INTRODUCTION
Ile de la cite, from the Pont Notre-Dame, etching 1869.
Far more Impressionist pictures can be seen in the region covered by this tour than in any other territory of comparable size. This should be no surprise, as this is the region where Impressionism was born and where it was most practised, and the tour visits some of the key sites in that development. Attention is also paid to the precursors – Pre-Impressionists such as Eugène Boudin and Jongkind – and to some Post-Impressionist successors.
As it was for mainstream artists, so it was for rebels and innovators: throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, Paris was the centre of the art world. All the French Impressionists spent time here, many lived here for most of their lives.
Yet the essence of their art – the recording of the world about them as it presented itself to their eyes in its immediate, transitory aspect – required them to spend time in the countryside. And the countryside they frequented most was in the north and north-west of Paris, the broad valley of the meandering Seine and of its tributaries the Oise and the Epte, and on to the coast.
This can be illustrated by the case of Claude Monet, the most consistent exponent of Impressionism. He was born in Paris in 1840 and was brought up from 1845 in Le Havre on the Normandy coast before returning to Paris to study painting. Though Paris remained the centre of his artistic world, he made frequent painting expeditions to river and sea, and from 1871 he made his homes in the suburbs, progressively further downstream at Argenteuil, Vétheuil, Poissy and finally, in 1883, at Giverny.
Impressionism was developing at the same time as seaside tourism on France’s northern coast (the Mediterranean was not a holiday destination until later) and the relationship between the two is fascinating. Water, fresh or salt, was an important ingredient of Impressionist pictures, its fleeting, changing, evanescent qualities similar to the characteristics of light they sought to capture on canvas. The Impressionist emphasis on the importance of painting en plein air makes a tour that includes sites where painters set up their easel particularly rewarding.
As it was for mainstream artists, so it was for rebels and innovators: throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, Paris was the centre of the art world. All the French Impressionists spent time here, many lived here for most of their lives.
Yet the essence of their art – the recording of the world about them as it presented itself to their eyes in its immediate, transitory aspect – required them to spend time in the countryside. And the countryside they frequented most was in the north and north-west of Paris, the broad valley of the meandering Seine and of its tributaries the Oise and the Epte, and on to the coast.
This can be illustrated by the case of Claude Monet, the most consistent exponent of Impressionism. He was born in Paris in 1840 and was brought up from 1845 in Le Havre on the Normandy coast before returning to Paris to study painting. Though Paris remained the centre of his artistic world, he made frequent painting expeditions to river and sea, and from 1871 he made his homes in the suburbs, progressively further downstream at Argenteuil, Vétheuil, Poissy and finally, in 1883, at Giverny.
Impressionism was developing at the same time as seaside tourism on France’s northern coast (the Mediterranean was not a holiday destination until later) and the relationship between the two is fascinating. Water, fresh or salt, was an important ingredient of Impressionist pictures, its fleeting, changing, evanescent qualities similar to the characteristics of light they sought to capture on canvas. The Impressionist emphasis on the importance of painting en plein air makes a tour that includes sites where painters set up their easel particularly rewarding.
Most of the world’s greatest collections of Impressionism are located in this region, and many of the art museums visited have been refurbished and extended.
ITINERARY
DAY 1
Barcelona. Fly at c. 11.15am from London Heathrow to Barcelona, capital of Catalonia and cosmopolitan market place. Take an afternoon walk and visit a chocolate emporium. Dinner has a 1900s theme with recipes from the gent de bé – Barcelona’s legendary good families – at the neo-Baroque Casa Calvet designed by Gaudí. First of three nights in Barcelona.
DAY 2
Barcelona. Spend the morning in the Art Nouveau Boquería with its extraordinary displays of fresh produce. The Barri Gòtic is the most complete surviving Gothic quarter in Europe is still the location of some of the finest eating establishments and food suppliers in Catalonia. A wine tasting includes rarities from the Priorato and Penedès. In the afternoon visit the Palau de la Música, the highly ornate concert hall designed by Gaudí contemporary Domenech i Montaner. Dinner takes the form of a tapas walk. Overnight Barcelona.
DAY 3
Barcelona. On the slopes of Montjuïc are the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, which houses the greatest collection of Romanesque frescoes in the world, plus fine Gothic and modern collections, and the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion. Lunch is in the rooftop restaurant of the stylish 5-star Hotel Arts where Sergi Arola has added yet another twist to contemporary Catalan cooking. In the afternoon visit Gaudí’s La Pedrera building of 1906–10.
DAY 4
Barcelona, Sant Celoni, Figueres. Take a morning walk in Gaudí’s Parc Güell before sampling Jordi Cruz’s 2-Michelin-starred, avant garde cuisine at ABAC. Leave Barcelona and drive up the coast to the outskirts of Figueres. First of three nights in Figueres.
DAY 5
Girona, Vic. Girona has a compact mediaeval Jewish quarter and Gothic cathedral towering over the river. Important illuminated manuscripts and tapestries are displayed in the chapterhouse. Lunch is at Michelin-starred Can Jubany. A light dinner takes the form of cheese and olive oil tasting in Figueres at the restaurant of Artur Sagues, who designed and constructed El Bulli’s cheese trolley for more than a decade.
DAY 6
Collioure (France), La Selva de Mar, Olot. Drive into France to the pretty port of Collioure, a favoured retreat for Matisse and the Fauves. Light lunch of anchovies, a key local industry. Return to Spain, and the coastal town of La Selva de Mar to visit the vineyard of one of the Empordà’s finer producers. Dinner in the two-Michelin-starred restaurant at Les Cols in Olot, home to Fina Puigdevall, whose modernist restaurant is attached to a 16th-century masía farm.
DAY 7
Figueres. Free time in Figueres to visit the Dalí museum. Drive south to Barcelona for the flight to Heathrow, arriving c. 5.30pm.
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