0:00:08 > 0:00:10# Though 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# To 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# 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. #
0:00:47 > 0:00:51Because this is a series about Impressionism,
0:00:51 > 0:00:55you probably expect me to spend most of my time outdoors,
0:00:55 > 0:01:00enjoying rivers and gardens and boating parties.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05Because that's what most people think Impressionism was about.
0:01:12 > 0:01:13Some of it was, of course.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17And we certainly saw a lot of sunny days in the last film.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20The one about the Impressionists outdoors.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23Remember Renoir by The Seine?
0:01:23 > 0:01:25GENTLE WATER SPLASHES
0:01:25 > 0:01:26Ah!
0:01:26 > 0:01:28And Monet at Etretat?
0:01:28 > 0:01:29SURF CRASHES
0:01:29 > 0:01:31Ooh!
0:01:31 > 0:01:35Nature, observed and recorded.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37The new way.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43But to think that Impressionism was mainly concerned
0:01:43 > 0:01:47with painting rivers and gardens is a mistake.
0:01:48 > 0:01:49Because it wasn't.
0:01:56 > 0:02:01For the Impressionists, staying indoors and watching the people
0:02:01 > 0:02:04was just as important as going outdoors
0:02:04 > 0:02:06and watching the landscape.
0:02:08 > 0:02:13You'll spot many a migrating bourgeois in Impressionist art.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16In couples and in singles.
0:02:16 > 0:02:18APPLAUSE
0:02:18 > 0:02:20And it can get bleak.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23Monet sits in on a family lunch
0:02:23 > 0:02:27and notices how gloomy it's got.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31Yes, this really is Monet and not Ibsen.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37The fact is, Impressionism is packed with people.
0:02:37 > 0:02:38They're everywhere.
0:02:38 > 0:02:43I don't think any society anywhere in art has been watched,
0:02:43 > 0:02:45categorised and judged
0:02:45 > 0:02:48as intensely as the inhabitants of France
0:02:48 > 0:02:50in Impressionist times.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57Behind every banquette, in every Parisian cafe,
0:02:57 > 0:03:01there lurked an Impressionist twitcher, spotting the clients.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06You couldn't hide from them in the bedroom either,
0:03:06 > 0:03:10because they were under the bed, watching you get dressed.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15The Impressionists witnessed the theatre of life
0:03:15 > 0:03:17unfolding before them
0:03:17 > 0:03:20with unprecedented keenness.
0:03:20 > 0:03:24And, like all the great portraitists in history,
0:03:24 > 0:03:27they weren't just interested in how people looked.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31They were fascinated by their inner lives as well.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41This is Degas' first masterpiece.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44He started painting it in his early 20s
0:03:44 > 0:03:48and then faffed about with it for years, as was his wont.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54They're all members of the Degas family.
0:03:54 > 0:03:58The woman is his Aunt Laura, his father's sister.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02She's married to the man on the right,
0:04:02 > 0:04:05Baron Gennaro Bellelli,
0:04:05 > 0:04:07a posh Italian from Florence.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11And these are their two children.
0:04:11 > 0:04:12Julia, sitting down,
0:04:12 > 0:04:16and Giovanna, on the left.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19Degas was very bourgeois.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21He came from a family of bankers.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24And here, at the back of the painting,
0:04:24 > 0:04:27is a picture within a picture
0:04:27 > 0:04:31of his grandfather, Rene-Hilaire Degas.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36He was the richest of the banking clan,
0:04:36 > 0:04:39stern and grumpy.
0:04:39 > 0:04:41The grandfather lived in Naples.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44There's another picture of him here by Degas.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48And all these other members of the family.
0:04:48 > 0:04:53This is Degas' sister, Marguerite Degas.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55Now, look at the way she spells her name.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59Marguerite De Gas.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02They did that to sound posh.
0:05:02 > 0:05:07Their real name was Degas, as the painter signs himself here.
0:05:07 > 0:05:12The family had no right to call themselves De Gas,
0:05:12 > 0:05:16but they were trying to sound better bred than they were,
0:05:16 > 0:05:18which was very bourgeois of them.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24And this here is Degas himself.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26Arrogant, surly,
0:05:26 > 0:05:29misogynist and bachelor,
0:05:29 > 0:05:32and a very clever painter
0:05:32 > 0:05:34with a cruel streak to him.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39Degas was a very difficult man.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42But he was also a genius and quite shockingly
0:05:42 > 0:05:45ungovernable and adventurous.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49This is all his early work and it looks very traditional.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51But even here...
0:05:53 > 0:05:57..he could be so outrageous.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01The portrait of the Bellellis,
0:06:01 > 0:06:04which seems so elegant and sedate,
0:06:04 > 0:06:07caused a big rumpus in the Degas family.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14Laura here, Degas' Italian aunt, whom he probably had a thing for,
0:06:14 > 0:06:18detested her husband, Baron Gennaro.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20They were deeply unhappy.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23She's actually pregnant in this picture
0:06:23 > 0:06:26with their third child.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29But look how unjoyous she seems
0:06:29 > 0:06:33and how far away from him she stands.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39This is a painting that goes deeply,
0:06:39 > 0:06:42cruelly almost, into the realms
0:06:42 > 0:06:47of personal psychology and feminine unhappiness.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50Degas, whom we're going to concentrate on in this film
0:06:50 > 0:06:52for as long as I can get away with,
0:06:52 > 0:06:55because he was such a genius,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58had the rebel gene in him from the start.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06He was so ungovernable, it's really surprising.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09Here's this haute bourgeois, a banker's son,
0:07:09 > 0:07:13whose art education was completely traditional.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16Posh school, Ecole des Beaux-Arts,
0:07:16 > 0:07:21everything in his past should have made him
0:07:21 > 0:07:24this kind of painter.
0:07:24 > 0:07:25But it didn't.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33It made him...this.
0:07:36 > 0:07:38And this.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43And this.
0:07:45 > 0:07:50Something went very wrong in grand bourgeois genetics
0:07:50 > 0:07:52when it produced Degas.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55Something glorious and colourful,
0:07:55 > 0:07:58blurry and intoxicating.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02It's a dynamic and inventive mutation,
0:08:02 > 0:08:05and there's not much in the story of civilisation
0:08:05 > 0:08:07we should thank the banking world for,
0:08:07 > 0:08:11but we do need to thank them for this.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26HORSE WHINNIES
0:08:26 > 0:08:28As you know, the British and the French
0:08:28 > 0:08:32don't always see eye to eye. They're not really natural buddies.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35So, if I was to suggest to you that Britain's influence
0:08:35 > 0:08:38on Impressionism was crucial,
0:08:38 > 0:08:42it's probably best if I suggest it quietly.
