Lost in a time-space warp, many aspects of culture have seemed to me to lose quality and depth over a range of periods. Classical music lost its way around the 1920s, pop music didn't advance beyond the soul and R & B of the 1960-70s, radio comedy from the BBC declined into trivia after about 2000 and painting seemed, with the odd exception, to be in a downward trajectory after the Impressionists. In all cases of course there are shining lights in the wilderness. Berthe Morisot was/is one of my favourite impressionist painters, even though she perhaps is not quite in the class of Renoir or Sisley:
