MENUFROM THE MAGAZINEReuniting an Art Collection Once Swept Away by HistoryOver a century ago Mikhaïl and Ivan Morozov assembled a singularly important art collection that survived both the Russian Revolution and the Cold War Saint Petersburg..zone-66593912{--cardCount:4}There are 200 works and 200 masterpieces,” says Jean-Paul Claverie who for more than two decades has been the cultural adviser to Bernard Arnault Claverie is giving an insider’s look at the Vuitton Foundation’s “Icons of Modern Art: The Morozov Collection,” which opened this month Spread out over the entire Frank Gehry–designed building in Paris the show celebrates the astonishing modernist paintings by and Picasso that were assembled by Mikhaïl Abramovich Morozov (1870–1903) and his brother the exhibition is the follow-up to “The Shchukin Collection,” which pulled in 1.3 million visitors to the foundation four years ago including New York collectors who jetted over to Paris just to see it the changing fortunes of individuals and nations—you will think about all these things on your second go-through,” stated the New York Times review of the Shchukin opening “Your first visit will probably elicit another less intellectual reaction: dumbstruck awe.” offers the chance to see something incredibly rare for any museum: art history in the making After the Morozov brothers’ collections were assembled at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century It was only after the death of Joseph Stalin when the Vuitton Foundation team began preparing the Shchukin exhibition the great modernist canvases on the walls of the Hermitage Museum and the Pushkin Museum had no indication of provenance no suggestion of how they might have ended up in Russia It has taken the Shchukin and Morozov exhibitions to bring all of the works back together a true sense of the boldness of these collectors and the power of the art they assembled The story of the Morozov family’s remarkable ascent began with Mikhaïl and Ivan’s grandfather Savva Vassiliévitch Morozov Born a serf in a small village some 50 miles from Moscow he managed in 1797 to obtain his freedom and the right to begin a family business making silk ribbons when major Moscow textile manufacturers were destroyed and ribbons that had been handwoven by his family the Morozov factory had grown to include 11 buildings each received an inheritance of several million rubles at a time when the average annual wage in Russia was only a few hundred rubles who was active in the business and became chairman of the board tripled the size of the family fortune between 1904 and 1916 was one of the first donors to the new Fine Arts Museum of Moscow (later the Pushkin) giving 30,000 rubles for the construction of a gallery of Greek sculpture was having a theater built for employees who worked in his family’s factory Mikhaïl began buying contemporary Russian art “Mikhaïl became a multimillionaire with an incredible way of life a trip around the world he took with his young wife and an apartment he bought in Paris,” explains Anne Baldassari the former director of the Picasso Museum in Paris and the curator of the Morozov exhibition Mikhaïl went to Paris for the Universal Exhibition and acquired a Tahitian landscape by Paul Gauguin and an important Édouard Manet “He was the one who brought to Russia the first Gauguin and the first van Gogh well before Shchukin and well before his brother “He was someone who really discovered new artists.” Courtesy of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts .zone-66593916{--cardCount:5}The elder Morozov brother who moved with his new wife into a 19th-century palace in Moscow “Mikhaïl lived in a very grand bourgeois style,” the curator points out “He was a real bon vivant—he drank too much and ate too much He had his house done by a trendy architect which he filled with his paintings and objects Mikhaïl had amassed 44 works by Russian artists and many important French Impressionist paintings—Manet Monet—along with Postimpressionist works by Gauguin and van Gogh “Collections and collectors are still so rare in Russia,” wrote Sergueï Diaghilev “We can only imagine how serious the collection of Mikhaïl Morozov would have become if his early death had not interrupted such a promising start.” began his collection with Russian painters he was joining Mikhaïl on his trips to Paris staying at the Grand Hotel next to the Opéra he made the first of his annual visits to the Salon d’Automne in Paris which was filled that year with more than 1,300 paintings and sculptures by almost 400 artists Ivan was particularly interested in the salon’s retrospectives of Renoir and Cézanne Ivan bought a palace that had belonged to a member of the aristocracy “And he decided to make a museum,” explains Baldassari “He demolished a mezzanine to raise the central spaces He had a glass skylight installed for even more light from above He invented a form of central heating hidden in the architecture in order to have temperature control for the art He took out much of the decoration so that the eye would not be distracted.” Ivan spent over a decade filling his new gallerylike home with great Russian and French artists He commissioned Pierre Bonnard to do a massive triptych which was positioned between two columns at the top of the grand stairway after much correspondence and after the artist’s long stay in Morocco became