0:08:42 > 0:08:47Britain's influence on Impressionism was crucial.
0:08:49 > 0:08:54It was the British who introduced horseracing into France,
0:08:54 > 0:08:58just as they'd introduced boating and bathing and rambling.
0:09:01 > 0:09:06When it came to inventing new ways of not doing much on Sundays,
0:09:06 > 0:09:08the British were definitely the champs.
0:09:12 > 0:09:17This famous racecourse at Longchamp was only opened in 1857
0:09:17 > 0:09:20as part of the dramatic redesign of Paris
0:09:20 > 0:09:23by the infamous Baron Haussmann.
0:09:23 > 0:09:28Haussmann created this entire park from scratch,
0:09:28 > 0:09:29the Bois de Boulogne.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32It was based, I believe, on Hyde Park.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36And inside, he placed this huge,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39rowdy racecourse of Longchamp.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45Racing was an immediate hit with the French public,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48something else to do at the weekend.
0:09:48 > 0:09:50And where the modern public went,
0:09:50 > 0:09:53the modern painter was quick to follow.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57Manet captured Longchamp's frenzy
0:09:57 > 0:10:01in a flurry of speedy brushstrokes.
0:10:01 > 0:10:06But among the Impressionists, it was Degas, the banker's son,
0:10:06 > 0:10:09who most loved the horsies.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16Degas was looking for new, modern subjects to paint
0:10:16 > 0:10:18and he couldn't really miss Longchamp.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20When the crowd in here gets excited,
0:10:20 > 0:10:24you can hear their roar all the way back to central Paris.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26CROWD ROARS
0:10:27 > 0:10:30Eager Parisians would crowd in here on a Sunday
0:10:30 > 0:10:34and parade, strut, display.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37Degas, though, was more interested
0:10:37 > 0:10:40in the jockeys than the punters.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44The drama of their colours against the landscape.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46Their sudden loomings above you.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48HORSE WHINNIES AND SNORTS
0:10:50 > 0:10:54Now at exactly this time, another influential Englishman,
0:10:54 > 0:10:57the photographer Eadweard Muybridge,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00was also investigating horses.
0:11:01 > 0:11:06Muybridge was trying to solve the ancient mystery
0:11:06 > 0:11:08of a galloping horse.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11How exactly does it move?
0:11:11 > 0:11:14Why, when artists painted it in the past,
0:11:14 > 0:11:17did it always look so wrong?
0:11:17 > 0:11:19HORSE GALLOPS
0:11:20 > 0:11:23To answer these questions,
0:11:23 > 0:11:26Muybridge set up an experiment.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29He arranged a row of cameras along a training field
0:11:29 > 0:11:32and tripwires stretched across the course
0:11:32 > 0:11:34and connected to the cameras.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40The idea was that when a galloping horse passed by here,
0:11:40 > 0:11:45it would trigger a series of extra fast exposures,
0:11:45 > 0:11:47all the way along.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51Flash...flash...flash.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53CAMERA CLICKS
0:11:53 > 0:11:56Picture, picture, picture.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01The moving horse in action was finally frozen, step by step...
0:12:01 > 0:12:02CAMERA CLICKS
0:12:02 > 0:12:05..secret by secret.
0:12:07 > 0:12:11Degas bought Muybridge's book on the animal in motion
0:12:11 > 0:12:15as soon as it came out in France, and he studied it assiduously.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17But I told you he was contrary,
0:12:17 > 0:12:21and what really seemed to fascinate Degas about the horse in motion
0:12:21 > 0:12:25was not how graceful it looked or how powerful,
0:12:25 > 0:12:27the usual horsey cliches,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30but how contorted.
0:12:33 > 0:12:38Later, he made some sculptures which he never showed to anyone.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41No-one knew he'd done them until he died.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44But according to Degas's private sculptures,
0:12:44 > 0:12:48the true secret of the horse's movement
0:12:48 > 0:12:52is that it's awkward, strained and sinewy.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54Not at all graceful.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01This new way of understanding animal movement in Degas's art,
0:13:01 > 0:13:04this harsh new way of looking,
0:13:04 > 0:13:08didn't just apply to horses.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16It applied to people too,
0:13:16 > 0:13:19particularly women.
0:13:19 > 0:13:21WATER SPLASHING
0:13:22 > 0:13:25Muybridge had also photographed women,
0:13:25 > 0:13:28swirling and dancing,
0:13:28 > 0:13:30twisting this way and that.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33Always in action.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39Muybridge's images of moving horses and women
0:13:39 > 0:13:43had an impact on Degas's art that no-one could have predicted.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47They inspired him to start looking at women
0:13:47 > 0:13:49from such awkward angles
0:13:49 > 0:13:51and inspired viewpoints.
0:13:54 > 0:13:59A common reaction to these startling views of stretching prostitutes
0:13:59 > 0:14:03and actresses, twisting, leaning,
0:14:03 > 0:14:06drying themselves in their tubs,
0:14:06 > 0:14:09is that they show Degas deliberately humiliating
0:14:09 > 0:14:11his naked women.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15Forcing them to take up ugly and graceless poses.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20It's certainly true that he was a misogynist.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23"I'd rather keep 100 sheep," he once snapped,
0:14:23 > 0:14:26"Than one outspoken girl."
0:14:26 > 0:14:30Degas had plenty to hide in his feelings about women.
0:14:33 > 0:14:38But I don't think that's what these great pastels are about.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42I don't think these are about humiliation or cruelty.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47They're about something else, something Degas discovered
0:14:47 > 0:14:49in Muybridge's horse book.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52They're about true movement,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55about awkward twisting and ungainly leaning.
0:14:55 > 0:14:57The human body in motion,
0:14:57 > 0:15:01brilliantly observed through the keyhole,
0:15:01 > 0:15:03when it thinks no-one is looking.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09In his horse sculptures,
0:15:09 > 0:15:14Degas seems to see the moving horse in a new kind of 3D.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24And in his ravishing pastels of bathing prostitutes
0:15:24 > 0:15:28and stretching actresses, he looks down at the girls
0:15:28 > 0:15:35from extravagant, 3D viewpoints that art had never chosen before.
0:15:37 > 0:15:42This is more than a new chapter in the story of the nude,
0:15:42 > 0:15:45this is tearing up the old script
0:15:45 > 0:15:47and starting from scratch.
