0:00:08 > 0:00:10# And it hardly looked like a novel at all
0:00:10 > 0:00:13# And the city treats me, it treats me to you
0:00:13 > 0:00:16# And a cup of coffee for you
0:00:16 > 0:00:18# I should learn its language and speak it to you
0:00:18 > 0:00:21# And 70 million should be in the know
0:00:21 > 0:00:23# And 70 million don't go out at all
0:00:23 > 0:00:26# And 70 million wouldn't walk this street
0:00:26 > 0:00:28# And 70 million would run to a hole
0:00:28 > 0:00:31# And 70 million would be wrong wrong wrong
0:00:31 > 0:00:34# And 70 million never see it at all
0:00:34 > 0:00:37# And 70 million haven't tasted snow. #
0:00:50 > 0:00:55If I asked you what the Impressionists were best known for,
0:00:55 > 0:00:58you'd probably say, "For painting outdoors."
0:01:00 > 0:01:02And you'd be right.
0:01:02 > 0:01:07Who doesn't love Monet's delightful fields of poppies,
0:01:07 > 0:01:10with their unmissable smell of the summer?
0:01:12 > 0:01:15Or those dreamy water lilies of his?
0:01:15 > 0:01:18So delicate, so thoughtful.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24Or his sunny moments by the river,
0:01:24 > 0:01:28with their perfectly captured weather?
0:01:32 > 0:01:36It's as if Monet's art
0:01:36 > 0:01:38hasn't got a care in the world.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43Everything in it is relaxed, sleepy...
0:01:45 > 0:01:46..happy.
0:01:48 > 0:01:50Renoir's the same.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54All those gorgeous scenes of dancing...
0:01:56 > 0:01:59..and lunching at Bougival.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03Pretty girls flirting...
0:02:06 > 0:02:10..and jumping on swings with the handsomest chap in the restaurant.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21Pissarro's the same.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23Fields of golden corn,
0:02:23 > 0:02:25sunny orchards,
0:02:25 > 0:02:28happy peasants, merrily at work in the fields.
0:02:31 > 0:02:36Even when he paints the winter, he makes the cold look so welcoming.
0:02:44 > 0:02:49All these famous Impressionist images will be very familiar to you.
0:02:49 > 0:02:51You've seen them before on chocolate boxes
0:02:51 > 0:02:54and the postcards people send you from Paris.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58And even if you don't recognise the actual pictures,
0:02:58 > 0:03:00you'll certainly know their mood.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05That relaxed, optimistic, typical mood of Impressionism.
0:03:11 > 0:03:19So naturally you're going to assume that achieving these pleasing moods was pleasant as well
0:03:19 > 0:03:23and that the life of the Impressionists was relaxing and contented.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31And that's where you'd be wrong.
0:03:31 > 0:03:36Very wrong. Because the outdoor art of the Impressionists,
0:03:36 > 0:03:40their most famous contribution to painting,
0:03:40 > 0:03:43the stuff we all know and love...
0:03:44 > 0:03:47..was a bitch to paint.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51Achieving that pleasant sense of outdoor relaxation...
0:03:53 > 0:03:55..was so much harder than it looks.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06In the last film, we saw the Impressionists come together
0:04:06 > 0:04:09for their first show, in 1874.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15Over the next decade they had seven more exhibitions.
0:04:15 > 0:04:22That's eight shows in all, eight shows that changed art.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28And from the beginning, they wanted to paint outdoors.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32To paint what they could see, what was really there.
0:04:35 > 0:04:40In Monet's case, that usually involved water.
0:04:42 > 0:04:47Monet spent his entire life living next to water.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50It was as if he was born with two umbilical cords,
0:04:50 > 0:04:55one connected to his mother, the other connected to the Seine.
0:05:00 > 0:05:05It started in Paris, where he was born in 1840,
0:05:05 > 0:05:09and where the Seine is all twisty and urban.
0:05:13 > 0:05:19In Le Havre, where he grew up, the river pours itself into the Atlantic
0:05:19 > 0:05:25in a messy industrial puddle full of elusive glimmers and shimmers.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31His final days, of course,
0:05:31 > 0:05:36were spent here at Giverny by his famous lily pond,
0:05:36 > 0:05:37which he created from scratch,
0:05:37 > 0:05:42specifically to paint the water from every angle,
0:05:42 > 0:05:45with every watery nuance.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51So the whole of Monet's life was spent by the water,
0:05:51 > 0:05:55and water was the main obsession of his art as well.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12This was just a bog when he got here.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15All this had to be created.
0:06:15 > 0:06:21But it was worth it because it brought him closer to this stuff.
0:06:21 > 0:06:26The problem with painting water, the difficulty, the challenge,
0:06:26 > 0:06:29is that it's constantly changing.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31Everything affects it.
0:06:31 > 0:06:33Every moment is different.
0:06:34 > 0:06:35Water...
0:06:37 > 0:06:40..is sort of there and sort of not there.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43I mean, how do you paint...
0:06:43 > 0:06:44that?
0:06:49 > 0:06:54Monet's answer was to get right on top of it, as close as he could.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58To live it, breathe it, all day long
0:06:58 > 0:07:03in a special boat he had built for himself, a floating studio,
0:07:03 > 0:07:06custom-made for exploring the river.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12We know exactly what it looked like, because he was painted working on it
0:07:12 > 0:07:16by his fellow boat lover, Edouard Manet.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20Manet himself never became a proper Impressionist,
0:07:20 > 0:07:23but he shared many of Monet's Impressionist ambitions,
0:07:23 > 0:07:26as well as most of the consonants in his name.
0:07:26 > 0:07:31Manet and Monet were always getting confused.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36Manet shows Monet painting the Seine at Argenteuil,
0:07:36 > 0:07:40just up the river from central Paris.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44He's in his special boat, hard at work,
0:07:44 > 0:07:49dressed from head to toe in impeccable white boating gear.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56Not, you'd have thought, the most practical clothes to work in,
0:07:56 > 0:07:59but Monet was a bit of a dandy.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01He had all his shirts hand-made
0:08:01 > 0:08:04and was famous for his frills and his cuffs.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06Besides, on every French river,
0:08:06 > 0:08:10the rowers were obliged to wear a different colour.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13Here on the Seine, they had to wear white.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19There's something of the Hercule Poirot about him, don't you think?
