Impressionism

Independent art exhibitions

1863 - Napoleon established the Salon des Refuses to exibit works rejected by the official Salon

1867 - Manet held a private exhibition

1874 - Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors and Printmakers held their first exhibition

Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors and Printmakers

Founding members: Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Sisley, Cezanne and Morisot

Monet’s “Impression: Sunrise” was badly criticised by Louis Leroy and the group was ironically named the Impressionists

Group held 8 exhibitions from 1874 to 1886

Impressionism

Anti-academic standard and values.

Influenced by Realism:

• liberation of art from traditional themes, painting real people, real life

• painting en plein air, finished works outdoor, under sunlight

• pursuit of optical realism - captured the fleeting moments of the rapidly changing world, conveying the elusiveness and impermanence of images and conditions

Themes of Impressionism

Themes:

• contemporary lifestyles - modern Parisian life and leisure activities, such as horse-racing, water sports, parties and performances

• landscape and cityscape

• images of the floating world - influence of Japanese art

• images of Bohemian artists and their friends

Style of Impressionism

Style:

• developed a scientific attitude towards the structure of colour and light - systematic use complementary colours, use of coloured shadows (Eugene Delacroix) - sepia eliminated

• juxtaposition of colours very blunt instead of mixing for smooth transitions

• broken brush strokes, blurry images and sketch-like finish

• influenced by Japanese woodcut prints - unusual format and angle of composition, themes, homogenous colour → flatness and abstraction

• influenced by photography - snapshot like compositions, arbitrary poses and figures

Paint tubes

• invented by John Rand in 1841

• enabled painters to do on-site sketches in oil much more conveniently

• wide range of synthetic colours available

Edouard Manet (1832-1883)

• born in Paris, rich family

• studied with Thomas Couture, a neoclassicist

• interested in Delacroix’s theory of colour and Corot’s idea of Realism

• attracted by Spanish and Dutch Baroque painting

• 1865 - travelled to spin, impressed by the works of Francisco de Goya

• influenced and was influenced by the main members of the Impressionists but never exhibited with them

Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (Luncheon on the grass), Edouard Manet 1863

• persons in the foreground are his brother Eugene on the right, sculptor Ferdinand Leenhof in the middle model Victorian Meurend

• chief actor in the painting is light - objects are treated as flat planes reacting to light perceived by the eyes

• exhibited in the Salon des Refusés, shocking subject matter and style

• critique: ordinary men and promiscuous women in a Parisian park

• adopted the classical triangular composition and posture of figure from a Renaissance sketch copied from Raphael

• Also inspired by Titian - man and nature in harmony with idyllic setting and idealised figures

Olympia, Edouard Manet 1863

• scandalous - a prostitute with a confrontational gaze in a shameless, provocative pose

• criticised for the rough brushstrokes, composition in pure colours, no intermediate tones to fuse the different colours together

• echoes Titian’s Venus of Urbino, direct dialogue with the viewer through eyesight, exposing sexual appeal without shame → eroticism

Execution of Emperor Maximilian, Edouard Manet 1868-69

• critique of Napoleon III’s politics in Mexico

• echoes the works of De Goya, who Manet was impressed with, specifically the execution of rioters in Paris without fair trial

• Flatness of the uniformed figures and sketchy finish of the background

Monet working on his boat in Argenteuil, Edouard Manet 1874

• influenced by Monet and is friends - painted together en plein air

• Manet came from a rich family so he was never a close friend of the Bohemian artists, however he was introduced to Monet through Berthe Morisot and became a friend of Monet

Claude Oscar Monet (1840-1926)

• Born in Paris but moved to Le Havre in Normandy in 1845 and worked as a caricaturist in his teenage years

• 1850s & 1860s - influenced by Pre-Impressionists such as Eugene Boudin, a local landscape painter, Johann Bartholdi Jongkind, a Dutch landscape painter. Idea of catching the ever-chaning color and light to represent the vivid and vital energy of objects

