Image: Claude Monet, La Seine à Argenteuil, 1877, oil on canvas, Robertson Foundation, in honor of Julian and Josie Robertson. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin
The Blanton Museum of Art in Austin will present ‘The European Avant-Garde: From Impressionism to Cubism,’ a three-year installation of 14 works from the collection of Julian and Josie Robertson. The special presentation opens on September 27, 2026, in Gallery B4 and will remain on view through August 5, 2029.
Organized by the Blanton Museum of Art, the presentation brings together paintings by artists including Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Henri Fantin-Latour, Paul Gauguin, André Derain, Wassily Kandinsky, and Pablo Picasso. The museum describes the works as major examples of European avant-garde art and focuses on artists who shaped key movements between the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The installation traces the period’s break with established artistic conventions amid the social and technological transformations of 19th-century Europe. Its selection moves from Monet’s investigations of light and atmosphere to Picasso’s fragmentation of form, presenting changes in color, space, and composition that helped redefine modern painting.
A featured work is Monet’s ‘La Seine à Argenteuil’ (1877), an oil painting from the Robertson Foundation. Other works identified by the museum include Pissarro’s ‘La ferme du friche à Osny’ (1883), Fantin-Latour’s ‘Roses’ (1886), Gauguin’s ‘Au-dessus de la mer’ (1889), and Pierre Bonnard’s ‘Mimosas’ (1915). Bonnard’s painting is credited to Julian H. Robertson III and Claire Robertson, in honor of Julian and Josie Robertson.
The presentation also carries a specific connection to The University of Texas at Austin through Josie Robertson, born Josephine “Josie” Tucker Robertson in San Antonio. She was an alumna of the university, receiving a B.A. in Fine Arts in 1965. According to the museum, she and her husband, Julian H. Robertson Jr., shared a commitment to European modern art and began assembling their collection of works by leading avant-garde figures in the late 1980s.
The Blanton Museum of Art is part of The University of Texas at Austin and is located at 200 East Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The European avant-garde presentation will be included with museum admission, with free admission for Blanton members. The museum’s listed hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed on Mondays.