0:08:19 > 0:08:24The neat little dandy dabbing away tidily at his view of the Seine.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31And if you look at the back of the boat, in the cosy home-made cabin,
0:08:31 > 0:08:34you'll find Monet's wife, Camille,
0:08:34 > 0:08:39stored away neatly like a useful sack of provisions.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44Camille would sit placidly at the back of the boat,
0:08:44 > 0:08:48singing for Monet, feeding him, organising his picnics.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51I bet they had other kinds of fun as well
0:08:51 > 0:08:55in that cosy-looking floating love-nest of theirs.
0:09:00 > 0:09:07In his earlier years, when he was still trying to make it the official way, Monet painted Camille
0:09:07 > 0:09:12in a gorgeous green dress and sent his portrait to the Salon,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15where, not surprisingly, it was a big hit.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21It's not a revolutionary image
0:09:21 > 0:09:24or a painting that does anything very new.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28But it does show how talented he was
0:09:28 > 0:09:30and how much he liked clothes.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38So does this other famous portrait of Camille,
0:09:38 > 0:09:43in a blonde wig would you believe, done up as a Japanese geisha.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48Is this really the same sack of provisions at the back of the boat?
0:09:50 > 0:09:53Amazingly, yes, it is.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02Including your lovers in your art like this, painting your family,
0:10:02 > 0:10:06your girlfriends, dressing them up, was new.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09Michelangelo would never have done it, or Turner,
0:10:09 > 0:10:13or any of the posh predecessors of the Impressionists.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17But the Impressionists were trying to be true to life,
0:10:17 > 0:10:19to paint things as they were,
0:10:19 > 0:10:23to make everyday life a suitable subject for art.
0:10:23 > 0:10:28Besides, when they started out, most of them were famously poor.
0:10:28 > 0:10:30They couldn't afford other models.
0:10:33 > 0:10:35Camille cost nothing
0:10:35 > 0:10:39and for Monet, one of the attractions of the river, I suggest,
0:10:39 > 0:10:43one of the chief reasons he kept coming back here
0:10:43 > 0:10:46to watch the paddling and the people,
0:10:46 > 0:10:48is that the river, too, was free.
0:11:03 > 0:11:05TRAIN WHISTLES BLASTS
0:11:08 > 0:11:10Mind you, boating across France
0:11:10 > 0:11:14to reach all the landscapes they wanted to paint
0:11:14 > 0:11:18would have taken the Impressionists many lifetimes,
0:11:18 > 0:11:20and that's where the train comes in.
0:11:27 > 0:11:32The French were actually very slow to take up train travel.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34Water was more their thing.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36They'd just engineered themselves
0:11:36 > 0:11:39the best canal system in the world,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42connecting the Mediterranean to the Atlantic,
0:11:42 > 0:11:44the north of France to the south.
0:11:44 > 0:11:50So when the train came along, all the water authorities
0:11:50 > 0:11:53and everyone who'd put any money into canal building -
0:11:53 > 0:11:54which was an awful lot of people -
0:11:54 > 0:11:57felt almightily threatened
0:11:57 > 0:12:01and wished the train would just go away.
0:12:06 > 0:12:13In fact, until 1842, even building a train line in France was illegal.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16In that year, though, the law was changed.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21And the conquest of rural France by the iron horse could begin in earnest.
0:12:24 > 0:12:30In 1842, there were no miles of national rail track in France.
0:12:30 > 0:12:36By 1892, there were 30,000 miles of it, a crazy expansion
0:12:36 > 0:12:40connecting Paris to its suburbs, the capital to the coast.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47But it's no good just getting to places quickly.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51You also need the right painting gear when you get there.
0:12:55 > 0:13:00All sorts of gadgets were invented to make artistic travel easier.
0:13:00 > 0:13:05The entire painting kit was rethought and miniaturised,
0:13:05 > 0:13:08so it could all be carried around in this handy little box.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11A few clicks of the latch and hey presto,
0:13:11 > 0:13:14one minute you're this.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16The next minute, you're this.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23Now when you see pictures of the Impressionists in their full painting gear,
0:13:23 > 0:13:26you might think they look a bit silly
0:13:26 > 0:13:30and they're just trying to achieve a fashionable, painterly look.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34But actually, all this has a purpose.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38The silly smock is obviously handy
0:13:38 > 0:13:41for carrying your brushes and things,
0:13:41 > 0:13:45but the really important thing about it, is its colour.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49It's deliberately dark, black or blue.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52That's because if you're trying to catch
0:13:52 > 0:13:54subtle nuances in the landscape,
0:13:54 > 0:13:58the last thing you should be wearing is bright coloured clothes,
0:13:58 > 0:14:01which would throw bright coloured reflections.
0:14:01 > 0:14:02If this smock were pink,
0:14:02 > 0:14:06it would throw pink reflections back on to the picture.
0:14:10 > 0:14:14And these big hats they all wore and the twee parasols,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17they weren't there just to keep the midday sun off your head.
0:14:17 > 0:14:22More threatening to the committed Impressionist than sunstroke
0:14:22 > 0:14:27was the damage done to your colour values by direct sunlight.
0:14:27 > 0:14:29It just messed them all up.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44If I paint something bright green in the hot sun
0:14:44 > 0:14:50and then take it home afterwards, it'll look completely dark.
0:14:50 > 0:14:56So the very worst time to paint an Impressionist picture
0:14:56 > 0:14:58is on a hot and sunny afternoon.
