Gauguin, Cézanne, Matisse: Visions of Arcadia opens at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on June 20th. The exhibit delves into the ineffable theme of paradise with the works of three masterpieces. On view together, the exhibition spotlights the paintings: Paul Gauguin’s Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1898), Paul Cézanne’s The Large Bathers (1906), and Henri Matisse’s Bathers by a River (1909-17).
Using the term Arcadia as a means to examine the ideas of peaceful perfection, all three paintings give voice to the artist’s interpretation of paradise. In Gauguin’s piece, Where Do We Come From?, he was inspired by his travels through Tahiti. Cézanne’s Arcadian vision is born from people in community with each other and the natural world in The Large Bathers. Matisse’s Bathers by a River springs forth from a more abstract interpretation that includes symbolic references to the temporal nature of paradise.
Supporting these three central paintings are pieces by artists such as Albert Gleizes, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Pablo Picasso, and Paul Signac as well as works by Nicolas Poussin in relation to the Arcadian theme.
Gauguin, Cézanne, Matisse: Visions of Arcadia will only be shown in Philadelphia and will be on view from June 20 – September 3, 2012.
Tags: museum exhibits