0:15:47 > 0:15:52Everyone knows the Impressionists reinvented the landscape,
0:15:52 > 0:15:56but they should also be credited with reinventing the nude.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08Degas showed in seven
0:16:08 > 0:16:11of the eight Impressionist exhibitions.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13He was surprisingly loyal
0:16:13 > 0:16:16and dedicated to the cause.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18But he had the rebel gene in him
0:16:18 > 0:16:22and it led him astray, whatever he did.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26I mean, look at this, his most audacious attempt
0:16:26 > 0:16:28to paint history.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31What kind of a mind decides
0:16:31 > 0:16:35to put this into an Impressionist exhibition?
0:16:38 > 0:16:41We always imagine ancient Greece to have been the cradle
0:16:41 > 0:16:45of civilisation, a beacon of enlightenment.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47But it wasn't always that,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50particularly where women were concerned.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56When it came to the treatment of women,
0:16:56 > 0:17:00the ancient Greeks were as macho and unreconstructed
0:17:00 > 0:17:02as the Taliban.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07Greek women couldn't go out, they couldn't be educated,
0:17:07 > 0:17:10they couldn't inherit or vote.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14In most of the ancient world, women were treated appallingly.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17Except in one great city state,
0:17:17 > 0:17:20where most things were done differently.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23Sparta.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27Spartan girls were treated as equals,
0:17:27 > 0:17:31brought up to be strong and independent, like the boys.
0:17:32 > 0:17:37No-one is certain what this curious picture actually shows.
0:17:39 > 0:17:41On the label, here at the National Gallery,
0:17:41 > 0:17:45they call it Young Spartans Exercising.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47And it's also known as
0:17:47 > 0:17:51Young Spartans Practising Wrestling.
0:17:53 > 0:17:55But when Degas finally put it
0:17:55 > 0:17:58into the fifth Impressionist Exhibition of 1880,
0:17:58 > 0:18:01he gave it the splendid title
0:18:01 > 0:18:05of Spartan Girls Provoking The Boys.
0:18:05 > 0:18:07And I can't understand, for the life of me,
0:18:07 > 0:18:09why people don't believe him,
0:18:09 > 0:18:12because that's clearly what it shows.
0:18:12 > 0:18:14The girls, on the left,
0:18:14 > 0:18:17provoking the boys, on the right.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23To toughen them up, Spartan girls
0:18:23 > 0:18:26were taught to fight and wrestle.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30They didn't wear much either, whatever the weather.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33And Degas senses the sexual friction
0:18:33 > 0:18:35of these strange classical days.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42The Spartan girls are taunting the boys,
0:18:42 > 0:18:45and the boys, like teenage boys everywhere,
0:18:45 > 0:18:47aren't sure what to do
0:18:47 > 0:18:50when the girls come on to them.
0:18:51 > 0:18:56What a brilliant mix of bravado and gaucheness.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00This boy here, the one on all fours,
0:19:00 > 0:19:03seems particularly in touch with his animal nature.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08It's Degas' response, I think, to all the Darwinism
0:19:08 > 0:19:12that was in the air, these theories of evolution.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15And this rock here is the rock
0:19:15 > 0:19:19from which Spartan babies were said to be thrown to their deaths
0:19:19 > 0:19:23if they were born weak or disabled.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28But the battle between the boys and the girls
0:19:28 > 0:19:30isn't the only combat we witness here.
0:19:31 > 0:19:34There's also a fierce struggle going on
0:19:34 > 0:19:37between the past and the present.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43Degas is deliberately taking on
0:19:43 > 0:19:47one of the most celebrated paintings in the Louvre.
0:19:47 > 0:19:51a masterpiece from the days of the French Revolution -
0:19:51 > 0:19:54David's Oath of the Horatii.
0:19:54 > 0:19:56BATTLE CRIES
0:19:58 > 0:20:01This is always held up as the ultimate piece
0:20:01 > 0:20:04of neo-classical propaganda.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08The heroic Horatii brothers, over here,
0:20:08 > 0:20:12are pledging to give their lives to defend Rome.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23But Degas, in this cheeky update, deliberately
0:20:23 > 0:20:27and cunningly echoes David's composition.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30And everybody looking at this would have seen it immediately.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36And they'd have noticed, too, how Degas' Spartan girls
0:20:36 > 0:20:40look exactly like the wispy, modern girls of Montmartre.
0:20:42 > 0:20:45So much more contemporary and liberated
0:20:45 > 0:20:48and alive than David's frozen Romans.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52In the battle of realities,
0:20:52 > 0:20:56it's ancient Rome, nil, the modern world, one.
0:21:07 > 0:21:13You know that floaty, ethereal quality you get with Degas' art?
0:21:13 > 0:21:16The pulsing fogs of colour?
0:21:16 > 0:21:18There's a bit of it in the Spartan girls,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21and lots of it in the girls in tubs.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25Well, that's the result of experimenting
0:21:25 > 0:21:29with these chalky little magic sticks...
0:21:31 > 0:21:32..pastels.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39It's not just the nudes, all the women in his art -
0:21:39 > 0:21:42the laundresses, the milliners' girls,
0:21:42 > 0:21:44the ballet dancers,
0:21:44 > 0:21:49they all owe some of their intoxicating haziness to the pastel.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59Pastels are rather mysterious.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01You can achieve gorgeous things with them,
0:22:01 > 0:22:04particularly when Degas gets his hands on them,
0:22:04 > 0:22:07but the effects are elusive, dreamy.
0:22:07 > 0:22:12So I want to find out more about them. I want the facts.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20'So I've come to Degas' pastel shop, La Maison Du Pastel.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22'Still here,
0:22:22 > 0:22:26'still selling pastels, still run by the same family.'
0:22:27 > 0:22:29I'm going to ask you a really silly question,
0:22:29 > 0:22:32but I'm going to ask it because I thought I knew the answer,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35but don't really. What exactly are pastels?
0:22:35 > 0:22:38What makes them specifically these lovely things here?
0:22:38 > 0:22:42Pastels is essentially pigment.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46It's pigment to which you add a binder, and different types of
0:22:46 > 0:22:52white powders, clays, to make the different gradations.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56So you have the pure colour, the pure pigment,
0:22:56 > 0:22:59with a little binder, and what makes Roche pastels specific
0:22:59 > 0:23:02is that they have very, very little binder,
0:23:02 > 0:23:05so you have almost colour in its purest form.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09So, this is a beautiful yellow, what's the actual colour?