0:14:58 > 0:15:00That really is a challenge.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07So the parasols and the wide brimmed hats
0:15:07 > 0:15:08were to ensure that when you took
0:15:08 > 0:15:13your Impressionist masterpiece home at the end of the day,
0:15:13 > 0:15:16you could still see the glorious field of poppies
0:15:16 > 0:15:19you'd spent all afternoon painting...
0:15:21 > 0:15:25..or that sunny, boating view you'd worked on so sweatily
0:15:25 > 0:15:27by the banks of the Seine.
0:15:35 > 0:15:37Painting landscapes outdoors is hard enough,
0:15:37 > 0:15:42but for really problematic outdoor painting
0:15:42 > 0:15:46there's nothing quite as tricky as painting people.
0:15:49 > 0:15:54Unlike landscapes, people need to be persuaded to sit for you.
0:15:54 > 0:15:56They get bored, fidgety.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00One day they turn up, the next day they don't.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02You know what French girls are like!
0:16:04 > 0:16:09Renoir had developed a fiendishly difficult ambition.
0:16:09 > 0:16:14He wanted to capture the mood of modern Paris.
0:16:14 > 0:16:18The bonhomie, the relaxation, the laughs.
0:16:18 > 0:16:24And he wanted to paint it all outdoors, as it was happening.
0:16:24 > 0:16:29To do that, he got himself a studio up here in Montmartre
0:16:29 > 0:16:31at the top of the hill.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34In Montmartre, nobody watched what you were doing,
0:16:34 > 0:16:36so you just did more of it.
0:16:40 > 0:16:46This was where the poor people lived and where the most fun was had.
0:16:46 > 0:16:51Away from the authorities, away from the old rules.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03Renoir's new studio was along here in the Rue Cortot.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08It had a handy garden...
0:17:11 > 0:17:14..in which he persuaded some of Montmartre's
0:17:14 > 0:17:18prettiest girls to pose for him.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25Renoir needed to be at his most dangerously persuasive
0:17:25 > 0:17:28to charm this 16-year-old Montmartre blonde,
0:17:28 > 0:17:32Jeanne Margot, into his garden.
0:17:34 > 0:17:36She was up for it.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40But her mother, a wise old bird, wasn't.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44Perhaps she knew that Renoir was deliberately trying
0:17:44 > 0:17:49to update this risque old master,
0:17:49 > 0:17:52The Swing by Fragonard,
0:17:52 > 0:17:57painted in the naughty days before underwear was invented.
0:17:59 > 0:18:02Renoir was stealing himself for something big,
0:18:02 > 0:18:07a statement, an encapsulation of this new Parisian mood.
0:18:07 > 0:18:13And this big picture was going to be painted outdoors, in situ,
0:18:13 > 0:18:15with all the models around.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21So he ordered himself an extra large canvas
0:18:21 > 0:18:24and every day for the whole of the summer
0:18:24 > 0:18:28he lugged it around Montmartre with a pal.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32Down here.
0:18:32 > 0:18:33Along here.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38Up here.
0:18:38 > 0:18:44And finally over here, to the infamous Moulin de la Galette.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50The Moulin was Renoir's favourite playground.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53It was everyone's favourite playground.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56A bar, a restaurant, a dance floor,
0:18:56 > 0:18:59it really came to life on Sunday afternoons
0:18:59 > 0:19:01at the end of the working week,
0:19:01 > 0:19:05when the flirting and the dancing reached its climax.
0:19:16 > 0:19:18This is a galette, by the way.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21It's a cheap and popular cake they sold in there.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24But people didn't come to the Moulin for the cakes.
0:19:24 > 0:19:30They came for the opportunities, the adventures, the joie de vivre,
0:19:30 > 0:19:33and that's what Renoir set out to paint as well.
0:19:36 > 0:19:42He worked on it for months inside the Moulin, on the dance floor,
0:19:42 > 0:19:47using the Montmartre girls and their friends as models.
0:19:47 > 0:19:51Jeanne Margot's in there somewhere having fun.
0:19:51 > 0:19:56So is her older sister, Estelle, the girl at the front.
0:19:58 > 0:20:03Renoir's Moulin was shown at the third Impressionist exhibition of 1877,
0:20:03 > 0:20:07where everybody noticed it.
0:20:12 > 0:20:14It's a fabulous, fabulous picture.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18But to see it only as a record of fun and frolics in Montmartre
0:20:18 > 0:20:20would be a mistake.
0:20:21 > 0:20:23The Moulin de la Galette
0:20:23 > 0:20:28is also a big Impressionist statement, about social change.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34The new heroes of Renoir's art
0:20:34 > 0:20:37aren't priests or emperors or generals,
0:20:37 > 0:20:41though there's probably a few of those in there somewhere,
0:20:41 > 0:20:43everyone came to the Moulin.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46But the real heroes here are the working girls
0:20:46 > 0:20:49and the young chaps with attitude,
0:20:49 > 0:20:54the modern Parisians in whose boisterous grasp
0:20:54 > 0:20:56the future now lay.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04Something else revolutionary about the Bal
0:21:04 > 0:21:07at the Moulin de la Galette is the way it's painted.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09It's often true of Impressionist art.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12The closer you get, the more revolutionary it seems.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18All Renoir's art, all Monet's art, and Pissarro's,
0:21:18 > 0:21:22is a tribute to the crucial contribution
0:21:22 > 0:21:27to art history made by this fine animal here.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30This excellent brush in waiting.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32Porky, the pig.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37Brushes were the key to Impressionism.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40Without the latest brushes applying the latest colours
0:21:40 > 0:21:44in the latest ways, Impressionism couldn't have happened.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50Traditionally brushes were made out of this little chappie here.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54Out of different members of the weasel family.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00Various types of weasel hair were used, the most precious of which
0:22:00 > 0:22:04came from the kolinsky sable, which lived in Siberia,
0:22:04 > 0:22:07and to protect itself from the cold
0:22:07 > 0:22:10the kolinsky had developed this special fur
0:22:10 > 0:22:12that trapped the air bubbles.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16And when it was used in artists' brushes, it kept the paint very well
0:22:16 > 0:22:21and released it slowly, so artists who wanted to use glossy surfaces,
0:22:21 > 0:22:26shiny surfaces, they used the sable.