a remarkable ensemble: La Vue de la Fenêtre Tanger; Zorah sur la Terrasse; La Porte de la Casbah Morozov acquired his final European painting: Picasso’s Acrobate à la Boule an exquisite large canvas that had belonged to Leo and Gertrude Stein he invited select Moscow artists to see his paintings He also built an armored room on the ground floor And just as his house museum was completed when a national general strike was repressed by the forces of Tsar Nicholas and hundreds of protesters were killed the year the tsar and his family were executed and decrees nationalizing the Shchukin and Morozov collections were issued The Shchukin and Morozov houses became the first and second National Museum of New Western Art A specialist in modern art was assigned to inventory the Morozov collection relegated to a few rooms on the ground floor of his house by artists who had gone to see them over the years,” Baldassari explains making sure that the works were cataloged in a systematic way which created a sort of safety net that lasted for a little over 10 years.” .zone-66593918{--cardCount:7}Ivan made it out of Russia illegally crossing at the border with Finland He and his family made their way to London after a heart attack on a trip to the Czech spa city of Karlovy Vary the Soviet state requisitioned the Shchukin house and that collection was taken to the Morozov property “It was all packed in like sardines,” Baldassari says and the two collections were mixed in the Morozov Palace.” In 1929 the first and last catalog of the collections was published with the collectors identified only by the initials of their last names As the economic situation worsened in the 1930s the Soviets decided to sell from the collections and some important works by van Gogh and Cézanne made their way to the West All of the modern paintings that stayed in Russia “It happened first with the Russian collections which was terrible—they just disappeared,” Baldassari says Stalin forbade the display of the French works so they stayed in storage.” After Stalin’s death some paintings were hung again at the Hermitage making front-page news in The New York Times: “Russia’s famous collection of modern Western art including some of the world’s finest Picassos has been reopened to the general Soviet public.” Certain paintings began to travel and though the original collectors were identified in the West they were erased from history in the Soviet Union One of the important goals of the Morozov Collection at the Vuitton Foundation is to bring Russian painters back into the narrative “I wanted to show connections between the Russian and the European avant-garde which I was not able to do with the Shchukin show,” Baldassari explains I did it only at the end of the exhibition And the show opens with a series of portraits by Russian artists of the Morozov circle including the brothers and other major patrons I wanted to juxtapose Russian and Western modern art This will give the full Russian historical background.” The curator also points to the galleries with paintings by Gauguin “Ivan owned 18 paintings by Cézanne,” Baldassari explains which was not at all the case with Shchukin a series of seven panels by Maurice Denis that was commissioned for the Morozov Music Room along with four early sculptures by Aristide Maillol These are being lent for the last time—they will never again leave the Hermitage And then there are some artists that are few in number but not lesser in terms of quality and each is exceptional—they are markers for the evolution of the art of Picasso.” Two intimate pastels by Degas “The Hermitage has never agreed to lend these,” she says In order to stage the exhibition in the midst of a pandemic and ongoing geopolitical tensions the Vuitton Foundation used its considerable resources and diplomatic skills working closely with the staffs of the Hermitage “And the Vuitton Foundation and LVMH have really helped the Russian institutions by funding a conservation lab at the Pushkin There has been a remarkable sense of teamwork over the past four years.” noting that LVMH also funded the re-creation of the Morozov Music Room at the Hermitage says that Arnault shares his passion for these exhibitions of Russian collectors “This is one of those moments that we will never forget.” The Matisse and Denis room in the Morozov Palace Self-Portrait and Portrait of Pyotr Konchalovsky Jeune Fille au Piano (L’ouverture de Tannhäuser) The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, is announcing an auction of tokenised versions of several masterpieces from its collection to raise funds. Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh and Leonardo da Vinci are amongst the artists on the non-fungible token (NFT) sale. It will take place at the end of August on the Binance online marketplace.  Digital copies of the originals being put up for the NFT sale will include Leonardo da Vinci’s Madonna Litta Wassily Kandisky’s Composition VI and Claude Monet’s Corner of the Garden at Montgeron The project is called “Your token is kept in the Hermitage” Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna Litta, was completed circa 1490 The first will be stored in the Hermitage and shown in an exhibition devoted to NFT art this autumn The second will be presented on the Binance marketplace where sales will be carried out in the format of an auction All proceeds from the sale are transferred to the Hermitage The Hermitage’s NFTs will be signed by Mikhail Piotrovsky Piotrovsky not only assured the authenticity of a limited series of works but also created an independent work by applying his signature completed the artwork, Judith, in 1504. State Hermitage Museum Collection.  