0:23:09 > 0:23:13- Is it cadmium yellow or...? - This is a cadmium yellow, yes.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16So, to make the gradations, you just add a little bit of white,
0:23:16 > 0:23:17and it's almost pure pigment.
0:23:17 > 0:23:22All that is is essentially either colour or clay,
0:23:22 > 0:23:25mixed together in different amounts, to make the gradations.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29- Could you show me some of the colours that Degas liked to use? - Sure.
0:23:29 > 0:23:35- The colours that stick in my mind from his work are, of course, blues. - The blues...
0:23:35 > 0:23:37So, in the blues, you indeed have these types of blues,
0:23:37 > 0:23:41which you would find in the Blue Dancers, for example.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44- Those are ultramarines.- Oh!
0:23:44 > 0:23:47See, if I was an artist, I would just put loads of it on.
0:23:47 > 0:23:52Cos look...look at the depth of that colour, it's so exciting.
0:23:54 > 0:23:59You also have a colour which to me is very specific of Degas,
0:23:59 > 0:24:01which is the vert vif.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04Which is this one.
0:24:04 > 0:24:09- Ah, yes, the gorgeous green. - That you do find in his work.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12There's one missing here, which is the pinks, right?
0:24:12 > 0:24:17- The pinks of all the Ballet Dancers. - The pinks! Yes, the brilliant pinks.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19You have them here.
0:24:21 > 0:24:23Ah. See, when you see them in this form,
0:24:23 > 0:24:28you see a pile of pastels like this, you can see how the colours
0:24:28 > 0:24:32in pastels seem to sing in a way that they don't with other media,
0:24:32 > 0:24:36- don't they?- Yes. Actually, that's what I often hear,
0:24:36 > 0:24:38that the colours sing.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42It's essentially because compared to other types of media,
0:24:42 > 0:24:45you have the pigment in its purest form.
0:24:48 > 0:24:53Look at that, you see, it's just pure pigment, it's just gorgeous.
0:24:53 > 0:24:58I'm going to try that blue there, that's Degas blue, isn't it? Look at that!
0:24:58 > 0:25:02- Try this one as well, that has a really specific texture. - Oh, my God, look at that, oh!
0:25:02 > 0:25:05- It's got this intoxicating quality, hasn't it?- Mmm.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18FOOTSTEPS
0:25:24 > 0:25:27Degas's most intense examination of women,
0:25:27 > 0:25:30his most productive voyeurism,
0:25:30 > 0:25:34took place not in a bathtub or in Sparta,
0:25:34 > 0:25:36but from a box in the theatre,
0:25:36 > 0:25:39from where he loved to watch the ballet.
0:25:51 > 0:25:55Degas was a regular here at the Paris Opera, the Palais Garnier,
0:25:55 > 0:25:58which opened in 1875
0:25:58 > 0:26:00and quickly became THE place to go.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07It was built chiefly from crystal and mirrors, or so it seemed.
0:26:07 > 0:26:13There was enough baroque ornament in here to furnish the Vatican.
0:26:18 > 0:26:20- Bonjour, messieurs.- Bonjour.
0:26:23 > 0:26:25The typical bourgeois male
0:26:25 > 0:26:28would be at the Opera a couple of nights a week,
0:26:28 > 0:26:32and they didn't just come for the singing and the dancing.
0:26:32 > 0:26:33These elegant balconies
0:26:33 > 0:26:39and plush foyers were designed for parading in and being seen.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46- Bonjour, monsieur.- Bonjour.
0:26:49 > 0:26:54While the auditorium itself, which could seat 2,500 people,
0:26:54 > 0:26:58well...that was for voyeurism.
0:27:01 > 0:27:03The ballet was one of the few places
0:27:03 > 0:27:05where the 19th-century bourgeois male
0:27:05 > 0:27:09could admire lightly-clad feminine beauty
0:27:09 > 0:27:11without making it obvious.
0:27:11 > 0:27:16He'd just sink back into the darkness and peep.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21Degas had a season ticket to the Paris Opera.
0:27:21 > 0:27:25He was an obsessive ballet-goer and theatre groupie.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27Some of his most inventive art
0:27:27 > 0:27:31is set in the stalls of the Palais Garnier.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35Sometimes, he'd look up
0:27:35 > 0:27:38through the orchestra to the stage beyond,
0:27:38 > 0:27:41where the lights would work their nocturnal magic.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49More often, though, he'd be up in the boxes,
0:27:49 > 0:27:53looking down at the dancers - the shimmer, the spectacle.
0:27:57 > 0:28:02Interestingly, Degas never painted the stars of the ballet -
0:28:02 > 0:28:06the prima ballerinas, the famous beauties.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10Instead, he preferred the everyday dancers,
0:28:10 > 0:28:15the also-rans from the corps du ballet - the students,
0:28:15 > 0:28:18or ballet rats, as they were disparagingly called.
0:28:26 > 0:28:28And he didn't just paint them.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32In 1881, at the sixth Impressionist exhibition,
0:28:32 > 0:28:36Degas astonished everyone by showing a sculpture.
0:28:37 > 0:28:42It was called The Little Dancer, Aged 14.
0:28:42 > 0:28:45And it was shockingly realistic.
0:28:46 > 0:28:51He'd made it out of wax, painted to look so lifelike,
0:28:51 > 0:28:55with real hair, real clothes.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58He'd even tied her hair with a real ribbon,
0:28:58 > 0:29:00given to him by the model.
0:29:04 > 0:29:09These days, in museums, you can only see bronze casts of it.
0:29:09 > 0:29:12They're very beautiful,
0:29:12 > 0:29:14but they're not as spooky or as revolutionary
0:29:14 > 0:29:15or as lifelike
0:29:15 > 0:29:20as a hand-painted waxwork ballet dancer must have seemed.
0:29:22 > 0:29:27The model was a typical Parisian rat, called Marie van Goethem.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30She was originally from Belgium,
0:29:30 > 0:29:32and when Degas began sculpting her,
0:29:32 > 0:29:36as the title says, she was just 14,
0:29:36 > 0:29:38a ballet student at the Opera.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45Marie lived around the corner from Degas, literally around the corner.
0:29:45 > 0:29:49This was her street, the Rue de Douai,
0:29:49 > 0:29:52and this was his, the Rue Fontaine.
0:29:53 > 0:29:55Like most of the ballet rats,
0:29:55 > 0:29:59she came from a poor and disreputable family.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03Various rumours circulated about her behaviour.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06She was slovenly, they said, coarse.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12Marie would pop round to Degas' studio and pose for him.
