Bord de rivière c. 1900

Armand Guillaumin made this pastel drawing, titled "Bord de rivière", at some point during his career. He was part of a new generation of artists looking for a specifically modern art. It is a landscape representing nature, and is a striking work of impressionism, a movement that critiqued the established French art institutions. Impressionism was a reaction against academic painting, challenging the norms of subject matter and technique. Produced in France, it is closely associated with the rise of a new, more individualistic bourgeoisie, keen to disassociate itself from the aristocratic patronage of previous eras. Impressionism was a way to find new kinds of beauty, but we can also interpret it as a moment in the development of new social classes. The historian of art is interested in this painting because it is inseparable from the structures of its own time. We can better understand impressionism through the lens of economic and social history.