On February 9, 2025, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) is opening on a focus exhibition that explores the relationship between burning fossil fuels and the development of European modernist styles. Air Quality: The Influence of Smog on European Modernism presents a selection of paintings and works on paper by Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, James McNeill Whistler, and others to consider the ways that their artistic practices were impacted, in part, by widespread pollution in London and Paris. The exhibition includes data from climate scientists about the amount of fine particulate matter in the air at the time several works were created.
Air Quality will be on view at the BMA in two installations from February 9-August 3, 2025, and August 13, 2025–February 22, 2026. It is presented as part of the museum’s ongoing Turn Again to the Earth initiative, which explores environmental and sustainability issues.
During the 19th and 20th centuries London and Paris were choked by smog—a combination of fog, smoke, and atmospheric pollutants. The widespread burning of coal was both a nuisance and a health hazard that blocked the sun, soured the air, and increased the deathrates of city dwellers. As we know now, it has also contributed to the warming of our planet. For artists working at the time, this polluted, hazy air had a dramatic impact on the artworks they produced. Smog was visually stimulating and helped Monet see his urban environment in new ways. The amount of particulates in the air in London when his Waterloo Bridge (Sunlight Effect with Smoke) was created in 1903 has been estimated to be around 570 micrograms per cubic meter—more than double the amount that is today considered hazardous according to the World Health Organization’s Air Quality Index Rating.
In contrast, it was only when Matisse left Paris and encountered the bright, clear light of the Mediterranean coast that his palette began to fill with the bold and vibrant color for which he is known. This is vividly demonstrated with the gloomy painting The Dam at Pont Neuf (1896), contrasted with The Maintenon Viaduct (1918) and other later works.
Air Quality: The Influence of Smog on European Modernism is curated by Dr. Kevin Tervala, BMA Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Chief Curator. It is presented in the Jay McKean Fisher Gallery in the Ruth R. Marder Center for Matisse Studies. All of the featured works are drawn from the BMA’s extensive holdings in modern art, including more than 1,400 works by Matisse.
More information: https://artbma.org