was completed in 1889. The artwork was made during the Dutch artist's stay in Saint Rémy southern France. State Hermitage Museum Collection.  The NFT sale is a first step in seeing the museum growing digitally The Hermitage's general director said that the Museum will expand to other opportunities which will introduce the collections and the palace The Museum will build new experiments based on new technologies was completed in 1913. State Hermitage Museum Collection.  Claude Monet's Corner of the Garden at Montgeron was created in 1877. State Hermitage Museum Collection.  Binance was founded by Chinese Canadian engineer Zhao Changteng in 2017. The cryptocurrency was first created and then The Binance NFT platform accepts three virtual currencies and Binance Stable Coin (BUSD), which has a 1:1 exchange rate with the US dollar The NFT auction record was written in March Beeple's JPG work "EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS" was auctioned online at Christie's for US$69.35 million (HK$540 million; NT$1.95 billion) Other key NFT artworks are Beeple's "Crossroads" and "Ocean Front" which sold for US$6.6 million (HK$51.3 million; NT$181.15 million) and US$6 million (HK$46.6 million; NT$167.4 million) respectively.  Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days NFT artwork The Hermitage is not the first museum to sale NFT versions of its artworks Italy's Uffizi Galleries in Florence sold an NFT version of a Michelangelo painting for €140,000 (US$170,000) This was to recuperate financial losses due to the pandemic The Uffizi also mentioned that it planned to issue NFT versions of other key artworks in its collection by Italian Renaissance painters Botticelli as well as Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio Dear Reader,Unfortunately our comment platform isn\'t available at the moment due to issues with our paywall and authentication vendor The British cyclist temporarily lost the race lead in the Pyrenees on a huge climb and thought he'd lost it altogether two days later PARIS - After the champagne bubbles fade and Chris Froome drifts away from his Sunday night celebrations to reflect on a fourth Tour de France win he may do so with greater fondness than the others brought the bursting pride of a first success Although Nairo Quintana finished a little more than one minute behind him in 2015 this year's victory - by just 54 seconds - over another Colombian “This Tour has been my toughest yet,” Froome said Froome temporarily lost the race lead to the daring Italian Fabio Aru in the Pyrenees on a huge climb to the ski station of Peyragudes he was forced to change his rear wheel in the final 40 kilometers (25 miles) after a spoke broke “I was just standing there on the side of the road with my teammate Michal Kwiatkowski,” Froome said Kwiatkowski and Froome bridged the gap - and saved his Tour Fast forward to Saturday's penultimate stage in Marseille and a time trial - one of his strongest disciplines Froome was right back in the ascendency and closing in on win No Yet the future champion was jeered by fans at the Stade Velodrome football stadium as he began his ride Froome had urine chucked over him on a previous Tour so booing was hardly going to unsettle him He was almost chivalrous on the podium Sunday “Thank you for the welcome and your generosity,” Froome said “Your passion for this race makes it really special This was the third consecutive win for Froome's Team Sky “I want to dedicate this victory to my family Your love and support makes everything possible,” he said “I also want to thank my team Sky (for your) dedication and passion.” But he denied Spaniard Mikel Landa - Froome's teammate - a podium spot by just one second the 21st stage - 64 miles from Montgeron to Paris - was reserved for sprinters and a procession for the rest edging German rider Andre Greipel and Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen Froome now needs only one more title to match the Tour record of five shared by Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault Belgian Eddie Merckx and Spaniard Miguel Indurain “It's a huge honor to be talked about in the same sentence,” Froome said of those cycling greats Froome is more of a slick modernist than a reminiscent historian “I probably don't even know the full history of those events,” he said “Coming into cycling quite late in my life I only started watching the Tour de France in the years that Lance Armstrong was racing.” Indurain won five consecutive Tours from 1991-95 and Armstrong won seven in a row from 1999-2005 before he was stripped of all of them for doping the Kenyan-born Froome isn't one to seek inspiration elsewhere “I'm not a big person to necessarily choose a role model,” he said “I've got a bit of a unique style on the bike and my own way of doing things.” That included ruthlessly putting more time into Uran and Bardet in Saturday's time trial Some might say Froome did not shine too brightly because he didn't win a stage but neither did American Greg Lemond when clinching his third Tour in 1990 consistency and a