0:22:27 > 0:22:32In the 19th century, however, a crucial switchover occurred.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36In techniques, ambitions and animals.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39Instead of smooth, silky, sable hair,
0:22:39 > 0:22:45landscape artists began to use the hair from little piggy here.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47Hog's hair was stiffer,
0:22:47 > 0:22:51thicker and in the wrong hands, clumsier and messier.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55But in the right hands, the hands of the Impressionists,
0:22:55 > 0:22:59hog's hair made your brushes sing.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04Hog's hair brushes didn't glide around the canvas,
0:23:04 > 0:23:07they dug and scraped across it
0:23:07 > 0:23:11in exciting furrows of paint and colour.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15A new language is being invented and its ambition isn't to fool you
0:23:15 > 0:23:20or pretend something is there that isn't,
0:23:20 > 0:23:24its ambition is to speak to you, through paint.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26And excite you.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35So that's the superb contribution to progressive art
0:23:35 > 0:23:37made by this fine creature here,
0:23:37 > 0:23:40the best friend the Impressionists ever had.
0:23:49 > 0:23:54The River Seine is 776 kilometres long.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58It flows all away from the Swiss Alps to the English Channel,
0:23:58 > 0:24:00but as far as art is concerned
0:24:00 > 0:24:05it only really gets interesting when it gets to Paris.
0:24:07 > 0:24:12In Paris the Seine grows complex and devious,
0:24:12 > 0:24:17twisting back on itself, toying with the geography.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20By the time it comes out the other side,
0:24:20 > 0:24:22it's become such a fascinating river.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41Apparently the word Seine
0:24:41 > 0:24:46comes from the ancient Celtic and actually means "sacred river".
0:24:46 > 0:24:49The Impressionists certainly worshipped it.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52They kept painting it and repainting it,
0:24:52 > 0:24:56until they'd made it the most painted river ever, anywhere.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03They saw it in all weathers.
0:25:03 > 0:25:05In summer and in winter.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09In mysterious mists and terrifying floods.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21And the Seine was much too useful as a watery motorway
0:25:21 > 0:25:23from Paris to the sea
0:25:23 > 0:25:29to remain pretty for 776 kilometres.
0:25:29 > 0:25:34Sometimes the new satanic mills cluttering its banks
0:25:34 > 0:25:37coughed horrible things into the air
0:25:37 > 0:25:40and filled the sky with darkness.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47But most of the time it was delightful.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49All these happy Parisians
0:25:49 > 0:25:53enjoying their new leisure time in new outdoor ways.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56Boating, sailing, having fun.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01And one thing you can rely on in the story of Impressionism,
0:26:01 > 0:26:03is where there's fun, there's Renoir.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22In the old days in France, Sundays were for going to church,
0:26:22 > 0:26:25for communing with your creator and feeling guilty.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29But in these new secular Sundays that Renoir paints,
0:26:29 > 0:26:33the weekends are for fun.
0:26:35 > 0:26:41And Sundays are now for relaxing and looking beautiful,
0:26:41 > 0:26:43for parading in your finery,
0:26:43 > 0:26:49for flirting, lunching and above all, for dancing.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55Apparently Renoir was a fiend on the dance floor,
0:26:55 > 0:26:57a really good mover, marvellous dancer,
0:26:57 > 0:27:01and his love of polkas and waltzes is unmissable
0:27:01 > 0:27:06in his favourite paintings of mine, Renoir's dance pictures.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10Come on, how can anyone resist
0:27:10 > 0:27:14these twirling evocations of couples having fun?
0:27:14 > 0:27:20Renoir's joie de vivre is surely contagious.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30The most ambitious of Renoir's dancing pictures,
0:27:30 > 0:27:35The Dance at Bougival, features Suzanne Valadon,
0:27:35 > 0:27:39an outrageously gorgeous Montmartre model,
0:27:39 > 0:27:46who turned many a fine artistic mind to jelly.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51Valadon pops up here and there in Renoir's art,
0:27:51 > 0:27:54sometimes with her clothes on.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57Often without them.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00She's the modern girl as the new Venus,
0:28:00 > 0:28:04elbowing out the imaginary goddesses of the Greeks
0:28:04 > 0:28:07and elbowing in the living,
0:28:07 > 0:28:11breathing girls of Montmartre.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19Even Renoir, who was hardly a prober of people's character...
0:28:21 > 0:28:25..found something deep to notice in Suzanne Valadon.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30He painted her dancing, here, at Bougival.
0:28:32 > 0:28:37Renoir saw something far away in Valadon's eyes,
0:28:37 > 0:28:40a doubt, a dream, a regret.
0:28:41 > 0:28:46As characterisation, it's not in the Rembrandt league,
0:28:46 > 0:28:50but it is deeper than we usually expect of Renoir.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57These sensuous pleasure pictures of Renoir's
0:28:57 > 0:28:59painted on location outdoors
0:28:59 > 0:29:03are deliberately blowing raspberries at the Old Masters.
0:29:04 > 0:29:06Their message is that the modern world
0:29:06 > 0:29:12and the things modern people do are a fitting subject for great art.
0:29:13 > 0:29:18Today, we tend to look down on Renoir's party paintings
0:29:18 > 0:29:21and accuse them of superficiality.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25As Renoir himself once complained,
0:29:25 > 0:29:29people don't take you seriously if you smile.
0:29:31 > 0:29:32Bravo.
0:29:32 > 0:29:34SCATTERED APPLAUSE
0:29:41 > 0:29:42The world was opening up.
0:29:44 > 0:29:49Places that had been so difficult to get to were now easy.
0:29:51 > 0:29:57This place, Etretat, in Normandy, was just a train ride from Paris.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03The difficulties here started after you arrived.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07Monet knew Etretat from his youth.
