Impressionism

What is Impressionism? Impressionism was an art movement that came up in the 19th century in France. Critic

Louis Leroy coined the term in a satiric review on Impression, the work of art by Claude Monet. Claude Monet was the founder of the French Impressionist Painting.

Impressionist art is a style of art characterized by unique visual angles, prominently evident brush strokes and an open composition. The art form emphasizes on the changing patterns of light to indicate the passage of time. It deals with capturing an object as if someone has caught just a glimpse of it. Hence, images have lesser details. But the paintings are often brightly colored and involve an element of movement.

The Impressionist style of painting emphasized loose imagery rather than finely delineated pictures. The artists of the movement worked mostly outdoors and strived to capture the variations of light at differing times throughout the day. Their color palettes were colorful and they rarely used blacks or grays. Subject matter was most often landscape or scenes from daily life. Impressionists were interested in the use of color, tone, and texture in order to objectively record nature. They emphasized sunlight, shadows, and direct and reflected light. In order to produce vibrant colors, they applied short brush strokes of contrasting colors to the canvas, rather than mixing hues on a palette.

The Founders:

The founders of this society were animated by the will to break with the official art. The official theory that the color should be dropped pure on the canvas instead of getting mixed on the palette will only be respected by a few of them and only for a couple of years. In fact, the Impressionism is a lot more a state of the mind than a technique; thus artists other than painters have also been qualified of impressionists. Many of these painters ignore the law of simultaneous contrast as established by Chevreul in 1823.

The expressions ``independants'' or ``open air painters'' may be more appropriate than ``impressionists'' to qualify those artists continuing a tradition inherited from Eugène Delacroix, who thought that the drawing and colors were a whole, and English landscape painters, Constable, Bonington and especially William Turner, whose first law was the observation of nature, as for landscape painters working in Barbizon and in the Fontainebleau forest.

Eugène Boudin, Stanislas Lépine and the Dutch Jongkind were among the forerunners of the movement. In 1858, Eugène Boudinmet in Honfleur Claude Monet, aged about 15 years. He brought him to the seashore, gave him colors and taught him how to observe the changing lights on the Seine estuary. In those years, Boudin is still the minor painter of the Pardon de Sainte-Anne-la-Palud, but is on the process of getting installed on the Normandy coast to paint the beaches of Trouville and Le Havre. On the Côte de Grâce, in the Saint-Siméon farm, he attracts many painters including Courbet, Bazille, Monet, Sisley. The last three will meet in Paris in the free Gleyre studio, and in 1863 they will discover a porcelain painter, Auguste Renoir.

At the same time, other artists wanted to bypass the limitations attached to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and were working quai des Orfèvres in the Swiss Academy; the eldest, from the Danish West Indies, was Camille Pissarro; the other two were Paul Cézanne and Armand Guillaumin.

Impressionists from different countries

France:

Eduard Manet Armand Guillaumin

Claud Monet Frederic Bazille

Pierre Aguste Renoir

Alfred Sisley

Edgar Degas

Camille Pissarro

Berthe Morisot

Russia:

Constantin Korovin

Arkhip Kuinji

Nathan Altman

Isaac Levitan

Valentin Serov

America:

Mary Cassatt

Francis Coates Jones

John Singer Sargent

Frederick Carl Frieseke

Albert Henry Krehbiel

Famous impressionists

Jan. 23, 1832, Paris, France - April 30, 1883, Paris

French painter and printmaker who in his own work accomplished the transition from the realism of Gustave Courbet to Impressionism. Manetbroke new ground in choosing subjects from the events and appearances of his own time and in stressing the definition of painting as the arrangement of paint areas on a canvas over and above its function as representation. Exhibited in 1863 at the Salon des Refusés, his Le Déjeuner surl'herbe("Luncheon on the Grass") aroused the hostility of the critics and the enthusiasm of a group of young painters who later formed the nucleus of the Impressionists. His other notable works include Olympia (1863) and A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882).

