UNFINISHED FORMS in charcoal shadow bend on bright backgrounds, pencil ghosts linger under inky skylines, the bloom and blur of petticoats and petals: these are just some of the treasures in store at the forthcoming Impressionists on Paper: Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec.
The exhibition at London’s Royal Academy of Arts comprises over 77 works on paper by the likes of Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Berthe Morisot – each piece radical and representative of the wholesale change in how art was made and perceived in late 19th-century France.
This was a period in which works on paper saw a huge lift in status, transforming the direction of art by challenging conventions around who could paint what, where and how as well as setting the stage for movements like Abstract Expressionism.
Before Impressionism took root in
