Impressionism and the Longue Durée of Empire

While French Impressionism will undoubtedly be fêted with due fanfare in 2024, marking the sesquicentennial of the first independent exhibition of these artists, research has lately highlighted the degree to which Impressionism crossed national boundaries to become a transnational or global phenomenon. Spurred by postcolonial theory, calls to decolonize art history, and the urgency of the present, more recent discourse has interrogated Impressionism as a translatable and flexible stylistic language, operating within the wider context of empire and colonial expansion. Impressionism here served as an idea of modernity circulating in Europe and the United States but also in the Global South, including parts of Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East.

Building on these current interests in studying Impressionism beyond its typically circumscribed geographical boundaries, this panel questions:

• How was French, British, and American Impressionism critical of but also complicit with imperialist projects?
• How did colonized artists adapt or otherwise embrace Impressionism as a stylistic and iconographic language? How did these artists use Impressionism to campaign against imperialism? How was their art locally received and globally circulated?
• How did Impressionism, as an artistic style and increasingly circumscribed canon of artists and artworks, come to be implicated in the European and United States culture of colonialism through institutionalized arts education, temporary exhibitions, and permanent museum collections?