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1994

Works of Manet

Grapes, Peaches and Almonds1864; Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Portrait of Zacharie Astruc1866; Oil on canvas, 90 x 116 cm; Kunsthalle, Bremen

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (detail), Édouard Manet, 1882The Samuel Courtauld Trust, Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, London

Portrait d'Emile Zola1868 (110 Kb); Oil on canvas, 146 x 114 cm (57 1/2 x 44 7/8 in); Musee d'Orsay, Paris

The Balcony1869 (130 Kb); Oil on canvas, 170 x 124 cm (66 1/2 x 49 1/4 in); Musee d'Orsay, Paris

Le Repos1870

Le Chemin de Fer (The Railroad)1872-73 (170 Kb); Oil on canvas, 93 x 114 cm (36 1/2 x 45 in); National Gallery of Art, Washington

On the Beach1873; Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Monet Painting in His Floating Studio1874; BayerischeStaatsgemaldesammlungen, Munich this artwork shows the painter's passion for open-air painting

Le Dejeuner Sur L’herbe (The luncheon on the grass)

Olympia

1863 (130 Kb); Oil on canvas, 130.5 x 190 cm (51 3/8 x 74 3/4 in) Musee d'Orsay, Paris

Musee d'Orsay; Oil on canvas, 81 x 101 cm

Nov. 14, 1840, Paris, France - Dec. 5, 1926, Giverny

French painter, initiator, leader, and unswerving advocate of the Impressionist style. He is regarded as the archetypal Impressionist in that his devotion to the ideals of the movement was unwavering throughout his long career, and it is fitting that one of his pictures--Impression: Sunrise (MuséeMarmottan, Paris; 1872)--gave the group his name.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1994

Works of Monet (Includes his early works, First impressionist painting, Later impressionist,

and last years)

Rouen Cathedral: Full Sunlight1894; Louvre, Paris

Houses of Parliament, London1905 (50 Kb); Oil on canvas, 81 x 92 cm (31 7/8 x 36 1/4 in); Musee Marmottan, Paris

Garden at Sainte-Adresse1867 (140 Kb); Oil on canvas, 98.1 x 129.9 cm (38 5/8 x 51 1/8 in); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Beach at Sainte-Adresse1867 La femme au métier

1875; Oil on canvas, 65 x 55 cm

The Seine at ArgenteuilWater Lilies1906 (190 Kb); Oil on canvas, 87.6 x 92.7 cm (34 1/2 x 36 1/2 in); The Art Institute of Chicago

Meule, Effet de Neige, le Matin (Morning Snow Effect)

Poplars along the River Epte, Autumn1891 (260 Kb); Oil on canvas, 100 x 65 cm (39 3/8 x 25 5/8 in); Private collection

Saint-Lazare Station1877 (180 Kb); Oil on canvas, 54.3 x 73.6 cm (21 3/8 x 29 in); National Gallery, London

The Japanese BridgeProbably 1918-24 (280 Kb); Oil on canvas, 89 x 116 cm (35 x 45 3/4 in); The Minneapolis Institute of Arts

On the bank of the Seine, Bennecourt1868

July 10, 1830, St. Thomas, Danish West Indies - Nov. 13, 1903, Paris

French Impressionist painter, who endured prolonged financial hardship in keeping faith with the aims of Impressionism. Despite acute eye trouble, his later years were his most prolific. The Parisian and provincial scenes of this period include Place du Théâtre Français (1898) and Bridge at Bruges (1903).

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1994

Works of Pissarro

The Stage Coach at Louveciennes1870; Musée d'Orsay

Le verger (The Orchard)1872 (160 Kb); Oil on linen, 45.1 x 54.9 cm (17 3/4 x 21 5/8"); National Gallery of Art, Washington

Les chataigniers a Osny(The Chestnut Trees at Osny)c. 1873 (220 Kb); Oil on canvas, 65 x 81 cm (25 5/8 x 31 7/8"); Private collection, New Jersey

Peasant Girl Drinking her Coffee1881 (200 Kb); Oil on canvas, 65.3 x 54.8 cm (25 1/8 x 21 3/8"); The Art Institute of Chicago

``The Fair in Dieppe, Sunny Morning'

La Foire a Dieppe, matin, soleil (détail)(180 Kb)

Village Path1875; RudolpheStaechelinFoundation, Basel

Wooden landscape at L’hermitage, Pontoise

July 19, 1834, Paris, France - Sept. 27, 1917, Paris

French artist, acknowledged as the master of drawing the human figure in motion. Degas worked in many mediums, preferring pastel to all others. He is perhaps best known for his paintings, drawings, and bronzes of ballerinas and of race horses.