dogged ability to respond under pressure were the keys Notably in tackling speedy downhill sections that once filled him with the equivalent of an actor's stage fright Froome zipped downhill with new-found confidence “Something I've certainly worked on the last few years is my descending,” he said Bardet lost his second place after a nightmare time trial Bardet revealed he found training for the clock race too dull to bother with “I don't like to go out for training with the time trial bike,” he said You wouldn't catch Froome skipping training Bitte aktiviere Javascript in deinem Browser und lade die Seite dann erneut SEITE NEU LADEN  Shot during the 34th international Elite Athletics Meeting in Montgeron-Essonne The coming Olympics will showcase some of the most extraordinary human feats of strength As an archaeologist who focuses on the development of the human species over evolutionary history it’s interesting to consider how and why we came to be so good at certain things from javelin throwing to the 500-meter sprint Much of what makes our bodies capable of athletic prowess comes from well before we were Homo sapiens Here is a short roundup of some things we humans can do that make for great sport along with a quick look at where these skills come from and how long they’ve been around The ancestors of modern humans have walked upright since around 4 million years ago, when members of the genus Australopithecus first started spending more time on the ground than in treetop habitats. Evolving to be bipedal changed a number of things about the human skeletal structure Our pelvis is shorter and wider than that of other living primates This is because we move by exerting force mostly through muscles in our butts and legs rather than along our backs and shoulders Our lower femurs (the big bone in your thigh) develop a specific shape This allows us to stride in a rolling motion, transferring our weight smoothly from side to side as we go If you’ve ever seen a gorilla or chimpanzee walk on two legs instead of four you’ll notice that they have a much more waddling gait Our smoother gait helps us walk – and run – more efficiently Homo sapiens’ in particular, with longer legs and shorter Achilles tendons than some of our ancestors, seem particularly well-suited to running long distances Researchers have suggested that early humans were able to hunt prey animals like antelope or zebra by repeatedly startling them into running long stretches in the midday heat eventually running the animals to exhaustion When we compare ourselves to other living primates one of the most noticeable differences is a lack of body hair – and the fact that we sweat the body’s ability to maintain an ideal temperature but humans are unique in our capacity to sweat all over our bodies When did we lose all our hair and become sweaty, naked creatures? Counterintuitively, studies have shown that humans and chimps actually have roughly the same number of follicles over our bodies hotter environments meant that the ability to keep cool contributed to survival in a big way Our sweaty selves can now compete in sporting events even in the heat – although climate change might soon make most cities too hot to reasonably play host to Summer Olympics While the bottom half of our body has evolved away from an arboreal lifestyle, our upper body still retains traits that we inherited from tree-dwellers. Our glenohumeral joint the ball-and-socket connection between our upper arm and scapula allows us to swing our arms around in a full rotation This is a very different type of mobility from that of quadruped animals that don’t swing in trees – a dog or cat’s front legs primarily swing back and forth and couldn’t perform a butterfly swim stroke Recent research has also shown that Neanderthals might have thrown spears to hunt at a distance The few known examples of Neanderthal spears were long thought to be used only for thrusting and close-in killing of prey in part because when researchers tried to throw replicas Recently, however, researchers put replicas into the hands of trained javelin throwers and were stunned to see the spears fly much farther and faster—more than 65 feet This grip lets us do everything from grasping a pen to a golf club The evolution of our hands has included both biological and cultural selection for right- versus left-handed individuals. Both Neanderthal and early Homo sapiens populations seem to have had roughly the same ratio of right-handed to left-handed individuals as modern humans Many species of animals play, but humans are the only species to play games involving organized rules and equipment. We not only play by throwing, kicking, or otherwise propelling balls of various materials is depicted in paintings and reportedly dates back to 2300 BC The most famous ancient ballgame, though, has its origins in Mesoamerica. Ceramic figurines and murals dating to as early as 1700 B.C., and ball courts dating to approximately 1600 BC, attest to a game that was a huge and complex part of Olmec an archaeologist who received her PhD from Boston University specialises in analysing faunal remains from archaeological sites with particular emphasis on the diets of Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans This work first appeared on SAPIENS under a CC BY-ND 4.0 license. Read the original here General enquiries: science@science.thewire.in Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker among trio held after car packed with gas cylinders found Three women arrested near Paris on Thursday night had been planning an attack on the Gare de Lyon The women, aged 19, 23 and 39, were arrested in Boussy-Saint-Antoine, a small town 19 miles (30km) south-east of Paris, after they were linked to the discovery of a car packed with gas cylinders parked near Notre Dame cathedral last weekend said the women were “radicalised and fanaticised” and believed to have been preparing “new and imminent violent action” He said there had been a “race against time” to stop them involving a vast police and intelligence operation “France is confronted with a terrorist threat of unprecedented scale,” Cazeneuve said The changing threat took different forms and was very hard to detect calling for the “vigilance of all citizens” an interior ministry official told Reuters: “An alert has been issued to all stations but they had planned to attack the Gare de Lyon on Thursday.” The Gare de Lyon, one of the busiest train stations in Paris The 19-year-old French woman arrested on Thursday night was named by Associated Press as Ines Madani who has been known to police in the past for radicalisation he told police that his daughter had disappeared with the vehicle Madani had been classed as dangerous by police. Newspaper Le Monde reported that she had been known to police since 2015 for wanting to leave for Syria where hundreds of people of French and other nationalities have gone to join Islamic State She had reportedly written a letter pledging allegiance to Isis TV footage showed an officer leaving the scene carrying a large knife The investigation into the discovery of the car continues Police sources said no detonator device was found in the vehicle but the diesel canisters raised concerns that the car was planned to explode Documents with Arabic writing were found in the Peugeot which had no number plates and was left with its hazard lights flashing A 27-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman were detained on Wednesday south of Paris and a second couple Investigators are trying to establish whether any of those arrested and questioned have links with Hayat Boumeddiene, the girlfriend of Amedy Coulibaly who killed a police officer and four hostages at a kosher supermarket in Paris in January 2015 Boumeddiene left France just before the attacks on the capital and is believed to have headed to Isis-held territory Police are also investigating any possible links between the people who have been arrested and Larossi Abballa, who murdered a police commander and his partner at their home outside Paris in July in the presence of their three-year-old son who had inspired people to launch attacks in the west said the discovery of the car highlighted the need to increase security in the French capital “Police and army staffing must be stepped up,” she told news channel BFMTV The vehicle was left in a zone where parking is strictly prohibited and had remained there for about two hours before it came to the attention of police after being reported by a waiter at a nearby restaurant it's not uncommon to take a whole month of vacation in the summer But the season can be a deadly time for the many pets left behind — permanently The abandonment of domestic animals by vacationers is a scourge in many countries across Europe this summer isn't likely to be different despite campaigns by animal-rights groups against the practice A volunteer takes an abandoned dog for a walk at the Animals Without Home shelter in 2010 Just off the highway about 45 minutes from Paris the shelter run by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty in Chamarande Many of the 120 dogs and 60 cats there have been abandoned by owners heading off on summer vacation every summer an estimated 100,000 domestic animals are abandoned in France by owners who say they are unable to take them along or find someone to look after them says some of the people don't even think they're doing anything wrong when they bring their pets to the shelter and dump them there "So we make them come with us to put the dogs in the cages themselves," Brissard says "And when they see the stress of the animal they're leaving behind at least they're not proud of what they're doing And we hope that keeps them from doing it again." Brissard says too many people think a pet is like a stuffed animal that can be thrown away when they're tired of it But she admits bringing a dog or cat to the shelter is less cruel than leaving it in the wild or out on the street This problem is also acute in Spain and Italy So every year the French SPCA launches a campaign — online on social media and on giant posters in the Paris metro Anne-Claire Chauvancy with the Foundation for the Assistance of Animals says she wonders if the campaign even has an impact anymore "Everyone knows abandoning your dog is cruel and he'll probably starve or get hit by a car," she says "This campaign has become almost banal and just seems to mark the beginning of summer." one of the most striking things for visitors to France is how pet friendly the country is What would the traditional bistro be without its resident shepherd dog or tabby cat behind the bar France has the most pet ownership in Europe and nearly half of all households have a pet member "The large majority of