Ella Goodstein
A man inspects Pines and Rocks (1897), one of Paul Cezanne’s more distinctive works of art. In contrast to his typical still-lifes and open landscapes, this artwork depicts tightly packed trees with lush vegetation enshrouding the bottom half of the rocks. The greens, blues, and browns blend in a hazy portrayal, transporting the viewer to a tranquil scene in the woods.
One couldn’t find more bustle in any other part of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The first impression of the exhibit is striking: the walls are painted placid blue, contrasting with the white walls of the exhibits preceding it. The rest of the room is strategically plain, drawing a subtle spotlight to the fine works of art on display throughout. Clearly, the curators succeeded in creating their desired effect: miniature crowds stood before every painting, and dazzled eyes gazed upon the show. In case you are lost, the large black letters of the exhibition title inform you precisely where you are: ‘Lillie P. Bliss and the Birth of the Modern — on display at MoMA through March 29th, 2025.
The exhibit is an exceptional collection of 40 works from the 19th century, primarily from artists such as Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, and Georges Pierre Seurat. The collector? A self-effacing, private woman and the primary art connoisseur who preserved the culture and history of the 20th century — Lillie Plummer Bliss. The exhibit, ultimately, is a snippet of her apartment prior to her death: a quaint home, with the walls lined with the exact paintings later bequeathed to the MoMa. Beyond the 40 works featured in the exhibition, she willed 120 works to the MoMa, achieving the title of both a founder of the institution and a major contributor to its success.
The first section of the exhibit features her in precisely the spotlight that she deserves posthumously, accompanied by a commemorative photograph of herself and a blurb briefly recounting her life and accomplishments. Bliss’s famous art-collecting journey began when she was in her forties, aided especially by American artist Arthur B. Davies — esteemed for his avant-garde, dreamlike art style. Upon observing an exhibit by Davies, she was blown by the beauty and expertise of his work, declaring she had to meet the artist; from then, their bond only tightened.
As they embarked on an incredible friendship, Davies introduced Bliss to a large expanse of French Impressionists and American modernists, and Bliss remained a loyal investor into Davies art throughout her life. Most famously, Davies and an organization known as the Association of American Painters and Sculptors established ‘The Armory Show,’ which garnered success due to the contributions of Bliss and 23 other patrons, 19 of whom were women. In an otherwise male-dominated field, Bliss and her fellow collectors were taking noticeable strides towards gender inclusivity through ‘The Armory Show.’
Beyond promoting the presence of female collectors, Davies intended to bring contemporary European modern art to the country — a feat he successfully conquered. Not only is ‘The Armory Show’ still standing as an accredited annual art fair, but it successfully contested 20th century American art norms, proposing trailblazing styles and untraditional aesthetics to an otherwise unchallenged scene. This new-fashioned, avant-gardism, truly, was Bliss’s cup of tea, and her time spent developing ‘The Armory Show’ is highly associated with her lasting bond with Davies.
As Bliss climbed in prestige and fame in the artistic world, her interest in contemporary French art grew, soon developing her love for French artists such as Paul Cézanne and Marius de Zayas. Despite the efforts of the curators of ‘The Armory Show’ to increase American exposure to contemporary French art, Bliss remained dismayed by the obviousness of the American public towards the recent European developments in art; she visited Paris annually in order to ensure that she would not grow benighted herself. In the largest, most central room in the exhibit, the MoMA curators ensured that Bliss would not be disappointed, adding a copious number of works by Cézanne, Davies, Georges-Pierre Seurat, and most notably, Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, one of the most famous works in MoMA’s collection.
Amongst all the pieces by Paul Cézanne in the room, one of his key Impressionist works rests in a thicker, lightly rusted gold frame, Still Life With Ginger Jar, Sugar Bowl, and Oranges (1902), which marked Cézanne’s love for bringing fruits to his canvas. In the still life, Cézanne depicts various oranges organized on a deeply colored blanket, with soft brush strokes blending shades together before transitioning into sharper, semi-bold outlines surrounding the blanket, plate, and jar. Through this piece we get a snippet of his larger journey to find the perfect balance and harmony between position, objects, and colors, where Cézanne ultimately painted over 270 still lifes featuring his well-loved fruits to determine what truly captured their beauty best. His passion could not be explained better by none but himself, as Cézanne expressed that fruits “…love having their portraits done. They sit there as if demanding pardon for changing color. They come to you in all their perfume, speaking of the fields they have left, the rain that has nourished them, the sunrises they have seen.”