• 1859 - entered the studio of Marc Gabriel Gleyre, a neoclassicist, in Paris

• 1868 - moved to Bougival, became neighbours with Auguste Renoir

• 1870-71 - stayed in London due to the Franco-Prussian War

• 1871-78 - moved to Argenteuil, lived partially in his boat studio

• 1883 - settled in Giverny

• renewed landscape painter

Women in the Garden, Claude Monet 1866

Painted totally outdoor to capture the bright sunlight on the dresses, the ground, the trees and other objects

La Grenouillere, Claude Monet 1869

• western suburb of Paris, a meeting place for sportsmen and strollers along the river Seine in Bougival

• developed the characteristic coarse, broken brushstrokes of Impressionism - allow for the human eye to do the color mixing

• Technique: thick, flat colour patches like white, blue, ochre and brown are juxtaposed to capture the movement of the water surface

• Theme: sunlight and water movement

• Purpose: capture the fleeting and floating light effect of objects

• Often painted with Renoir, who focused more eon human figures and activities - enclosed composition with focus on the human group in the centre

The Thames below Westminster, Claude Monet 1871

• developed atmospheric landscape under the influence of Constable, Turner and Whistler during his stay in London

• enriched his themes to paint atmospheric elements which affect the perception of the human eye

Nocturne in Blue and Gold, James McNeill Whistler

• American painter active in Paris and London

• compared painting to music

• harmonies arrangement of shapes and colours

• atmospheric effect achieved through abstraction of form and colour

• composition influenced by Japanese woodcut prints

Impression: Sunrise, Claude Monet 1872

• a harbour in Le Havre seen through the morning mists

• inspired by Turner’s indistinct images of water landscapes - muddy colour in the background, clam and tranquil unlike Turner’s violent Romantic landscapes

• heavily criticised as “worse than a wallpaper design in the embryonic stage”

Gare Saint-Lazare (the Auteuil line), Claude Monet 1877

• a study of the atmospheric effect of vapour produced by the steam under the glass roof of the railway station

Rouen Cathedral, the Portal and St. Romain Tower in bad weather (Harmony in Grey), Claude Monet 1892

• a more challenging subject than the earlier series - fretting of the sculpted surface produces more profound effects of shadow, especially in the recesses of the painted arched portal

• heavy, thick paint was applied wet-on-wet to build up the coarse texture of the surface

Rouen Cathedral, the Portal and St. Romain Tower in strong sunlight (Harmony in Blue and Gold), Claude Monet 1893

• the texture created imitates and exaggerates the light changes on the surface

• within three years Monet produces around 30 views of the same facade during different times of day and seasons of the year

Japanese Footbridge, Claude Monet 1899

• worked almost exclusively on the pond and water lilies between 1897 and 1926, produced 250 pieces of this theme

• series of paintings with simplified subjects for exclusive, detailed study of light effect

• the Japanese bridge is a recurrent motif in the last phase on Monet’s art

• Japanisme: influenced by Ukiyo-e woodcut prints

Water Lilies, Claude Monet 1919

• spatial ambiguity - absence of any reference to physical reality from 1900

• complete abstraction of colour

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)

• born in Limoges

• 1845 - moved to Paris

• 1854 - worked as a porcelain painter and then a textile painter

• 1862 - entered Marc Gabriel Gleyre’s studio

• end of 1860s - used thick paint, bright colour and painted en plein air with other Impressionists

• 1870s - imitated Delacroix’s themes of Oriental women

• early 1880s - travelled to Italy, Africa and other places

• renowned as a painter of beautiful women and lovely children, joyful situations, dancing parties - pay homage to Rococo painters

The Loge (The Theatre Box), Auguste Renoir 1874

• theme of contemporary Parisian life

• a well-dressed couple in their opera box - Nine Lopez and painter’s brother as models

• signature feathery brushstrokes - create a texture with pillowy softness that invites the spectator

• Echoes Peter Paul Rubens and his double portrait of himself with his wife - loses and thick brushstrokes anticipate Impressionism

Ball at the Moulin de la Galette, Auguste Renoir 1876

• scene of a Sunday dance of the working class in an outdoor dancing hall in Montmartre

