Collection: Farm to Table

Farm to Table: Art, Food, and Identity in the Age of Impressionism explores France’s relationship with food at the end of the nineteenth century through paintings and sculptures by leading artists. French cuisine had long been viewed as a reflection of the nation’s identity and a source of popular pride. Yet in the decades following the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), artists depicted the growing, cooking, transporting, serving and, of course, eating of food as a means of highlighting the economic and social instabilities of this tumultuous moment in French history. Ubiquitous scenes of farms, markets, and restaurants, offer gateways for considering the political, social, and cultural factors shaping France on the eve of the modern era.

On View in the Special Exhibitions Gallery October 11, 2024 — January 5, 2025