The charm of Impressionism was that it allowed a great deal of artistic freedom and expressiveness without losing touch with realism. A good Impressionist painting allows us to recognize a scene, while encouraging us to see it in new ways. This quality of blending the real with something more ethereal and escapist also seems to have been present in the lifestyles of the American artists featured in the Bukamura's "Monet and the Artists of Giverny" exhibition. Just like expats here in Japan, many of these artists found a freedom in France that they couldn't at home.
The way the exhibition has been organized, using Claude Monet's name power to bring in the crowds, curiously echoes the story that the exhibition tells.
In 1883 Monet moved to the small village of Giverny near the banks of the lower Seine in northern France. Over the following years leading up to World War I, a total of around 300 artists went there to paint. Some settled permanently or for a few years, most just stayed for the summer season. Of these, more than 70 percent were Americans. The village, in effect, became an American art colony centered round the great French Impressionist, who continued to live here, developing his lily ponds and water garden, painting them until his death in 1926.