The Cincinnati Art Museum presents "Farm to Table: Food and Identity in the Age of Impressionism," a new exhibition running from June 13 to September 21, 2025. Curated by Peter Bell, the show features over 60 paintings and sculptures from late 1800s France, exploring how artists depicted food production and consumption in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune. Works by artists such as Julien Dupré, Victor Gilbert, Rosa Bonheur, James Tissot, and Gustave Courbet are included, with the exhibition divided into sections on production and consumption, juxtaposing images of labor, market scenes, and dining practices.
The exhibition matters because it connects art history to broader questions of national identity and resilience. Following France's defeat and the Prussian siege of Paris, artists turned to food imagery as a way to rebuild a fractured sense of Frenchness, celebrating agricultural labor and culinary abundance. By linking still lifes, pastoral scenes, and even depictions of wartime hardship, the show reveals how art can serve as social commentary and a mirror of political upheaval, offering visitors a fresh lens on the Impressionist era.