The European Avant-Garde: From Monet to Picasso 

Featuring works by Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Henri Fantin-Latour, Paul Gauguin, André Derain, Wassily Kandinsky, Pablo Picasso, and others, The European Avant-Garde: From Monet to Picasso is a special presentation of fourteen works from the celebrated collection of Julian and Josie Robertson. On view for three years, the installation brings major examples of the European avant-garde to the Blanton and highlights artists who shaped key art movements between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

In the 19th century Europe saw profound social and technological transformation. Artists broke with established traditions and developed new approaches to painting. From Monet’s studies of light and atmosphere to Picasso’s breaking-up of forms, the works on view show how members of the avant-garde redefined color, space, and composition. Together, they introduced new ways of making art that altered the course of modern painting.

The presentation honors the legacy of Josephine “Josie” Tucker Robertson (1943–2010), a San Antonio-born alumna of The University of Texas at Austin (B.A. Fine Arts, 1965). Together with her husband, Julian H. Robertson Jr. (1932–2022), she shared a deep commitment to European modern art. Beginning in the late 1980s, they assembled a distinguished group of works by leading figures of the European avant-garde.