The art of Degas reflects a concern for the psychology of movement and expression and the harmony of line and continuity of contour. These characteristics set Degas apart from the other impressionist painters, although he took part in all but one of the 8 impressionist exhibitions between 1874 and 1886.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1994

Works of Degas

Portraits in an Office

Aux courses en province (At the Races in the Country)c. 1872 (120 Kb); Oil on canvas, 36.5 x 55.9 cm (14 3/8 x 22"); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Place de la Concorde1875 (250 Kb); Oil on canvas, 78.4 x 117.5 cm (30 7/8 x 46 1/4 in); No. 3K 1399; Formerly collection Gerstenberg/Scharf, Berlin; Hermitage, St Petersburg

Les repasseuses (Women Ironing)1884 (200 Kb); Oil on canvas, 76 x 81 cm (29 7/8 x 31 7/8 in); Museed'Orsay, Paris

Singer with a Glovec. 1878 (110 Kb); Pastel and liquid medium on canvas, 52.8 x 41.1 cm (20 3/4 x 16 in); Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Three Ballet Dancers, One with Dark Crimson Waist1899 Pastel on paper, 23 1/4 x 19 1/4 in;

L'absinthe1876 (larger version, 140 Kb); Oil on canvas, 92 x 68 cm (36 1/4 x 26 3/4 in); Musee d'Orsay, Paris

Rehearsal of a Ballet on Stage

In the right background of Degas’s picture sit two well dressed, middle-aged men, each probably a “protector” (lover) of the one of the dancers. Because ballerinas came from lower-class families and exhibited their scantily clad bodies in public-something that “respectable” bourgeios women did not do-they were widely assumed to be sexually available.

Feb. 25, 1841, Limoges, France - Dec. 3, 1919, Cagnes

French painter originally associated with the Impressionist movement. His early works were typically Impressionist snapshots of real life, full of sparkling colour and light. By the mid-1880s, however, he had broken with the movement to apply a more disciplined, formal technique to portraits and figure paintings, particularly of women (e.g. , Bathers, 1884-87).

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1994

Works of Reinor (Includes his Bathers, Portraits, Dancers, Landscapes and still life)

In the meadowYoung Boy with a Cat1868-69 (20 Kb); Museed'Orsay in Paris

The Swing1876 (200 Kb); Oil on canvas, 92 x 73 cm (36 1/4 x 28 3/4"); Museed'Orsay, Paris

Jeunes filles au piano (Girls at the Piano)1892 (150 Kb); Oil on canvas, 116 x 90 cm (45 5/8 x 35 3/8 in); Museed'Orsay, Paris

Seated Batherc. 1883-1884 (140 Kb); Oil on canvas, 119.7 x 93.5 cm (47 1/8 x 36 3/4 in); FoggArt Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Mademoiselle Romain Lacaux1868; Wallraf-RichartzMuseum, Cologne

Alfred Sisley and his Wife

Danseuse (Dancer)1874 (100 Kb); Oil on canvas, 142.5 x 94.5 cm (56 1/8 x 37 1/8"); National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. -Widener Collection Le Moulin de la Galette

1876 (170 Kb); Oil on canvas, 131 x 175 cm; Musée d'Orsay

Aug. 19, 1848 - Feb. 21, 1894

French painter and a generous patron of the impressionists, whose own works, until recently, were neglected. He was an engineer by profession, but also attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He met Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, and Pierre Auguste Renoir in 1874 and helped organize the first impressionist exhibition in Paris that same year. He participated in later shows and painted some 500 works in a more realistic style than that of his friends. Caillebotte's most intriguing paintings are those of the broad, new Parisian boulevards. The boulevards were painted from high vantage points and were populated with elegantly clad figures strolling with the expressionless intensity of somnambulists, as in Boulevard Vu d'en Haut(1880; private collection, Paris). Caillebotte's superb collection of impressionist paintings was left to the French government on his death. With considerable reluctance the government accepted part of the collection.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1994

Works of Caillebote

Paris street, rainy day (Rue de Paris, temps de pluie; Intersection de la Rue de Turin et de la Rue de Moscou )1877 (100 Kb); Paris: A Rainy Day depicts an area of the Batignolles quarter. Oil on canvas, 212.2 x 276.2 cm (83 1/2 x 108 3/4"); The Art Institute of Chicago; part of the Charles H and Mary F.s. Worcester Fund

Thatched Cottage at Trouville1882 (90 Kb); Oil on canvas; Art Institute of Chicago