• captured the pulse of contemporary life

• sunlight penetrates through the foliage of the trees

• gas lamps

Two Sisters (On the Terrace), Auguste Renoir 1881

• Renoir was extremely successful in portraiture

• foreground - intensive and saturated colours

• background - duller colours and blurry forms ro represent objects seen in humid air

• pure colours used by Renoir - lead white, vermilion, cobalt blue, Naples yellow and crimson

• white is added wet-on-wet on top of them

Place Clichy, Auguste Renoir 1880

• background out of focus like in a photo

• many impressionists interested in photography

• composition imitates the snapshot of a busy corner of Paris

• spontaneity of a woman entering from the right

Study Sketch for the Bathers 1887 (left) Study, Tirso of a Woman in the Sunlight 1876 (right) Auguste Renoir

• return to academic method and style: preparatory sketches for The Bathers - artificial posture, fine details, precise form with sharp contours, smooth and polished painted surface

Bathers, Auguste Renoir 1887

• trip to Italy in1881-82 caused Renoir to doubt the Impressionist method and belief, began thinking about the notion of eternity in classical art, such as Ingers and Raphael, pursuit of purity and grandeur replaced improvisation

• painted totally in studio - reduction of effects of shades on the bodies

• classical pyramidal composition

Young Girls at the Piano, Auguste Renoir 1892

• burgeois leisure life in a cozy interior reminiscent of Rococo

• recalls Jan Vermeer’s genre interiors

• soft but orderly brushwork

• careful balanced composition

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)

• born in a rich banker family

• 1855 - learnt from Jean-August-Dominique Ingres, then entered the French Academy, wanted to be a history painter

• 1862 - met Manet and became good friends because of similar background and taste, attracted to Japanese Ukiyo-e paintings

• participated in all 8 Impressionist exhibitions but he never mingled with the impressionists, nor created finished works outdoors

• experimented with different media, sometimes mixed - oil, pastels or chalks on paper, sculpture and photography

• renowned for genre themes of modern life - race track scenes, cafes, ballerinas, working women, women at their toilet

Racehorses in Front of the Grandstand, Edgar Degas 1866-68

• favourite leisure activity of Parisian high society

• influence of Japanese woodcut prints - forms defined by black contours, flat colour patches, asymmetrical composition

• influence of photography - analysis of the movement of horses, photography was used to generate sequences of stop-motion images which proved that a galloping horse lifts all four hooves off the ground

Dance Class, Edgar Degas 1873-76

• Degas went backstage to observe rehearsals, captured the casual mood of a group of mice listening to Jules Perrot, a star choreographer

• limited range of colour mixed with small patches of primary colours in pastel and intense greens; thin translucent white for the tutus

• girl scratching her back

• a curious little dog observing

Dancer with a Bouquet, Saluting on the Stage, Edgar Degas 1874

• research on the effects of different age lighting angles on colour

• yellow-orange tones for the bright light cast from above and below - use of complementary colours

Seated Dancer, Edgar Degas 1881-83

• Deans mixed chalk and pastels with oils and other paints

• softness of the flesh and the airy quality of the tutu - reminiscent of the texture of Renoir’s beautiful women

• Submitted pastels as finished works to exhibitions

Ironers, Edgar Degas 1884-86

• depicts the poor at work

• catches their fleeting, everyday movements

• neither rhetoric nor caricatured - unlike Daumier

In a Cafe or Absinthe, Edgar Degas 1975-76

• cafe as a meeting place for Bohemian intellectuals

• Ellen Andre and Marcellin Desboutin posed for the painting

• absence of communication, alienation of the modern man

Japonisme

• denoted the fascination of Europeans with Japanese art and culture

• 1853 - Japan opened up to the West

• 1867 - Japan participated in the Exposition Universelle in Paris

• exoticism and alternative standards of beauty appealed to fashionable Parisian society

• Ukiyo-e prints themes included contemporary daily life, theatre performances, lower-class people, famous courtesans, landscapes, legends and myths, erotic and provocative scenes → scenes of the “floating world”, reinforces impressionist idea of capturing the fleeting moment of the world

La Japonaise, Claude Monet 1876

• more than just the display of Japanese props in composition

Mary Cassatt in Louvre, Edgar Degas 1885

• Japanese influence - unusually long format, high angle of presentation nd truncated figures

Women on the Terrace of a Cafe in the Evening, Edgar Degas 1877

• architectural element cuts figure into halves

• prostitutes waiting for customers

• an interior opening to the outside

• inspired by Geishas enjoying a leisure moment in a meeting that opens to the exterior, also figure cut in half

The Tub, Edgar Degas 1886

• high angle presenting figure and objects

• table on the right → no foreshortening treated as 2D surface

• combination of European classical and Japanese cultures by Degas

• He collected Japanese prints and owned one which inspired him to create various works of women at their toilet

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)

• settled in Paris in 1855

• Learned landscape painting with Gustave Courbet and Camille Corot

Alfred Sisley (1839-1899)

• Brit born in Paris

• Student of Marc Gabriel Gleyre, friends with Monet and Renoir

• Influenced by Constable and Turner, but attracted to the bright colour and sunny landscapes of Corot

Self-Portrait, Camille Pissarro 1873

• figure - lifted through alternative use of 2 basic colours, cream and brown

• careful study of the reflection of light off of different parts of the surfaces

Entrance to the Village of Visions, Camille Pissarro 1872

• favourite motifs: village road flanked by trees running into the depth

• light colour and shadows - bright sunshine

Red Roofs, Corner of a Village, Winter Effect, Camille Pissarro 1877

• put the emphasis on the geometric structure of landscapes - exerted influence on Paul Cezanne

• used thick impasto of light tones to catch light

Boat in the Flood at Port Marly, Alfred Sisley 1876

• impressionistic water landscape combined with a sky typical of 17th century Dutch painting

• The flood of Seine in 1876 gave the painter a good chance to study the reflection of house trees and people on the water surface

Paris Street; Paint Day, Gustave Caillebotte 1877

• representation of the result of the Haussmann Renovation

• gas street lights installed in Paris since 1828

• alienation of city dwellers

La Place du Theatre Francais, Camille Pissarro 1898

• crowded Paris square seen from several stories above the street level

• Pissarro used photography to capture scenes he wanted to paint

• Spatial flatness because of high viewpoint and the arbitrary cutting off of figures at the edges echo photography

Women Painters

• still not socially acceptable for women to paint outdoors

• typical works - intimate, indoor scenes, family and leisure activities

• outdoor scenes - studio compositions with model of created in semi-open private premises

Berthe Morisot (1841-1895)

• first woman Impressionist

• Student of Camille Corot, sister in law of Edouard Manet

• made close friendship and exhibited with the Impressionists

Cardle, Berthe Morisot 1872

• themes: family life of well to do women and children

• translucent paint, feathery brushstrokes - softness and warmth

• distinct zones of black and white tones - influence from Manet’s Olympia

In a Villa at the Seaside, Berthe Morisot 1874

• vacation of her upper class family in Normandy

• foreground - short quick suggestive brushstrokes

• background - almost homogeneous treatment of sky and sea

Summer’s day, Berthe Morisot 1879

• undefined contours, quick, coarse and zig-zag brushstrokes → energise Monet’s and Renoir’s calm water surface

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)

• born in Pittsburgh of a wealthy family

• studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

• 1866 - moved to France and befriended Degas

• only American to exhibit with the Impressionists

• dealer of Impressionist paintings for wealthy American collectors

The Loge, Mary Cassatt 1878-80

• Impressionistic interest in light and reflection extended to interior settings

• dazzling glamour of the theatre speaks of modernity and luxury of Parisian high society

The Child’s Bath, Mary Cassatt 1893

• influence of Japanese woodblock prints : high vantage point, female subject

• favourite theme: women caring for children, created also in pastels, learned from Degas

The Boating Party, Mary Cassatt 1893-94

• hard contours, flat surfaces, simplified colour blocks - resemble Ukiyo-e prints

• bold geometry and decorative patterning - connect her with post-impressionists