0:30:12 > 0:30:16She had beautiful long hair that she was very proud of
0:30:16 > 0:30:19and when she danced, she'd stick out her chin
0:30:19 > 0:30:22so that her hair fell down her back.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28You can see her doing that in a couple of his paintings, as well.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32There's Marie with the hair and the chin.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37Now this position he forces her into in the sculpture
0:30:37 > 0:30:40is very difficult and unnatural.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44He'd pull her hands back as far as they'd go
0:30:44 > 0:30:48and tell her to stick her chin up even higher.
0:30:48 > 0:30:53And her feet were planted weirdly, just so.
0:30:53 > 0:30:59Now, this isn't a dance position, it's not a practice position.
0:30:59 > 0:31:00So what is it?
0:31:02 > 0:31:06The critics reviewing the sixth Impressionist exhibition
0:31:06 > 0:31:08were baffled too.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11"This opera rat has something of the foetus about her,"
0:31:11 > 0:31:15mooned Ellie Dumont in La Civilisation.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19"And one is tempted to enclose her in a jar of alcohol."
0:31:21 > 0:31:25The Gazette Des Beaux-Arts was even nastier about the sculpture.
0:31:25 > 0:31:29"This poor little girl," it spat, "is like an incipient rat,
0:31:29 > 0:31:33"who thrusts her little muzzle forward with bestial effrontery."
0:31:36 > 0:31:38Now there's a startling thought.
0:31:38 > 0:31:43Was Degas deliberately trying to make his little ballet rat
0:31:43 > 0:31:45look like a rat?
0:31:45 > 0:31:48Is the Little Dancer a cruel Darwinian pun
0:31:48 > 0:31:55motivated by harsh and disparaging evolutionary views?
0:31:55 > 0:32:00I hope not, but I can't shake off the suspicion that it might be.
0:32:09 > 0:32:14Degas was a haunter of dark and private bourgeois spaces -
0:32:14 > 0:32:16the bedroom doorway,
0:32:16 > 0:32:19the box at the theatre.
0:32:19 > 0:32:23What you don't get with him is the theatre of the streets.
0:32:23 > 0:32:27For that you need to turn to another of the keenest people watchers
0:32:27 > 0:32:32among the Impressionists, Gustav Caillebotte.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37Caillebotte painted this.
0:32:37 > 0:32:38And this.
0:32:40 > 0:32:41And even this.
0:32:43 > 0:32:47So he really ought to be much better known than he is.
0:32:49 > 0:32:54Caillebotte was unusual because he was so rich.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58Most of the Impressionists came from the petit end
0:32:58 > 0:32:59of the bourgeois scale.
0:32:59 > 0:33:01Monet's father was a grocer,
0:33:01 > 0:33:04Renoir's a tailor.
0:33:04 > 0:33:08The Degas' of course were of higher stock,
0:33:08 > 0:33:10but not as high as they pretended
0:33:10 > 0:33:13when they began calling themselves De Gas.
0:33:13 > 0:33:17Caillebotte, however, didn't have to pretend.
0:33:17 > 0:33:21He was VERY wealthy, VERY bourgeois
0:33:21 > 0:33:24and VERY progressive.
0:33:26 > 0:33:31That's him on the right, in the vest and boater, having fun by the river
0:33:31 > 0:33:33in Renoir's Boating Party.
0:33:34 > 0:33:38That's how Renoir saw him, but it's not how he saw himself.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41This is how he saw himself.
0:33:44 > 0:33:46The Caillebottes made their money
0:33:46 > 0:33:49supplying blankets to the French army.
0:33:49 > 0:33:52The more wars there were, the richer they got.
0:33:52 > 0:33:54After that, they moved into property
0:33:54 > 0:33:57and owned that big house on the corner,
0:33:57 > 0:34:00which they bought directly from Baron Haussmann,
0:34:00 > 0:34:02off-plan, as it were.
0:34:02 > 0:34:05Caillebotte's studio was up on the top floor,
0:34:05 > 0:34:08where that balcony is.
0:34:10 > 0:34:14He was the eldest son and tried being a lawyer first,
0:34:14 > 0:34:16then an engineer.
0:34:16 > 0:34:22But the art bug bit him and he became an Impressionist instead.
0:34:22 > 0:34:26Degas smelled out his money and introduced him to the clan.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33Caillebotte was so rich and pampered,
0:34:33 > 0:34:36he'd have himself transported to his painting locations
0:34:36 > 0:34:40in a specially designed horse and carriage -
0:34:40 > 0:34:42a kind of travelling studio
0:34:42 > 0:34:46which he'd load up with canvases and footmen and off he'd trot.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59Just a few hundred yards down here,
0:34:59 > 0:35:01to the Pont de l'Europe
0:35:01 > 0:35:07where he painted some of Impressionism's most inventive views
0:35:07 > 0:35:08of the new city.
0:35:13 > 0:35:17This was Paris's new gateway to Europe,
0:35:17 > 0:35:20a railway crossroads that leads everywhere.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26Caillebotte shows the new bourgeoisie
0:35:26 > 0:35:29strolling across the new bridge,
0:35:29 > 0:35:32taking in the new possibilities.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37Over here, a posh chap in a top hat
0:35:37 > 0:35:39notices a passing woman.
0:35:39 > 0:35:45She's actually a prostitute and he's a prospective client.
0:35:47 > 0:35:52Over here, a thoughtful workman dreams of another life
0:35:52 > 0:35:53somewhere else.
0:35:55 > 0:35:59Everything was possible on the Pont de l'Europe,
0:35:59 > 0:36:02but only in your dreams.
0:36:08 > 0:36:13Caillebotte's greatest painting of the area was done just up here
0:36:13 > 0:36:17in the Place de Dublin, Dublin Square.
0:36:17 > 0:36:22It's called Rainy Day At The Pont De L'Europe.
0:36:24 > 0:36:27The new rich stroll around the new Paris
0:36:27 > 0:36:29in a new spot of rain.
0:36:31 > 0:36:35And how crisp and clean their city now looks.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38How open and airy and thrilling.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44The perspective in that picture is deliberately exaggerated
0:36:44 > 0:36:46to make it more dramatic.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49Caillebotte is trying to make Paris look taller,
0:36:49 > 0:36:54bigger than it really is, so he looks up at it in a wide-angled way.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57The camera can do something similar.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00Oh, and if you go down lower, look up at me...
