.
• Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge, James McNeill Whistler, 1875, Oil on Canvas — The contrast and shape is strong in this piece, its imposing nature and visual impact balanced out by the careful choice to keep the picture calm and still. Being so atmospheric, this piece is rich with the impression of the location that it leaves on the viewer. It is intentionally emptier than other pieces by Whistler, highlighting a lingering emotion of quiet thoughtfulness as well as accentuating the strength of this construction. The creative choices of this piece emphasize the duality of urban areas as places that can also be serene and beautiful despite their scope or scale. Such a location, docks or construction, would not have been a popular subject before the changing tide of impressionism. It is a prime example of a differing attitude, optimistic and insightful, towards the landscapes in question.
• Halévy Street, View from the Sixth Floor, Gustave Caillebotte, 1878, Oil on Canvas — This painting, and it’s detailing, focuses a lot on the windows and roof architecture of the featured buildings, so that the viewer may spend time taking in the uniqueness of each as they fade into the blue of the distance. Caillebotte’s inclusion of the roof cut off of the composition gives it a sense of first-person perspective, very referential to the photographic influence on impressionism. Caillebotte wanted the audience to have this view alongside him, and in this instance he pictured the average day as a wonderful thing. The buildings are gorgeous and the streets are alive and purposeful. While not being the most urban landscape imaginable, the street and it’s traffic were certainly modern for its time. Not only does this piece visually bring the viewer into the city and society at large, but introduces a sense of wonder.

About the creator

Amanda Biggs on Galerra