0:30:07 > 0:30:10He grew up in Le Havre, just up the coast from here,
0:30:10 > 0:30:13and he was, of course, a beach bum by instinct.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19When Monet returned here a full-grown Impressionist,
0:30:19 > 0:30:22he'd stay in a hotel just back from the beach.
0:30:23 > 0:30:28Sometimes he was content to paint the view from the hotel window.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31But most times he wasn't.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37Painting in Etretat was anything but simple.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39In fact, it was damned difficult.
0:30:41 > 0:30:45Monet would have to lug his gear
0:30:45 > 0:30:51across all these treacherous boulders to get to the best rocks.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56And then he'd have to clamber up there
0:30:56 > 0:30:59to that spooky tunnel you can see...
0:31:01 > 0:31:04..to his favourite beach on the other side.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13These days, it's even tougher to get down there.
0:31:13 > 0:31:16The sea's completely cut it off.
0:31:22 > 0:31:28If he was in the money, he'd get some of the local kids to carry his gear for him,
0:31:28 > 0:31:32so you have to imagine a procession of small children, overburdened
0:31:32 > 0:31:37with canvases, easels, parasols,
0:31:37 > 0:31:41slithering across the rocks to get to Monet's secret beach.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48One day, he was so engrossed in painting the sea
0:31:48 > 0:31:53that he lost track of time and forgot the tide.
0:31:55 > 0:31:59As the tide rushed in, he was trapped out here on the rocks.
0:31:59 > 0:32:02His paints scattered, his pants ripped,
0:32:02 > 0:32:06his new canvases floating out into the Atlantic.
0:32:06 > 0:32:11He made it back, but only just.
0:32:21 > 0:32:26These are some of the few original fishing boats left in Normandy.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29Exactly like the ones Monet painted
0:32:29 > 0:32:33and went out on when he was feeling particularly reckless.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42The tide is high, so you can go all the way to those big rocks out there
0:32:42 > 0:32:44and float right underneath them,
0:32:44 > 0:32:48but you have to be pretty brave to do that and a bit stupid!
0:32:56 > 0:33:00Another of the great Impressionists we'll be looking at in this film,
0:33:00 > 0:33:04Cezanne, made a famous quip once about Monet.
0:33:04 > 0:33:09"Monet," said Cezanne, "was just an eye.
0:33:09 > 0:33:11"But what an eye."
0:33:13 > 0:33:17Cezanne was trying to say that Monet was really good at looking,
0:33:17 > 0:33:18which he was.
0:33:18 > 0:33:24Monet watched the sea more intensely than anyone else, but you don't come
0:33:24 > 0:33:29all the way out here and float under that thing if all you are is an eye.
0:33:29 > 0:33:33To do this, you need to have a big heart as well.
0:33:33 > 0:33:37And a mighty set of cojones.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09Dry land, though, isn't always a relaxing alternative -
0:34:09 > 0:34:14not when nature decides to make it tough for you.
0:34:15 > 0:34:19The Impressionists were very partial to snow.
0:34:19 > 0:34:21They all painted it.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24Monet, Renoir, Pissarro.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28The snow picture became an Impressionist speciality.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36Part of the attraction of course was the beauty of snow scenes.
0:34:36 > 0:34:42Snow brings crispness and drama wherever it falls.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50But there were also scientific issues to consider,
0:34:50 > 0:34:53as there usually are with the Impressionists,
0:34:53 > 0:34:56because the one thing you get more of in the snow
0:34:56 > 0:34:59than in any other natural conditions,
0:34:59 > 0:35:02is coloured shadows.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09Look deeper into any Impressionist's snow scene
0:35:09 > 0:35:12and you'll usually find some brave experimentation going on,
0:35:12 > 0:35:17with vivid blues and livid purples.
0:35:26 > 0:35:31Scornful reviewers looking at these bright purple shadows
0:35:31 > 0:35:34would sometimes burst out laughing
0:35:34 > 0:35:37and accuse the Impressionists of hallucinating,
0:35:37 > 0:35:41but of course they weren't.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44They were just painting what they saw,
0:35:44 > 0:35:47because snow shadows are never black.
0:35:47 > 0:35:53They're always full of colour, and I'm going to show you why.
0:35:55 > 0:35:59First, I have to build myself a projection screen.
0:35:59 > 0:36:05Somewhere to show you the natural magic we're dealing with here.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09The Impressionists did it on their canvases.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11I'm going to do it...
0:36:12 > 0:36:13..on this.
0:36:16 > 0:36:20So that's my projection screen.
0:36:20 > 0:36:25Now, these two torches are basically artificial versions
0:36:25 > 0:36:28of the natural light you get around here in the winter.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32This is the sun shining down from the sky.
0:36:32 > 0:36:36This one here, that's all the ambient light that you get
0:36:36 > 0:36:38reflected up off the snow.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41That's why the snow is so good for showing this,
0:36:41 > 0:36:45because there's so much ambient light reflected off it.
0:36:47 > 0:36:55So sunlight, snow light, but to show you how these two come together
0:36:55 > 0:37:01to create coloured shadows, I need to switch off all the other lights.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06That's better.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10Now, these are two typical Impressionist figures,
0:37:10 > 0:37:16a man and a woman, bourgeois types of the kind you see strolling around
0:37:16 > 0:37:20so much Impressionist art.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23And I've also got
0:37:23 > 0:37:25this coloured cellophane.
0:37:29 > 0:37:33So think of this yellow cellophane
0:37:33 > 0:37:36as an artificial version
0:37:36 > 0:37:39of a sunny day.