Nevertheless, Cézanne’s aptitude in picturing experimental masterpieces doesn’t boil down to a fruity one-hit wonder, and among the handful of his artworks featured in this specific exhibit, the next most notable is the largest painting in the room, The Bather (1885). The painting features a man in a bathing suit standing cautiously between the water and a patch of vegetation, hands on hips, examining the ground below him. Whether the painting depicts uncertainty or unawareness, it could be interpreted as either: his stance indicates both a pondering towards the earth and a fixation amounting to peripheral blindness. Above all, the painting finds its greatest significance due to a faintly painted face above the left shoulder of the bather, depicted with a pointed beard, a bowler hat, and faded features to connect the two. This, upon comparison with self-portraits of Cézanne in the future, is of striking resemblance to Cézanne himself, and one of the first appearances of his face before he had deliberately produced a self-portrait in the 1860s.
Beyond Cézanne, Bliss admired works by Georges-Pierre Seurat, a French post-Impressionism artist. She ultimately bequest the sole Seurat piece she collected to the MoMa — his famed Port-en-Bessin, Entrance to the Harbor (1888). This piece, like most works by Seurat, is done completely via pointillism, or the concentration of dots on a canvas to generate an illustration. In this work, Seurat chose a light blend of turquoises and blues dispersed upon patches of white to capture the calm, fresh feeling of standing before a beach. The eyes, first, are drawn to the boats floating gently down the bay, then follow the sea to the foreground, which is a dotted collection of greens and yellows to create a grassy area. Beyond the utterly time-consuming nature of pointillism pieces, the work is impressive due to the effortless blend of the dots on the canvas, where he repaints the same view of Port-en-Bessin in pointillism six different times.
At the core of the exhibit stood its centerpiece, hardly discernible through the rich profusion of people; The Starry Night, which, unlike the rest of the paintings in the exhibit, was not collected by Bliss herself. Throughout her entire life, she yearned to own a Van Gogh piece herself, although she passed away before she could gather enough in savings to purchase one of his artworks. Her painstaking investment was not in vain, however, as the first director of the MoMa, Alfred Barr, had caught word of Bliss’s endeavor and offered The Starry Night to her collection, which was added past her death in exchange for three pieces previously belonging to Bliss.
The final section primarily consisted of works by Pablo Picasso, as well as paintings from renowned Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani and French visual artist Henri Matisse. The first painting that meets your eye is likely the large Picasso portrait, Woman in White (1923), or Picasso’s depiction of a dreamlike, fragile perfection. In the portrait, there is a single object to settle your eyes on, this being a woman sitting with a blank expression upon her face, arms crossed and clothed in a loosely-fitting white dress. This piece, unlike the rest of the Impressionist, Cubist, and American Modernist pieces, resides in the Neoclassical Period, and is regarded as one of the most renowned artworks of the time period. Through the soft, delicate painting of a woman, we see that she is in no way adorned in jewelry, elaborate clothing, or excessive hair styling that most women of the time are portrayed in. Rather, her stance is relaxed, the color scheme is muted, and the painting radiates an overall romantic and tranquil tone.
More than just a collection of paintings, ‘Lillie P. Bliss and the Birth of the Modern’ at the Museum of Modern Art immerses visitors in the very essence of her legacy. Years beyond her first contributions to MoMa, the effect of Bliss’s gallery reverberates through the country as an echo of Bliss’s resounding influence —one that continues to shape and preserve the modern art world long after her time. In this exhibit, Bliss’s influence is not just remembered but celebrated, securing a place in the world as an unforgettable, irreplaceable part of art history.
Years beyond her first contributions to MoMa, the effect of Bliss’s gallery reverberates through the country as an echo of Bliss’s resounding influence — one that continues to shape and preserve the modern art world long after her time.