0:37:02 > 0:37:04..and there you have it.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06The Caillebotte effect.
0:37:11 > 0:37:17Caillebotte loved unusual viewpoints and deep, dramatic perspectives.
0:37:19 > 0:37:23His pictures tease your eyes and stretch them.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27What difficult positions he found to perch in.
0:37:30 > 0:37:32I have this image wedged in my brain
0:37:32 > 0:37:36of Caillebotte being transported luxuriously
0:37:36 > 0:37:38from location to location
0:37:38 > 0:37:41in his pimped-up painting carriage.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44100 yards here, 100 yards there.
0:37:44 > 0:37:50But some of his most radical art was painted without going anywhere.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53Back here in the house itself.
0:37:55 > 0:38:00One of Impressionism's most striking pictures was made in here.
0:38:00 > 0:38:05It was shown at the second Impressionist exhibition of 1876.
0:38:05 > 0:38:10And people weren't at all sure what to make of it.
0:38:10 > 0:38:12They're still not sure today.
0:38:14 > 0:38:16It's called The Floor Scrapers
0:38:16 > 0:38:19and it shows three chaps with their tops off
0:38:19 > 0:38:22scraping away at a wooden floor.
0:38:25 > 0:38:30It's a tense, puzzling picture with its plunging perspective
0:38:30 > 0:38:32and these wiry, dramatic poses.
0:38:36 > 0:38:40Caillebotte's father died in 1874
0:38:40 > 0:38:44leaving his son a huge fortune,
0:38:44 > 0:38:46so Caillebotte junior, our Caillebotte,
0:38:46 > 0:38:48set about altering the house
0:38:48 > 0:38:50and The Floor Scrapers
0:38:50 > 0:38:54probably shows the refurbishment of his new studio,
0:38:54 > 0:38:57the one on the top floor with the balcony.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05What's actually going on?
0:39:05 > 0:39:09Well, one of the men is scraping off the old varnish
0:39:09 > 0:39:11with a cabinet scraper.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17One of these. A simple tool.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21This edge here is sharp and you scrape it across the floor,
0:39:21 > 0:39:23smoothing it down.
0:39:23 > 0:39:28The other guy has one of these, a plane.
0:39:30 > 0:39:34He's planing down the joints between the floorboards,
0:39:34 > 0:39:36leaving a stripy floor.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42Now this is just about the first portrayal in art
0:39:42 > 0:39:43of the urban workman.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47Artists had shown peasants in the fields before,
0:39:47 > 0:39:49but not city workers.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52This was new.
0:39:52 > 0:39:57However, a couple of things about this picture have always puzzled me.
0:39:57 > 0:40:03For instance, why do they need to make the floor so stripy?
0:40:05 > 0:40:07Why don't they just clean the floor...
0:40:09 > 0:40:12..in big patches?
0:40:14 > 0:40:17I found the answer on YouTube,
0:40:17 > 0:40:21preserved in full shaky YouTube vision.
0:40:21 > 0:40:26Here's a chap in California preparing a hardwood floor.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29I emailed the company, and asked them,
0:40:29 > 0:40:31why do you do the floor in stripes?
0:40:32 > 0:40:38They wrote back that it was to make sure the whole floor was even.
0:40:38 > 0:40:40If you did it in patches,
0:40:40 > 0:40:43you might plane down more of the wood over here,
0:40:43 > 0:40:45and less of it over here.
0:40:45 > 0:40:47So the whole floor...
0:40:47 > 0:40:49would undulate.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54My other question was even more pressing.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57Why is the floor being scraped at all?
0:40:57 > 0:41:00The old varnish looks fine, doesn't it?
0:41:00 > 0:41:01It's almost new.
0:41:01 > 0:41:04The floor's in good condition.
0:41:04 > 0:41:06So why is the varnish being removed?
0:41:08 > 0:41:10I just couldn't work it out.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13Till I asked my wife, who's an artist, and she said,
0:41:13 > 0:41:15if it's his new studio,
0:41:15 > 0:41:19he'd want the floor to be as light as possible.
0:41:19 > 0:41:22Studio floors are never dark.
0:41:22 > 0:41:25Artists always want as much light in there
0:41:25 > 0:41:27as they can get.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33This isn't just a painting of the new heroes of modern life,
0:41:33 > 0:41:38the urban workman throwing off his top and flashing his torso.
0:41:39 > 0:41:43The Floor Scrapers has a hidden meaning, too.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53Caillebotte is trying to say something about art itself.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56The new art of the Impressionists.
0:41:56 > 0:42:00The old art was artificial,
0:42:00 > 0:42:04dark and covered in thick varnish.
0:42:04 > 0:42:07But the new art - Impressionist art -
0:42:07 > 0:42:10is natural, truthful
0:42:10 > 0:42:12and filled with light.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15Caillebotte's indoor masterpiece
0:42:15 > 0:42:18isn't just a tribute to the urban worker.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21It's a call to arms.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32The catalogues for the Impressionist exhibitions.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35Humble-looking things, aren't they?
0:42:35 > 0:42:38But don't be fooled by their modesty.
0:42:38 > 0:42:42These are records of a revolution in behaviour
0:42:42 > 0:42:45as well as an artistic revolt.
0:42:47 > 0:42:52And see here. Mademoiselle Berthe Morisot, a woman.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55That in itself was rebellious and different,
0:42:55 > 0:42:57to have a woman in the ranks.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02You can always tell a Morisot painting,
0:43:02 > 0:43:04because it'll definitely be
0:43:04 > 0:43:07the wildest and bravest thing in the room.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12Just look at her crazy brushstrokes,
0:43:12 > 0:43:16zigzagging across the canvas like lightning bolts.
0:43:16 > 0:43:19These flickering, darting paint flashes
0:43:19 > 0:43:24are some of the bravest markings of the Impressionist revolution.
0:43:24 > 0:43:27So new, so quick.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34Unfortunately, Berthe Morisot had a problem.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37She looked like this.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39Stunning.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43She turned men's heads, and when they painted her,
0:43:43 > 0:43:45as Manet often did,
0:43:45 > 0:43:47the poor, besotted chappies
0:43:47 > 0:43:52would imagine her to be a dark-eyed femme fatale.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56And they'd ignore what a serious
0:43:56 > 0:43:59and instinctive and insightful painter she was.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12Morisot was particularly good with white.