French are horrified by the thought of abandoning their pet," says David Chauvet a group that advocates stopping sales in pet shops until the shelters are empty a five-year-old Irish setter who was recently abandoned The woman says that they lost their own setter four months ago but most pets here won't be so lucky this summer Become an NPR sponsor After President Zafy's impeachment by the National Assembly in 1996 and the short quasi-presidency of Norbert Ratsirahonana the 1997 elections once again pitted Zafy and Ratsiraka with Ratsiraka this time emerging victorious dominated by members of President Ratsiraka'a political party AREMA which considerably strengthened the presidency ATHLETICS – THREE of Bahrain’s elite athletes put on impressive performances in international meetings held in different countries around the world on Sunday Abdelrahman Mahmoud and Bontu Edao Rebitu all showed their class against some of the best in track and field Mokonin clocked a new personal best while finishing as runner-up in the women’s 10-kilometre road race in Chon Buri Mahmoud claimed second place in the men’s shot put at the 38th Meeting International Montgeron-Essone in France while Rebitu clocked her season’s best en route to finishing 11th in the women’s 5,000m at the Meeting International Mohammed VI d’Athletisme de Rabat/Marrakech in Morocco All three athletes are amongst the top in their disciplines amongst members of the kingdom’s athletics national team Mokonin put in a strong challenge for the victory but came up just short in the end She completed the run in a total time of 32 minutes 54 seconds just one second behind winner Bertukan Welde of Ethiopia Welde’s compatriot Lemlem Nibret took the other podium place in 33:07 It was Mokonin’s first 10km run of the season She had also raced in the Seoul Marathon in South Korea in March Her time was a new individual record in the distance beating her previous fastest mark of 33:01 The Bangsaen10 was a World Athletics Label Road Race Mahmoud claimed his runner-up finish with a best throw of 19.78 metres Silas Ristl of Germany took first place with a 19.93m effort and Franck Elemba of France was third at 19.31m The Montgeron meeting was Mahmoud’s fourth competitive appearance of the season He had earlier taken two wins in Turkey in April before placing fifth in a UAE meet earlier this month His mark was far from his personal best in the men’s shot put of 21.15m which is a standing Bahrain record that he set in 2021 The 38th Meeting International Montgeron-Essone was a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze-level competition Rebitu was running in a Wanda Diamond League meeting – a top-tier one-day athletics competition under the sport’s international governing body Taking on the best in the world in the distance Rebitu finished in 15 minutes 49.07 seconds She was well behind victor Medina Eisa of Ethiopia Her countrywoman Fotyen Tesfay followed closely behind in 14:34.21 while Edinah Jebitok of Kenya came third in 14:35.64 It was only Rebitu’s second track appearance of the season having also competed in a French meet in Decines-Charpieu earlier this month and a 5km road race in March in Lille Claude Monet was only one of the loose-association artists who called themselves the Societe Anonyme but his innovative work dominated all discussions about the unorthodox exhibition and his approach -- daring to capture the transitory effect of an instant rather than portraying the topographical features of a stable view -- redefined the objectives of landscape painting In the years that followed, Monet participated in five of the eight Impressionist exhibitions, and, more than any other member of the circle, he established Impressionism as a revolutionary -- and ultimately triumphant -- force in contemporary art the works Monet selected to present at the Impressionist exhibitions proved to be flash points in the reception of the group's experimental endeavors Monet Image Gallery His own point of view remained unassailably modern. To capture the energetic spirit of Paris, Monet had positioned his easel at a high window overlooking the street. Writing about Boulevard des Capucines (1873-74) he would have had to view the painting through the windows of the house across the street Along with the urban street scene, Monet asserted his modernism by accepting without judgment the visual contradictions of contemporary life, such as the incursion of a massive new road bridge in his tranquil view over the Seine in Bridge at Argenteuil (1874; shown in the second Impressionist exhibition The portrait of Camille and Jean on a hill against a pale blue sky captures a breeze buoying Camille's parasol and blowing the thin fabric of her veil across her face the figures appear anonymous; the sudden summer wind rather than the sitters is the focus of attention Monet ended his association with the Impressionists when he declined to enter his work in the last exhibition in 1886 But his reputation endured as the leader of a daring development in the arts and most critics came to agree that Monet stood out among the Impressionist painters Claude Monet worked on Boulevard des Capucines during 1873-1874. The first Impressionist exhibition was held in French photographer Felix Tournachon's (known as Nadar) studio on Boulevard des Capucines as if looking down from an apartment balcony as the crowds