23 May to 13 September 2026
Friends’ Preview Day: Friday 22 May
The Holburne is delighted to present Beyond Impressionism: Printmaking from Manet to Picasso, an exhibition celebrating the resurgence of printmaking from the mid-19th century onwards.
Taking a broad view of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, the exhibition spans the reappraisal of the artform in the 1850s through to the 1930s. Bringing together prints by key artists of the movement including Édouard Manet, Pierre Bonnard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Pablo Picasso, among others, the exhibition explores how these artists, primarily known for their paintings, made remarkable contributions to the medium of printmaking.
Harking back to their artistic predecessors such as Rembrandt and Goya, many of the leading painters of the 19th-century returned to the medium of printmaking, once again elevating its status as a form of artistic expression in its own right. Looking beyond the work of a single artist, the exhibition reveals the far-reaching influence of the movement, bringing together scenes from country life through to the centres of the metropolis of London and Paris.
Among the earliest proponents in the resurgence of printmaking during the period, Édouard Manet led the way for his contemporaries as a key member of the Société des Aquafortistes, founded in 1862 to promote etching as an equally prestigious medium comparable with painting and drawing. Key examples of his experiments with the medium will be displayed, including his delicate portrait of Berthe Morisot (1872) and an etching of his well-known painting Olympia (1865).
Exploring the commercial side of printmaking, the exhibition highlights the key role played by printers, publishers and dealers of the period, such as Félix Bracquemond and Ambroise Vollard. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s colour lithographs will further demonstrate the commercial application of printmaking during this period, with his promotional images of Parisian nightlife, such as Irish and American Bar, Rue Royale (1896) and his famous poster of the Moulin Rouge – La Goulue (1891).
Beyond the trappings of urban life, the exhibition also spotlights how artists used printmaking to depict scenes of domestic and rural life. Key examples of this can be seen in Vincent van Gogh’s Gardener by an apple tree (1883), Paul Cézanne’s Entrée de ferme, rue Rémy, Auvers (1873) and Berthe Morisot’s etching of herself drawing with her daughter (1889).
Exploring the technical considerations of printmaking, the exhibition reveals how artists experimented with a wide range of processes – including those taken from Japanese printmakers, whose work had a profound influence on the Post-Impressionists – works by artists including Camille Pissarro and James McNeill Whistler will be shown alongside a selection of works by Japanese printmakers including Utagawa Hiroshige’s Sudden Shower over Shin-ōhashi Bridge and Atake (1857).
Director of the Holburne, Chris Stephens, said: “We’re beyond excited to be bringing such a range of major artists to the Holburne. The paintings of the Impressionists are so familiar, we seem to forget that the same generation of artists, and their successors, radically changed printmaking as well. It is wonderful to be able to demonstrate the revival of etching from Whistler’s Venetian nocturnes to Picasso’s Minotaures alongside Gauguin’s rare woodblock prints and lithographs by Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard and Vuillard.”