The exhibition will feature more than 50 major paintings from the first floor of the Barnes collection.  Highlights include: 

Édouard Manet, Laundry (1875): In this canvas, a woman washes linen in a flower-filled garden in  Paris. A child to her right, as if eager to help, tugs at the pail of suds. Washerwomen were popular  figures in 19th-century art and literature. Manet’s good friend Émile Zola, for example, described  their tough lives in his novels. But this depiction is idyllic. Flashes of white paint—offset by grays  and blues—become sunlight on the drying fabric. After the jury of the French Salon, the annual  state art exhibition, rejected this painting, Manet exhibited it independently. 

Claude Monet, The Studio Boat (1876): The figure in the boat is likely the artist, who outfitted this  floating studio with all his supplies so that he could paint from the middle of the Seine River.  Boating culture in Argenteuil, a suburb of Paris, inspired him to have this vessel constructed to his  specifications. Often Monet would anchor his boat when working. But sometimes he painted as he  drifted down the river, creating landscapes that are more a collection of momentary glimpses rather  than a depiction of one specific spot.

Vincent van Gogh, The Postman (Joseph Étienne-Roulin) (1889): Van Gogh probably met Joseph  Étienne-Roulin, a postman at the Arles train station in the South of France, when the artist rented a  room above the nearby Café de la Gare. The two shared similar left-leaning political views and  became close friends; in fact, it was Roulin who cared for Van Gogh during his hospital stay in  nearby Saint-Rémy. Van Gogh painted six portraits of Roulin between 1888 and 1889 as well as  several of Roulin’s wife and children.

Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire (1892–95): Mont Sainte-Victoire, which towers over the Aix en-Provence region of southern France, was one of Cézanne’s favorite motifs. He spent his  childhood exploring its terrain, and he painted it several dozen times from different vantage points.  The mountain also held symbolic meaning to the artist, representing the ancient countryside during  a moment of rapid industrialization and modernization. On the right side of the canvas, one can just  make out an ancient Roman aqueduct.

Amedeo Modigliani, Portrait of the Red-Headed Woman (1918): Modigliani’s portrait of a woman who was part of his international, bohemian circles in Paris suggests how women’s lives  had changed by the early 20th century. With her vivid hair and strapless dress, she drapes her  shoulder over the chair and addresses the viewer with an unapologetic gaze. Her revealing dress  shows how bold new fashions could represent a form of freedom. Modigliani used a thick round  brush to describe the model’s flesh, and the textured surface seems to invite touch.