The impressionists are overrated and need some comeuppance; they’re
getting it at a new exhibit at SAM. Inspiring Impressionism pairs impressionist paintings with older paintings (Sisley vs. Goya,
Renoir vs. Greuze), and the impressionists often lose. Take
Monet’s Still Life with Flowers and Fruit versus the
17th-century French baroque painter Monnoyer’s Vase of Flowers on a
Marble Table. Monnoyer gives us a feathery white lily too long in
the vase: brown, sagging, slimy. Monet gives us overlit dahlias:
dumb pom-poms. (Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave, 654-3100.
10 am–5 pm, $20.)
