After Impressionism at the National Gallery

In 1910 Roger Fry organised an exhibition entitled 'Manet and the Post-Impressionists', coining a catch-all title for a group of artists whose ideas went beyond those of Manet, Renoir et al, who had first exhibited together back in 1874. The term is still in use today, even though the artists who are generally included were not members of a coherent group, and who explored almost as many different ideas as there were artists. However, the definitions of  Post Impressionism have been rather limited, and tend to look solely towards France. The National Gallery has avoided the term, opting for an equivalent - After Impressionism - and, in addition to Paris, the exhibition considers four other main centres of artistic production, Brussels, Vienna, Barcelona and Berlin. The time-scale is also specific: from 1886, the date of the eight and final Impressionist Exhibition, until 1914, with the outbreak of war. It was in this brief time many of the developments that would affect 20th century art had their origins.