0:44:14 > 0:44:18Such a difficult colour to dramatise and differentiate.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23It's so hard to look deep when your work is as crisp
0:44:23 > 0:44:28and fresh as a wedding dress in the snow.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32But if anyone imagines Berthe Morisot's work
0:44:32 > 0:44:36to be docile or domestic or pretty,
0:44:36 > 0:44:40then I'm afraid you're standing too far away.
0:44:43 > 0:44:47The best place to look at her art is from about here.
0:44:47 > 0:44:49About two inches away.
0:44:51 > 0:44:53From this close,
0:44:53 > 0:44:57the sense of revolution here thwacks you between the eyes.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05Another female painter who appeared in these shows, Mary Cassatt,
0:45:05 > 0:45:07was an American.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11To be honest with you, I didn't rate Cassatt's work that highly,
0:45:11 > 0:45:15until I started filming it for these programmes.
0:45:16 > 0:45:20I thought it was too sweet, too obviously feminine.
0:45:20 > 0:45:22But how wrong I was.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26Look how spooky she is, how psychological.
0:45:27 > 0:45:32That air of emotional blankness which Cassatt captures,
0:45:32 > 0:45:34that sense you get with her sitters
0:45:34 > 0:45:39that they're on a far-away journey deep inside themselves.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43These are insights into the emotional states of women
0:45:43 > 0:45:46that Virginia Woolf would be proud of.
0:45:53 > 0:45:57Today, Cassatt and Morisot are highly regarded.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00But there was a third woman artist
0:46:00 > 0:46:03who played an interesting part in Impressionism,
0:46:03 > 0:46:05whom you never hear about,
0:46:05 > 0:46:08though she, too, was a revolutionary.
0:46:10 > 0:46:15Her name was Marie Bracquemond, and she made Impressionist pots.
0:46:15 > 0:46:17I bet you didn't even know there were any.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24Finding out about Marie Bracquemond has been tricky.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27She showed in three of the Impressionist exhibitions,
0:46:27 > 0:46:30but has largely disappeared from the story of art.
0:46:31 > 0:46:36And that's wrong, because Marie Bracquemond was really good.
0:46:38 > 0:46:42Her pots are luscious and stirring.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44She has just having a go at transferring
0:46:44 > 0:46:47the joie de vivre of the Impressionists
0:46:47 > 0:46:49from the field to the plate.
0:46:49 > 0:46:53From the garden to the mantelpiece.
0:46:58 > 0:47:02But it's Marie Bracquemond's paintings that intrigue me most.
0:47:02 > 0:47:08They're deceptively intense and have an edge of loneliness to them.
0:47:09 > 0:47:11Here's one of her picnics,
0:47:11 > 0:47:17to which Impressionism's joie de vivre was clearly not invited.
0:47:18 > 0:47:21Where no one talks and everyone frets.
0:47:26 > 0:47:30Bracquemond, Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34This is the first group of impressive women in art.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37Of course, there had been women artists before,
0:47:37 > 0:47:41but they'd been one-offs, who appeared here and there.
0:47:41 > 0:47:46Impressionism was progressive enough to welcome a gang of them at once.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52An important new voice has arrived in art,
0:47:52 > 0:47:56with different things to say and different understandings.
0:47:56 > 0:48:02Some people think Impressionism was shallow, but it never was.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05Not in the hands of its women.
0:48:17 > 0:48:20Do you know who made that?
0:48:20 > 0:48:23I'm going to cover up the label. Have a guess.
0:48:23 > 0:48:27Which famous Impressionist made that?
0:48:27 > 0:48:29Monet?
0:48:29 > 0:48:31Pissarro?
0:48:31 > 0:48:34Renoir, perhaps? It is very elegant.
0:48:36 > 0:48:39Actually, this was made by Gauguin.
0:48:41 > 0:48:42It's a portrait of his wife,
0:48:42 > 0:48:48and he showed it at the fifth Impressionist exhibition of 1880.
0:48:52 > 0:48:57This is probably the first carving that Gauguin ever made.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00He was one of those annoyingly talented people,
0:49:00 > 0:49:03who could turn their hand to most things.
0:49:03 > 0:49:06And for the first half of his career,
0:49:06 > 0:49:10Gauguin turned his hand to Impressionism.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16People always get Gauguin wrong.
0:49:16 > 0:49:20They've heard these stories about him deserting his wife and children,
0:49:20 > 0:49:25running off to Tahiti and taking up with the native girls.
0:49:25 > 0:49:30And they forget that Gauguin was already 43
0:49:30 > 0:49:32when he left for Tahiti.
0:49:32 > 0:49:36A big chunk of his career was behind him.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39And during that big chunk,
0:49:39 > 0:49:42Gauguin was an Impressionist.
0:49:45 > 0:49:49He showed in five of the eight Impressionist exhibitions,
0:49:49 > 0:49:53which is more than Renoir, and the same number as Monet.
0:49:55 > 0:49:59This is his first ever self-portrait.
0:49:59 > 0:50:01Painted on the back
0:50:01 > 0:50:06of an Impressionist view of Pissarro's garden.
0:50:09 > 0:50:14Gauguin's Impressionist landscapes are so subtle, modest.
0:50:14 > 0:50:17Too modest, almost. They're easy to overlook.
0:50:17 > 0:50:19You'd hardly know they're by him.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22But this isn't a film about landscapes,
0:50:22 > 0:50:25this is a film about people.
0:50:27 > 0:50:31And Gauguin, the people painter,
0:50:31 > 0:50:35is a very particular and intimate presence.
0:50:38 > 0:50:44Loving father, family man, caring portrayer of those he was close to.
0:50:44 > 0:50:49Particularly his wife and his children.
0:50:49 > 0:50:54Gauguin's paintings of his family are so tender and atmospheric.
0:50:54 > 0:50:59This one's called The Little One Is Dreaming.
0:50:59 > 0:51:04It's his four-year-old daughter Aline, asleep in her cot.
0:51:04 > 0:51:06Now, I'm a dad, too,
0:51:06 > 0:51:10so I know exactly what he's trying to capture here.
0:51:12 > 0:51:17The little girl is sleeping, far away in the land of nod.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21While her dad looks down at her so protectively.
0:51:21 > 0:51:25You can almost sense him pulling up her blanket
0:51:25 > 0:51:27to cover her legs
0:51:27 > 0:51:30and trying to imagine Aline's dreams.
0:51:32 > 0:51:36He showed it at the seventh Impressionist exhibition of 1882.
0:51:36 > 0:51:42And it stood out, because it was so atmospheric and personal.