Les raboteurs de parquet (The Floor-Scrapers)

1875 (150 Kb); Oil on canvas, 102 x 146.5 cm (40 x 57 3/4"); Museed'Orsay, Paris

Scolls

Rooftops under snow1878, Musée d'Orsay

May 22, 1844, Allegheny City, Pa., U.S. - June 14, 1926, Château de Beaufresne, near Paris, France

American painter and printmaker who exhibited with the Impressionists. The daughter of an affluent Pittsburgh businessman, whose French ancestry had endowed him with a passion for that country, she studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and then travelled extensively in Europe, finally settling in Paris in 1874. In that year she had a work accepted at the Salon and in 1877 made the acquaintance of Degas, with whom she was to be on close terms throughout his life. His art and ideas had a considerable influence on her own work; he introduced her to the Impressionists and she participated in the exhibitions of 1879, 1880, 1881 and 1886, refusing to do so in 1882 when Degas did not.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1994

Works of Cassatt

The Toreador1873 (40 Kb); Oil on canvas; Art Institute of Chicago

The Lamp1891 (50 Kb); drypoint, soft ground, and aquatint on paper; Art Institute of Chicago

Margot in Blue1902 (40 Kb); Pastel on heavy paper with light canvas back; The Walters Art Gallery at Baltimore, MD

Little Girl in a Blue Armchair1878 (30 Kb); Oil on canvas; National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.

On a Balcony During a Carnival1873 (40 Kb); Oil on canvas; Philadelphia Museum of Art

At the Theater1879 (50 Kb); Pastel on paper; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art at Kansas City, MO

Long known as Lydia an a loge, Wearing a pearl necklace, this painting was believed to portray Cassatt’s sister, Lydia, who came to live with her in 1877 and posed for many of her works.

Lydia in a Loge, Wearing a Pearl Necklace 1879Oil on canvas 31 5/8 x 23 in (80.3 x 58.4 cm)Philadelphia Museum of Art Maternal Caress (16.2.5)". In Heilbrunn Timeline

of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/16.2.5 (October 2006)

Jan. 14, 1841, Bourges, France - March 2, 1895, Paris

French painter and printmaker. The first woman to join the circle of the French impressionist painters, she exhibited in all but one of their shows, and, despite the protests of friends and family, continued to participate in their struggle for recognition. Her own carefully composed, brightly hued canvases are often studies of women, either out-of-doors or in domestic settings. Morisot and American artist Mary Cassatt are generally considered the most important women painters of the later 19th century.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1994

Works of Morisot

The Artist's Sister at a Window1869; National Gallery of Art, Washington

Marine (The Harbor at Lorient)1869 (130 Kb); Oil on canvas, 43.5 x 73 cm (17 1/2 x 28 3/4"); National Gallery of Art, Washington

Portrait of Marcel Gobillard (Little Boy in Gray)1880; private collection in Geneva.The model is Mme Morisot's nephew.

Butterfly Hunt1874; Musée d'Orsay, ParisThe models are Edma and her children.

Cache-cache (Hide-and-Seek)1873 (150 Kb); Oil on canvas, 45 x 55 cm (17 3/4 x 21 5/8"); Collection Mrs. John Hay Whitney, New York

Summer's Dayabout 1879

The Birth of Modern Art

Manet and the Impressionists are generally regarded as the initiators of Modern Art, a many faceted movement that began probably in the 1860s and lasted for just over a hundred years. Rather than a cohesive movement with specific stylistic characteristics (such as Rococo , for example), Modern art is distinguished primarily by a rejection of the traditions of art that have been handed down since the Renaissance.

Despite the angry protestations of conservative critics, the rejection of tradition did not happen all at once. In fact, the Modern art movement unfolded in a gradual and even logical way, as artists questioned and threw out one rule after another in succeeding decades.

Modernism was not revolutionary but rather evolutionary. After Impressionism began to run its course in the middle 1880s, other movements came along to challenge other aspects of the tradition.To these artists and movements we turn next: Post-Impressionism.

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NS1-03 Art History

Sources: Reference:

www.google.com A book from: UP college of Fine Arts

www.ibiblio.org Library via Mrs. Jing Turalba

www.wikipedia.com

www.metmuseum.org

www.artchive.com

Philippine Women’s University- School of Fine Arts and Design