Considered radicals in their time, early Impressionists like Manet and Renoir violated the rules of academic painting. They constructed their pictures with freely brushed colors following the example of painters such as Eugène Delacroix and J. M. W. Turner. Their subjects were the people who populated their everyday lives, from family and friends, to fellow artists, set in real scenes and locations wearing the fashion of modern Parisian life. After meeting the Impressionists during his time in Paris, Vincent Van Gogh would adapt and incorporate their vibrant color and dramatic brush strokes into his emotionally charged series of self-portraits.

Art Lecture Presenter Bob Potter is a graduate of Syracuse University’s School of Visual and Performing Arts. He spent his early career as an art and marketing director for leading media companies including Scholastic Magazines, Time Warner, and National Geographic. He helped create an innovative art therapy program for Save The Children, was a corporate development officer for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and oversaw marketing and communications for the Mystic Seaport Museum. Most recently, he launched a professional development program for art students at the Lyme Academy and is a docent at the Yale Center For British Art. He and his wife Jeanne, who is a master watercolorist and painting teacher, live in Old Lyme, Connecticut.