0:37:39 > 0:37:44Imagine the sun up in the sky shining lots of yellow light down,
0:37:44 > 0:37:48and if I throw this yellow light
0:37:48 > 0:37:52at the Impressionist couple,
0:37:52 > 0:37:55and also this other light,
0:37:55 > 0:38:01representing the ambient light reflected from the snow, you'll see
0:38:01 > 0:38:04that the Impressionist couple
0:38:04 > 0:38:08are now casting purple shadows.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14However, if I change the colours and make this a red light -
0:38:14 > 0:38:19imagine a red sky with the sun shining at sunset,
0:38:19 > 0:38:23and shine that at the Impressionist figures,
0:38:23 > 0:38:27then you'll see that the colours of the shadows
0:38:27 > 0:38:31change as well, and become greenish.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35It's basic optical science.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38Light is made up of all the colours of the spectrum,
0:38:38 > 0:38:40so if you block off some of these colours,
0:38:40 > 0:38:45the receptors in your eyes begin to see new things.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51Interestingly, though, the Impressionist era
0:38:51 > 0:38:56wasn't just an important era for scientific experiment,
0:38:56 > 0:39:00it was also an important era for shadow puppets.
0:39:00 > 0:39:04Puppet shows were an immensely popular entertainment
0:39:04 > 0:39:07in the bars and cabarets of Montmartre,
0:39:07 > 0:39:11and huge crowds would flock to see the best ones.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14And any nosy Impressionist in the audience
0:39:14 > 0:39:19couldn't have failed to notice the intriguing colour issues
0:39:19 > 0:39:24that were being raised by these puppet shows.
0:39:27 > 0:39:33If we jump ahead in this series to the Seurat story that's coming up,
0:39:33 > 0:39:37we'll see coloured shadows and the magic of the puppet show combined
0:39:37 > 0:39:41so adventurously and brilliantly.
0:39:42 > 0:39:44Bonjour, Madame.
0:39:44 > 0:39:45Bonjour, Monsieur!
0:39:45 > 0:39:48Vous etes tres belle!
0:39:48 > 0:39:51Oooooh!
0:39:56 > 0:40:00The Impressionist who was most fascinated by coloured shadows
0:40:00 > 0:40:02was Camille Pissarro,
0:40:02 > 0:40:07who loved Christmas scenes and winter frosts.
0:40:07 > 0:40:13He found plenty of both here in Pontoise, where he moved in 1872.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19Pissarro didn't just look like Father Christmas,
0:40:19 > 0:40:21he behaved like him as well.
0:40:21 > 0:40:25One of his best qualities was his generosity.
0:40:32 > 0:40:37Most French artists of the time had egos the size of the Eiffel Tower
0:40:37 > 0:40:40and thought only of "moi, moi, moi".
0:40:40 > 0:40:43But not Pissarro.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45If you keep watching this series,
0:40:45 > 0:40:49you'll see him helping Gauguin become an Impressionist,
0:40:49 > 0:40:53and then promoting Seurat, the genius of the dots.
0:40:54 > 0:41:00He even made sure poor old Van Gogh had somewhere peaceful to die,
0:41:00 > 0:41:06by bringing him here, to Auvers, just up the river from Pontoise.
0:41:18 > 0:41:20Back at the beginning of our story,
0:41:20 > 0:41:26in the early days of Impressionism, Pissarro even took in an interest
0:41:26 > 0:41:30in an artist that no-one else would touch with a barge pole.
0:41:30 > 0:41:37A particularly stubborn and selfish and downright weird painter
0:41:37 > 0:41:39called Cezanne.
0:41:45 > 0:41:47Cezanne's early work,
0:41:47 > 0:41:50the pictures he showed in the first Impressionist exhibition,
0:41:50 > 0:41:54are still challenging today.
0:41:54 > 0:41:59So imagine what people thought when they saw these things in 1874.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05A peculiar self-portrait,
0:42:05 > 0:42:09with a bearded Cezanne leching over a shivering nude
0:42:09 > 0:42:12in a half-mad brothel scene.
0:42:13 > 0:42:18A portrait of Cezanne's father painted with a palette knife,
0:42:18 > 0:42:21and looking as if it's been carved out of tar.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25Never before has anyone produced art
0:42:25 > 0:42:29as deliberately dark and crude and tough
0:42:29 > 0:42:32as these strange pictures.
0:42:37 > 0:42:42Cezanne called these early works "couillarde",
0:42:42 > 0:42:47which is not a word you find in most French dictionaries.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50It seems to mean something like "ballsy".
0:42:50 > 0:42:54An art made...down there.
0:42:56 > 0:42:58Rapes, mutilations,
0:42:58 > 0:43:02big, hunking nudes.
0:43:02 > 0:43:07The art pouring out of Cezanne when he fell in with the Impressionists
0:43:07 > 0:43:10was so black and strange.
0:43:20 > 0:43:24It was Pissarro who changed all that.
0:43:24 > 0:43:27He invited Cezanne to Pontoise
0:43:27 > 0:43:31and persuaded him to stop the darkness -
0:43:31 > 0:43:35to get out of himself more, out of his black head,
0:43:35 > 0:43:39and to start painting outdoors,
0:43:39 > 0:43:41before the motif.
0:43:41 > 0:43:43Somewhere just about here.
0:43:47 > 0:43:49It was like throwing a switch.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53One moment, Cezanne is the creator of this.
0:43:55 > 0:43:59The next, he's gone all sensitive and rural,
0:43:59 > 0:44:01and he's painting this.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06When Cezanne became a landscape painter,
0:44:06 > 0:44:11his darkness seemed suddenly to evaporate into sunny shimmers.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27Cezanne showed in three Impressionist exhibitions
0:44:27 > 0:44:32and then fell out with Pissarro, which was typical.
0:44:32 > 0:44:35Cezanne fell out with everyone.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39Returning home to Provence,
0:44:39 > 0:44:42he cut himself off from the Paris art world
0:44:42 > 0:44:47and devoted himself to painting the landscape he knew best.
0:44:49 > 0:44:53This is the Cezanne family house, the Jas de Bouffan.
0:44:53 > 0:44:57It appears in lots of paintings and hasn't really changed that much.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05Cezanne's father was a rich banker.
0:45:06 > 0:45:10The family home was big and bourgeois.