0:51:42 > 0:51:47No-one had ever painted a sleeping child like this before.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53The floaty wallpaper seems to stand in
0:51:53 > 0:51:55for the peaceful dream she's having.
0:51:55 > 0:51:57A beautiful bird dream.
0:51:57 > 0:52:01But this Punch figure here, dangling by her cot,
0:52:01 > 0:52:06he has something threatening about him.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10He's a nasty gnome of the night, waiting for his moment.
0:52:10 > 0:52:15But it doesn't matter, Aline, because your dad's here.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18And he's watching over you.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21What tenderness, what warmth,
0:52:21 > 0:52:24what obvious family love.
0:52:24 > 0:52:28This marble bust of Gauguin's eldest son, Emile,
0:52:28 > 0:52:33was shown at the third Impressionist exhibition of 1876.
0:52:33 > 0:52:38And here's another son - the long-haired Clovis,
0:52:38 > 0:52:43asleep again, next to his dad's favourite tankard.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47Dreaming, perhaps, because he's had a sip.
0:52:51 > 0:52:54And this is Mette, Gauguin's Danish wife,
0:52:54 > 0:52:58painted in a gorgeous evening dress she couldn't afford.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02And which she bought on the never-never, without telling him.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06But he still turns her, so lovingly,
0:53:06 > 0:53:08into his fairy princess.
0:53:11 > 0:53:13Mette was from here - Copenhagen.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17She was in Paris working as a teacher when she met Gauguin.
0:53:17 > 0:53:21And he was a successful stockbroker.
0:53:21 > 0:53:23A good catch.
0:53:23 > 0:53:25What Mette didn't know
0:53:25 > 0:53:29was that he'd already been bitten by the art bug.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32And what Gauguin really wanted to be
0:53:32 > 0:53:34was an artist.
0:53:35 > 0:53:40Poor Mette thought she was marrying a respectable businessman
0:53:40 > 0:53:44who'd keep her in the beautiful dresses she wanted
0:53:44 > 0:53:45and the beautiful homes.
0:53:45 > 0:53:49Instead, she'd ended up with a repressed Bohemian
0:53:49 > 0:53:53who was desperate to become an artist.
0:53:55 > 0:54:01Mette put up with him for years and watched him throw away his career.
0:54:01 > 0:54:05She bore him five children until eventually,
0:54:05 > 0:54:09unable to face up to any more of this artistic poverty
0:54:09 > 0:54:10he'd wished upon her,
0:54:10 > 0:54:15she left him and came back here, to Copenhagen, with the kids.
0:54:17 > 0:54:18Gauguin was devastated.
0:54:18 > 0:54:22His wife had deserted him and he missed her terribly.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25And the children, even more.
0:54:27 > 0:54:30So he followed her here to Copenhagen
0:54:30 > 0:54:32and tried to put things right
0:54:32 > 0:54:37by getting himself a job as a tarpaulin salesman.
0:54:37 > 0:54:42Selling French tarpaulins to the Danes.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46There are so many things that Gauguin was good at.
0:54:46 > 0:54:47Sculpture,
0:54:47 > 0:54:49painting,
0:54:49 > 0:54:50ceramics,
0:54:50 > 0:54:53printmaking.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57But not at selling tarpaulins.
0:54:57 > 0:55:01In his downtime, of which there was plenty, he started painting again.
0:55:01 > 0:55:04And with frozen fingers,
0:55:04 > 0:55:09he recorded the cold but pretty local landscape.
0:55:09 > 0:55:13A first attempt at Impressionism in Denmark.
0:55:27 > 0:55:31This is the first place they lived, with Mette's mother.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34But he didn't like her, and she didn't like him.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36So the Gauguins moved on.
0:55:39 > 0:55:41This is the second place they lived.
0:55:41 > 0:55:46Mette had to start teaching again here, to make some money.
0:55:46 > 0:55:49And this is the third place.
0:55:49 > 0:55:51It's quite posh now,
0:55:51 > 0:55:55but this used to be the bad bit of Copenhagen,
0:55:55 > 0:55:57with the cheapest rents.
0:56:01 > 0:56:06And it was about now, in the grim spring of 1885,
0:56:06 > 0:56:10that Gauguin painted his first proper self-portrait.
0:56:11 > 0:56:17A deceptively colourful study in alienation and forlornness.
0:56:22 > 0:56:24No-one was sure where it was painted
0:56:24 > 0:56:27until I came up here a few years ago
0:56:27 > 0:56:29and found this flat,
0:56:29 > 0:56:32right at the top of the house.
0:56:36 > 0:56:40When Gauguin was living here, this used to be the attic.
0:56:40 > 0:56:44And he'd come up here to paint and to worry.
0:56:44 > 0:56:46He even wrote a letter to Pissarro,
0:56:46 > 0:56:49telling him things had gotten so bad in Copenhagen
0:56:49 > 0:56:52that he was thinking of hanging himself
0:56:52 > 0:56:55up here in this attic.
0:56:55 > 0:57:00And the self-portrait was painted by this window,
0:57:00 > 0:57:01just here.
0:57:04 > 0:57:07What rotten, rotten times these were.
0:57:07 > 0:57:11"I'm without a penny and up to my ears in shit,"
0:57:11 > 0:57:13he wrote to a friend.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16"So I console myself by dreaming."
0:57:17 > 0:57:20He lasted six months in Copenhagen
0:57:20 > 0:57:25before Mette's family turned around and asked him to leave.
0:57:25 > 0:57:29He wasn't respectable enough for her, or reliable enough,
0:57:29 > 0:57:31or rich enough.
0:57:33 > 0:57:35Gauguin hurried back to Paris.
0:57:35 > 0:57:39Back to being an Impressionist.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41Having been kicked out by his family,
0:57:41 > 0:57:46he was now free to become all sorts of things.
0:57:46 > 0:57:51But never again a loyal husband or a caring dad.
0:57:53 > 0:57:55Back in Paris,
0:57:55 > 0:57:59the Impressionists were preparing themselves
0:57:59 > 0:58:02for their eighth and final exhibition.
0:58:02 > 0:58:09Gauguin was hoping to make an impact with his new Danish paintings.
0:58:09 > 0:58:11And he would have done, I'm sure,
0:58:11 > 0:58:15if THIS hadn't been in the show as well.
0:58:15 > 0:58:20But you'll have to wait till the next film to see what happened,
0:58:20 > 0:58:24when we voyage to the end of Impressionism
0:58:24 > 0:58:26and beyond.
0:58:34 > 0:58:39Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:39 > 0:58:43E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk