Abstraction is generally seen as an artistic achievement of the 20th century, yet the roots of this development can already be found in 19th century France. With their artistic innovations and the Impressionists, as well as van Gogh, Cézanne, and Gaugin, France paved the way for Modernist painting by distancing themselves from the illustration of reality and making form, color, light, and structure the focus of their painting. With its juxtaposition of important works of art from the 19th and 20th centuries, this work presents the exciting development of abstraction, which rose out of the legacy of French painting.