Modern Art, Day 12 &13February 18th and 20th, 2013

Impressionism, Manet (first day) & Landscape (second day)

Charles Baudelaire sought an artist who could show the poetry of modern life; the essential modern would be “fleeting, contingent, and transitory.”

Edouard Manet, “Spanish Singer (Guitarist),” 1860 At the time it was considered to be a Realist painting shows the musician holding the guitar the wrong way unrealistic gesture of the right leg artist is specifically drawing attention to the artifice of his painting undermines the plausibility of the illusion and tries to make viewers

aware of the formal choices he is making

Manet, “Mlle. Victorine in the Costume of an Espada,” 1862 horse and man in the back quotes a sketch by Goya painterly brushstrokes that don’t communicate the texture of the fabric title explicitly tells us that the painting is staged draws on the influence of Japanese woodblock prints space is not extended back into space so that we begin to read the

composition from top-bottom rather than front-back

Manet, “Dejeuner sur l’Herbe,” 1863 based on Giorgione’s “Concert Champêtre” critics so upset at the juxtaposition of the nude woman and dressed

men that they didn’t notice that the painting was based on Renaissance art

very visible brushstrokes very minimal modeling of the woman’s body artist took out the half-tones

Manet, “Olympia,” 1863 controversial because it shows the courtesan looking directly at the

viewer quotes Titian’s “Venus of Urbino”

Manet, “Fifer,” 1866Even this seemingly non-offensive painting was rejected because by now Manet had developed a reputation for specifically trying to draw attention to the two-dimensionality of the image.

Claude Monet, “Dejeuner sur l’Herbe,” 1865-6 Monet made this to rival Manet’s version Much bigger than Manet’s Figures less posed and seem to sit/stand more naturally than Manet’s Tries to make his style more spontaneous and casual Women are wearing contemporary fashion of the day—artist even

updated the costumes as he was working—to make the painting as modern as possible

Monet, “Terrace at Sainte Adresse,” 1866

Sourced painting from Japanese prints and from Manet’s work

uses flattening effects shows contemporary steam

boats on the ocean

Monet, “La Grenouillère,” 1869 painting is so sketchy, it’s hard to read at first

Monet, “Impression: Sunrise (The Harbor at Le Havre),” 1872 exhibited at the first Impressionist exhibit (but they weren’t yet called

Impressionists at the time) which was held in Nadar’s studio use of atmospheric perspective subject is a harbor that was very busy with economic activity

Monet, “Boulevard des Capucines,” 1873 No real focal point People figures called by one critic “tongue-lickings”

Auguste Renoir, “Moulin de la Galette,” 1876 depicts a pleasure spot that requires some money—painting of the

bourgeoisie

light is not being used to sculpt the figure or define its three-dimensionality; instead the light is an independent entity that dances around the image and adds pattern

Impressionists concerned with overall optical effects of their works rather than try to paint sculpture-like realistic forms

Alfred Sisley, “Snow at Louveciennes,” 1876 weather effects were a popular Impressionist subject

Pissarro (picture not available) interested in economic life of 19th century France juxtaposes industry with farmland

Monet, “Poppy Field in a Hollow near Giverny,” 1885 painting style brings attention to the surface of the canvas

Monet, “Old Fort at Antibes,” 1888 sculptural integrity of the buildings are absorbed by the painterly

brushwork

Monet, “Rouen Cathedral: Effects of Morning Light,” 1892-4 and “Rouen Cathedral: Façade”

based on observation at a given moment intended for all of his Rouen cathedral paintings to be shown together

Monet, “Grainstacks at Sunset, Snow Effect,” 1890-1

Kandinsky cited this painting as one that moved him toward abstraction; he didn’t read this as a smokestack at first

Monet, “Waterlilies,” 1922 (Installation at Orangerie)