0:45:12 > 0:45:16Cezanne enjoyed painting this posh pond here.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20And when he finished with the grounds,
0:45:20 > 0:45:22he started on the workforce.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27In real life, everyone at the Jas de Bouffant
0:45:27 > 0:45:30was constantly bickering and arguing.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34But in the eternal game of cards
0:45:34 > 0:45:38that Cezanne turns into one of his greatest subjects,
0:45:38 > 0:45:42time stops still and peace takes over.
0:45:47 > 0:45:48BIRDSONG
0:45:55 > 0:45:59This is the studio Cezanne built for himself just outside Aix,
0:45:59 > 0:46:03so he could paint out here in the countryside with no distractions.
0:46:05 > 0:46:07It's been kept more or less as he left it.
0:46:14 > 0:46:19Inside here, Cezanne produced some of the most revolutionary pictures
0:46:19 > 0:46:20in the story of art,
0:46:20 > 0:46:24using only the simplest ingredients.
0:46:25 > 0:46:30All he needed was a bag of apples and a new way of looking.
0:46:35 > 0:46:40The middle of the 19th century was THE great era of optical discovery.
0:46:40 > 0:46:44All sorts of remarkable things were found out about vision.
0:46:44 > 0:46:47What actually happens to the eyes when we see something?
0:46:47 > 0:46:52What does looking actually involve?
0:46:53 > 0:46:56It was an Englishman, Charles Wheatstone,
0:46:56 > 0:47:00who first described stereo vision in 1838.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05Until then, no-one had bothered to ask themselves
0:47:05 > 0:47:08why human beings have two eyes.
0:47:10 > 0:47:15Why don't we just have one big eye right here in the middle?
0:47:15 > 0:47:18Wouldn't that be more practical?
0:47:18 > 0:47:20More visually economical?
0:47:20 > 0:47:22No, actually.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25Because the reason we have two eyes is that with two eyes,
0:47:25 > 0:47:31we can see in stereo and judge distances more exactly.
0:47:31 > 0:47:33That's why people who lose an eye
0:47:33 > 0:47:36have difficulty in the beginning driving.
0:47:36 > 0:47:38They can't judge distances as well.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42This had huge artistic implications.
0:47:42 > 0:47:44Particularly for Cezanne.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52If you stare hard at these apples I bought in the shop down the road,
0:47:52 > 0:47:57you'll notice that each eye sees them differently.
0:47:57 > 0:48:01The left eye sees them from over here.
0:48:01 > 0:48:03The right eye from over here.
0:48:04 > 0:48:09If I now combine these two views through the magic of television,
0:48:09 > 0:48:12I'll get a crude Cezanne-ish blurring.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16An optical tipsiness that's so Cezanne.
0:48:19 > 0:48:24Cos what Cezanne realised was that traditional, single-point perspective,
0:48:24 > 0:48:28where everything is arranged in a line in front of you, was wrong.
0:48:28 > 0:48:33What we actually do is see in stereo, through two eyes,
0:48:33 > 0:48:38each of which sees things from slightly different angles.
0:48:40 > 0:48:45The brain then combines these two images into a single view.
0:48:47 > 0:48:49It's a momentous discovery.
0:48:50 > 0:48:54Traditional perspective was under attack.
0:48:59 > 0:49:04Outside Cezanne's studio, just up here, a short climb away,
0:49:04 > 0:49:09he painted one of his famous views of the Mont Sainte-Victoire
0:49:09 > 0:49:14and explored another fascinating optical phenomenon,
0:49:14 > 0:49:18discovered by the under-rated Charles Wheatstone,
0:49:18 > 0:49:21who invented this contraption here -
0:49:21 > 0:49:23the pseudoscope.
0:49:26 > 0:49:31What this thing does is swap around all your optical information
0:49:31 > 0:49:37so what you usually see in your left eye is moved to the right eye
0:49:37 > 0:49:39and vice-versa.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43As a result of swapping your eyes around,
0:49:43 > 0:49:50concave shapes become convex and convex shapes become concave.
0:49:50 > 0:49:52Everything is reversed.
0:49:57 > 0:50:01Unfortunately, it's totally impossible for me to show you that.
0:50:01 > 0:50:05There is no way I can feed separate information to both your eyes.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10So what you have to imagine is that with one of these,
0:50:10 > 0:50:13the human face becomes a mask,
0:50:13 > 0:50:16which you see like that.
0:50:20 > 0:50:24Backgrounds and foregrounds swap places.
0:50:24 > 0:50:30The entire relationship of far to near is challenged.
0:50:30 > 0:50:34A Cezanne also challenges it in his superb tussles
0:50:34 > 0:50:37with the mountain that obsessed him.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40The Mont Sainte-Victoire.
0:50:44 > 0:50:46So did he actually use one of these?
0:50:46 > 0:50:49I don't think so. He wasn't a man for gadgets.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52But he'll definitely have known about it.
0:50:52 > 0:50:54Optical discovery was in the air
0:50:54 > 0:50:57and everything the Impressionists did was informed by it.
0:50:57 > 0:51:01And if you stare at this landscape as intensely,
0:51:01 > 0:51:06as relentlessly as Cezanne did sooner or later,
0:51:06 > 0:51:09it'll start to shimmer and coalesce.
0:51:12 > 0:51:15Until it reveals its deeper truth.
0:51:34 > 0:51:36This is the Pont de l'Europe.
0:51:36 > 0:51:38Ugly as sin, I think you'll agree.
0:51:39 > 0:51:43But this was one of the most inspirational
0:51:43 > 0:51:45art locations in Paris.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48Great Impressionist things were done around here.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04Manet, the grandfather of Impressionism,
0:52:04 > 0:52:07had a studio up here on the Rue Saint-Petersbourg.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11At number four, up on the first floor.
0:52:13 > 0:52:15Notice the window up there.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19That pops up again in the smoky background
0:52:19 > 0:52:22of a very curious Manet painting
0:52:22 > 0:52:24set on the Pont de l'Europe.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27It shows a Parisian nanny with a little girl,
0:52:27 > 0:52:31who looks out across the railway tracks
0:52:31 > 0:52:34like a prisoner staring through the bars of a cage.
