The inaugural exhibition of the Museum Barberini was devoted to Impressionist landscape painting as a field of experimentation and the modern era’s understanding of nature.

Precise observations of nature not only gained importance in the natural sciences during the nineteenth century—the Impressionists also reacted to this trend by painting outdoors and recording ever-changing light and weather phenomena. Although the city of Paris offered many motifs, landscapes provided the most important subject matter for Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, and Gustave Caillebotte. Their landscape motifs were no longer charged with historical or symbolic significance. Impressionist artists instead focused on capturing the transitory moment.

The catalogue presents the new themes of landscape painting, which enabled the Impressionists to leave tradition behind. Through their depictions of forest paths, fields, and coasts, they emancipated themselves from earlier generations.