The Age of the Impressionists, from Monet to Boldini

curated by Isabella Valente

Until 26 November 2025, the Castle of Mesagne (Brindisi) will host a major art exhibition entitled The Age of the Impressionists, from Monet to Boldini. The initiative, part of the Puglia Walking Art programme and organised with the support of the Puglia Region and the Municipality of Mesagne, offers an immersion in one of the most revolutionary moments in modern painting.

The curator is Isabella Valente, professor of contemporary art history at the Federico II University of Naples, who has conceived an exhibition itinerary that connects artistic movements born in very different geographical and cultural contexts but united by a desire to profoundly renew the visual language. French Impressionism, as Valente points out, arose precisely from this need: to free the act of seeing from conventions, restoring full expressive autonomy to the artist. It was a radical change that went beyond the borders of France, finding fertile ground in Italy as well.

Among the works on display are paintings that reflect this new sensibility. Such as Donna che legge (Woman Reading) by Gioacchino Toma, which reveals an intense focus on the private and everyday life of the female figure, enriched by stylistic influences from Japan, which were highly appreciated in European art in the 1870s.

The exhibition is therefore not limited to presenting Impressionism as a French phenomenon, but places it in a broader context, demonstrating how the desire to renew the way of looking at the world spread, in different forms, throughout Europe.

Berardi Galleria d’Arte has contributed with the loan of several works that marked a fundamental moment in the dialogue between Italian art and French Impressionism: the iconic Gavroche by Medardo Rosso, Ancient Vestal (1900) and Portrait of Lady Ludovica Altieri (1904) by Vittorio Matteo Corcos, Portrait of Mrs. Hart by Paul Troubetzkoy (1911), and the Self-Portrait by Mario Rutelli.