rush through the chilled air The painting presented a genuine glimpse of Parisian life on a winter day and the critic Ernest Chesneau claimed that Monet captured the elusive quality of movement with unprecedented skill Claude Monet painted The Luncheon, Monet's Garden at Argenteuil in 1873. The Luncheon presents the comfortable informality of Monet's life in Argenteuil during the months of high summer. With the meal concluded, Camille takes a visitor on a stroll through the garden while Jean plays with his blocks in the shadow cast by the table Monet re-creates the most pleasant sensations of a sunny afternoon -- the vivid flowers the breezy fabrics of summer gowns -- with lightly applied dabs of color.Go to the next page to learn about Monet's Autumn in Argenteuil Claude Monet painted Autumn in Argenteuil in 1873. The crisp color of the leaves of the trees that flank the banks of the Seine gave Monet the subject for this painting Throughout his career, Monet held an enduring fascination with the cycle of the seasons, and he sought to capture the natural changes of color, atmosphere, and light where the flame-hued trees cast their image in a reflection on the water another of Monet's stunning landscape paintings Painted in the wildflower fields outside Argenteuil this painting reveals Monet's passion for color he scatters the blooms in a natural profusion across the lush green fields he sketches in the figures of Camille and Jean with simple strokes of violet Their figures appear again at the top of the hills in the distance more a suggestion of color than an accurate record of their appearance Go to the next page to see another of Monet's works Claude Monet painted The Train in the Snow in 1875 Although this work was not shown in an Impressionist exhibition it reveals Monet's attraction to the convergence of nature and technology a characteristic of the modern age that intrigued most of the artists of the circle the train -- with its speed and the smoke it expelled into the atmosphere -- produced the qualities of constant visual change that drove artistic observations This scene was painted in the railway station in Argenteuil Continue to the next page to learn about Unloading Coal Claude Monet painted Unloading Coal in 1875 making their way across the narrow ramps with their heavy loads punctuate the sweep of the river from the foreground of the composition into the deep distance Framed at the top of the composition with the broad arch of the Clichy Bridge This work was one of 29 works Monet presented in the fourth Impressionist exhibition Claude Monet painted An Apartment Corner in 1875 Monet's dedication to plein air painting made interior scenes increasingly rare in his work This setting is his second house in Argenteuil Go to the next page to learn about Monet's Woman with a Parasol -- Madame Monet and Her Son Claude Monet painted Woman with a Parasol -- Madame Monet and Her Son in 1875 Standing on a gentle hill with the wind whipping her voluminous skirts around her legs Camille presides over this vision of summer but color and movement are the true subjects of this painting Tints of pink and yellow make Camille's white dress shimmer and shades of violet and brown lurk in the shadows that her figure casts upon the lush green ground The buoyancy of her parasol and swaying wildflowers express the motion of the wind Continue to the next page for a look at Monet's The Tuileries Claude Monet painted The Tuileries in 1876 Monet painted this vista of the formal garden in the center of Paris from a position high in a building on the rue de Rivoli stretching from the manicured grounds of the public park out to the boundaries of the city Monet followed the subtle changes of light from the glowing sun in the foreground to the cool mist in the distance learn about Monet's Corner of the Garden at Montgeron Claude Monet painted Corner of the Garden at Montgeron in 1876 Department store magnate Ernest Hoschede commissioned Monet to paint four decorative panels for the interior of his grand new home finding motifs on the beautifully landscaped grounds and painting outdoors with bright spots of color in a wide range of tone Despite his newly made fortune in department store speculation Hoschede quickly fell into financial difficulty and was unable to pay for the paintings Continue to the next page to learn about Monet's Turkeys Monet painted a flock of turkeys on the lawn of his patron Hoschede's estate in Montgeron Turkeys marked the rare introduction of animals into Monet's natural setting When the work was shown in the third Impressionist exhibition One critic urged the viewer to think of how well it would look in a lavishly furnished dining room while others disparaged Monet's choice of subject as ridiculous painted on the grounds of Chateau de Rottembourg Painted on the grounds of Chateau de Rottembourg Monet included a portrait of Hoschede in a group of hunters moving along a path in the woods Ranging from dry tints such as golden ocher to warm ones such as russet orange and vivid scarlet Monet used his palette to explore the visual spectrum of autumn Color rather than the identity of the hunters or the result of their hunt engaged his imagination Monet rented a small apartment in Paris to have ready access to the Saint-Lazare train station where he planned to set up his easel on the platforms and the adjacent streets as the trains pulled in and out The thick air that surrounded the station made a striking contrast to the clarity of the country atmosphere in which he usually worked the smoky fog was the source of magnificent color variation but one critic complained that the pink and purple smoke transformed the scene into an illegible scrawl Continue to the next page to learn about Monet's La Gare Saint-Lazare Claude Monet painted La Gare Saint-Lazare in 1877 The crush of people and the arrival and departure of the trains posed a challenge to Monet's powers of observation forcing him to work quickly and retain the sensations of light The subtle and often spectacular effects of color that emerged as the sun filtered through the glass canopy over the tracks revealed to Monet that light was a subject with infinite variations See Monet's celebratory Rue Montorgueil in Paris Festival of 30 June 1878 in the final section Claude Monet painted Rue Montorgueil in Paris To celebrate the opening of the International exhibition some of the main streets of Paris were decked with flags dense brush strokes to suggest the motion of the flags fluttering aloft and the press of the crowd moving below the composition dissolves into patches of color the festive street scene gains clear focus Mancoff is an art historian and lecturer and the author of numerous books on nineteenth-century European and American painting and Mary Cassatt: Reflections of Women's Lives Mancoff is a scholar in residence at the Newberry Library Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks.com article: `;return t.byline_authors_html&&(e+=`By: ${t.byline_authors_html}`),t.byline_authors_html&&t.byline_date_html&&(e+=" | "),t.byline_date_html&&(e+=t.byline_date_html),e+=`\n\t\t\t\t the country of France was emerging from the devastating effects of the Dreyfus Affair The country had been deeply divided over the fate of French Artillery Captain Alfred Dreyfus who had been accused of selling military secrets to the Germans The most popular sports newspaper in France at this time was Le Vélo Due to the differences of opinion over the guilt or innocence of Captain Dreyfus including Comte Jules-Albert de Dion and Édouard Michelin courted disgruntled advertisers and started their own newspaper They hired former award-winning cyclist and sports journalist Henri Desgrange as editor but by 1903 the paper had only reached twenty thousand subscriptions When Desgrange and his employee Géo Lefèvre who had just attended the Marseille–Paris cycling race were in a meeting regarding a way to boost sales Lefèvre proposed holding a bicycle race around the perimeter of France Desgrange presented the proposal to financial controller Victor Goddet who wholeheartedly approved and offered his financial support the Tour de France was announced in L’Auto the first Tour de France began in the village of Montgeron – with stops in Lyon each with an average distance of over 250 miles The participants had between one and three days to rest between stages with only one noteworthy mountain as the exception Cyclists paid a fee of ten francs apiece to compete in the entire race or five francs to participate in just one stage many of whom were professional or semi-professional riders Twenty-one were sponsored by bicycle manufacturers while the rest joined using their own funds a cyclist who was unable to complete a stage was able to start again on the next stage Racer Hippolyte Aucouturier could not complete the first stage but returned and won the second and third stages won the first stage as well as the last two stages and had an advantage of more than two hours over the next-best entrant Garin ended up winning the race and collecting the first prize of 12,000 francs – almost six times what the average man was earning then in one year eight cyclists received a prize of between 50 francs and 1,500 francs depending on the length and difficulty of the stage The fourteen fastest cyclists overall in the race were awarded prizes – 3,000 francs for the winner on down to 25 francs for fourteenth place The last seven competitors to finish received 95 francs 5 francs for each of the 19 days of the race Due to the popularity of the first race in 1903 the circulation of L’Auto rose dramatically issues of L’Auto had increased to 500,000 copies a day the number of issues sold increased every year until 1933 when it reached its top circulation number of over 850,000 during that year’s Tour de France only reporters from L’Auto were permitted to cover the race Desgrange felt that other news outlets should not be able to make a profit from “his” race It wasn’t until the 1920s that other journalists were able to report on the event after having undergone two prostate operations He died at his home on the Mediterranean coast on August 16 Read another story from us: Thomas Stevens: The man who cycled the world on a penny-farthing bicycle Cheating and drug use have been continual issues; the most notorious was the Lance Armstrong scandal of 2005 when the cyclist was stripped of his seven consecutive wins due to having failed the required drug tests the race celebrated its 100th year in 2003 and continues to be one of the biggest events in Europe You can usually find me in coffee shop somewhere in Europe facebook.com/aleksandra.andonovska.77 Join 1000s of subscribers and receive the 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