0:52:34 > 0:52:38Remember, when Manet was living here,
0:52:38 > 0:52:40all this was brand new.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44The entire area had just been dug up and laid out
0:52:44 > 0:52:48by the infamous Baron Haussmann, rebuilder of Paris.
0:52:49 > 0:52:51And the Gare Saint-Lazare down there,
0:52:51 > 0:52:53at which the little girl in the picture is staring,
0:52:53 > 0:52:57that was the first railway station in Paris.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02And to emphasise the city's new connectivity
0:53:02 > 0:53:04to the rest of the world,
0:53:04 > 0:53:07Haussmann had given all the boulevards
0:53:07 > 0:53:09radiating from the Pont de l'Europe
0:53:09 > 0:53:12the names of European capitals.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17London.
0:53:18 > 0:53:20Madrid.
0:53:21 > 0:53:23Constantinople.
0:53:24 > 0:53:26Edinburgh.
0:53:27 > 0:53:29Yes, Edinburgh.
0:53:31 > 0:53:32Rome!
0:53:35 > 0:53:36Saint Petersburg.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39All these roads that lead out of Paris.
0:53:39 > 0:53:42That's what the little prisoner in Manet's painting
0:53:42 > 0:53:44is dreaming of as well.
0:53:44 > 0:53:48The new freedom that she can't get to.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53And neither can her nanny,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56trapped sadly on the wrong side of the tracks.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01Who says Impressionism never had a message?
0:54:06 > 0:54:09But the busiest Impressionist around here was Monet.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12He was less interested in the Pont de l'Europe
0:54:12 > 0:54:16and more interested in what was going on down there -
0:54:16 > 0:54:19in that smoky hell of the Gare Saint-Lazare.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26The Impressionists were frequent visitors to the Gare Saint-Lazare.
0:54:27 > 0:54:30It was from here that trains left the city for the suburbs
0:54:30 > 0:54:35and brought all those sunny views of the Seine within easy reach.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41But in 1877, Monet had a Eureka moment.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46Instead of painting the sunshine and the river banks,
0:54:46 > 0:54:49why not paint the station itself?
0:54:49 > 0:54:53The fog, the steam, the apocalyptic belching?
0:54:55 > 0:54:57Now that would be modern.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01Renoir told him he was mad.
0:55:01 > 0:55:03Besides, he'd never get in.
0:55:05 > 0:55:08Then, as now, you don't just waltz
0:55:08 > 0:55:11into a mainline station and paint it.
0:55:11 > 0:55:15There were rules to be followed. Forms to be filled in.
0:55:15 > 0:55:17Jobsworths to be dealt with.
0:55:21 > 0:55:23It should have taken months to organise.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26Monet fixed it in a day.
0:55:26 > 0:55:28Putting on his poshest clothes,
0:55:28 > 0:55:31he demanded to see the director of the station
0:55:31 > 0:55:35because he was Monet, the great painter.
0:55:36 > 0:55:40The director had never heard of him before, of course.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43His thing was trains, not art.
0:55:43 > 0:55:45But this posh chap turns up
0:55:45 > 0:55:48and tells him he wants to close down the station,
0:55:48 > 0:55:54to delay the train to Rouen and to fill the space with extra smoke.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57The director is just about to tell him no
0:55:57 > 0:55:59when Monet piped up,
0:55:59 > 0:56:03"I went to see the director of the Gare du Nord the other day
0:56:03 > 0:56:05"and he was very welcoming.
0:56:05 > 0:56:07"Do you know, I can't quite decide
0:56:07 > 0:56:11"whether to do this at the Gare du Nord or here.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14"What do you think, Monsieur le directeur?"
0:56:14 > 0:56:17The next day, he was in.
0:56:19 > 0:56:22It was actually very dangerous to fill the station
0:56:22 > 0:56:27with all the smoke from all the engines of all the delayed trains.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31But that was the effect Monet was after.
0:56:31 > 0:56:35He'd set out to paint the foggiest sight he could imagine.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38A vision that out-Turnered Turner.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42A train shed full of smoke.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48A dozen quickly painted canvases record his battle.
0:56:49 > 0:56:53They were unveiled at the third Impressionist exhibition in 1877
0:56:53 > 0:56:57and are among his most dramatic achievements.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01Man giving nature a good run for her money
0:57:01 > 0:57:04in the production of clouds and fogs
0:57:04 > 0:57:06and apocalyptic thunder.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13Monet could have died painting his station pictures.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16choking on carbon monoxide and smoke.
0:57:16 > 0:57:18But he was an Impressionist
0:57:18 > 0:57:22and Impressionists don't take shortcuts.
0:57:25 > 0:57:30These guys were determined, hardcore, and did whatever it took.
0:57:36 > 0:57:40Why they tramped through fields of the coldest cold,
0:57:40 > 0:57:45just to capture the colour of shadows.
0:57:52 > 0:57:54They trekked up mountains.
0:58:00 > 0:58:03Wherever nature impressed them,
0:58:03 > 0:58:07the Impressionists went after it and tried to capture it.
0:58:15 > 0:58:17Fogs.
0:58:22 > 0:58:24Floods.
0:58:30 > 0:58:32Rain storms.
0:58:36 > 0:58:38And treacherous coastal black spots.
0:58:44 > 0:58:49They were after the truth and went where it took them.
0:58:49 > 0:58:51And that's never been an easy journey.
0:58:55 > 0:58:59Mind you, not all the exploring the Impressionists did
0:58:59 > 0:59:00was done outdoors.
0:59:02 > 0:59:04Sometimes the most interesting sights
0:59:04 > 0:59:06are right there under your nose.
0:59:07 > 0:59:10As we'll find out in the next film
0:59:10 > 0:59:13when we investigate the Impressionists indoors.
0:59:33 > 0:59:35Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:59:35 > 0:59:38E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk