Impressionism

Define Impressionists

A term often used to describe a group of French painters, working around 1860-1900. They had 8 exhibitions together, from 1874-1886.

Gustave Courbet - influence

• Thick brushstrokes, palette knife, similar to delacroix

• arguably the first to achieve success outside of the Salon

Eduard Manet - influence

not an impressionist but influenced, preferring to seek the Salon

The Barbizon School

1830s-1870s

• a group of painters who lived in the forest outside Fontainebleau

• all interested in natural environment and to depict in a new way

• undisturbed rural life

• they would paint outside from life (rarely done)

• realistic reflection = different from impressionists

Forest of Fontainebleau

Theodore Rousseau 1849-52

Harvest

Charles Francois Daubingy 1851:

• undisturbed rural landscape

• his first large success

Landscape with Two Nymphs

Poussin 1659: to compare with barbizon

• the landscape is staged and the trees act almost like curtains

View of the Banks of the Seine

Daubigny 1855:

• thick obvious brushstrokes, but a realistic reflection

• well-received by critics

Cafe Guerbois and the Batignolles Group

not just the impressionists, some others. Meeting specifically to talk about art

Impressionists and the Salon

Around 1870, more being rejected from the salon, Manet and Renoir, most stop engaging with the system except for Manet

The First Exhibition 1874

Societe Anonyme: didn’t coin themselves impressionists

Impression Sunrise

Claude Monet 1872:

• how the term impressionist came about

• not representing a landscape, but the ‘sense it evokes’

Notable works from the First Exhibition

After Ingres’ La Source 1874: Felix Bracquemond

Reading 1873: Berthe Morisot

Banks of the Seine: Stanislas Lepine

Sunset at Ivryy 1874: Armand Guilaumin

What was the critical reception of the first exhibition?

Very positive, only about 7 out of 50 negative

‘one cannot encourage this daring undertaking enough’

Other Impressionist Exhibitions

76-7, 79, 80-82, 86: some felt better to leave and have solo exhibitions

What was the quality of depth in terms of impressionism?

A flattened pictorial depth:

• previously, the whole canvas would be painted dark, so the light would really pop

• impressionists would instead paint a light grey, flattening

• rejection of academic painting

What was the quality in terms of light and colour?

Using colour interaction to make light and shadows, not mixing black at all. Mixing blue in shadows and yellow in the whites.

French chemist Michel Eugene Chevreul

cool = recedes to eye

warm = comes forward

What was the quality in terms of texture?

Equalised and unblended mark-making:

• the salon admired high-skilled blending

The Dance Class

Edgar Degas 1874:

• unlike previous, the foreground figures have unblended marks about them

• prior to this the foreground would be seamlessly blended and background more sketchy

The little 14-year-old dancer

Degas 1881:

• originally a wax model with real material for tutu and hair

• unlike contemporary ballerinas, in a relaxed position considered too ugly

What was the artistic process of the impressionists?

Painting en plein air

Examples of impressionist artistic process

John Singer Sargent 1885: Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood

Boudin and Monet: Beach at Trouville 1869 and 1870: when cleaned, there were sand granules in the paint, boudin was Monet’s teacher

Exceptions to artistic process

Degas and Manet preferred in studio. Degas especially was methodical with sketchbooks

The Rehearsal (Detail)

Degas 1873-8: can see the grid lines from his methodical work

How are impressionist paintings related to immediacy

Paintings were like photography, artists responsible for capturing a changing moment

Charles Baudelaire

French poet, writer and art critic.

• Wrote the painter of modern life in 1863 possible seen as the impressionist manifesto

• focuses on aspects of modernity - the responsibility of artistic expression

How is Baudelaire related to the start of modernism

‘Modernity is the transient, the fleeting, the contingent’

Subject matter for impressionists

Rural, cityscapes, everyday life, the nude

Examples of impressionist landscapes:

The Road of Damietta: Guillaumin 1885

Landscape at Chaponval: Pissarro 1880

Creuse Valley (sunset): Monet 1889

Examples of Everyday Life:

Interior, Woman at the window: Caillebotte 1880

On the Lake: Morisot 1889 - captures a woman without chaperone

Dance at Bougival: Renoir 1883

In the Loge: Cassat 1878

Examples of the Nude:

Waiting for a client: Degas 1876

Nude in the Sunlight: Renoir 1876

Global effects of Impressionism

Influenced Glasgow boys

Alexander reid: one of the first UK collectors interested in impressionism

The final exhibition

1886, many felt too constrained by roles Degas imposed.

• a separate room was created by Pissarro to display Signac and Seurat

• neo-impressionism or pointilism

Japanese Footbridge and the Water Lily Pond, Giverny

Claude Monet 1899:

• he was a contemporary millionaire

the Coiffure

Mary Cassat 1890-1: inspired by a Japanese woodblock print