Transcript Slide 1

IMPRESSIONISM
Impressionism
The Impressionists painted in the second half of
the 19th Century.
Impressionism is characterized by attention to the
effects of atmosphere and light on subject matter.
Impressionists employed short, quick, often visible
brushstrokes rather than using smooth, slick
brushwork.
Soft blurred edges replaced the hard precise edges
of the Neoclassic period.
Blues and violets replaced grays and browns in
figures and landscapes. Impressionist paintings
are more vibrantly and brilliantly coloured than the
work of any period that preceded it.
Features of Impressionism
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Artists painted on site rather than in their studios, trying to capture
local effects of light as opposed to staging scenes and controlling the
lighting.
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Impressionist artists were more interested in contemporary subject
matter than in historical or religious subjects. Impressionism shows
us the train stations, cafés and theatres of the late 19th Century.
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They were greatly influenced by the development of photography in
the last half of the 19th century, both in the “snapshot” spontaneity of
their compositions and in the unconventional angles and viewpoints
that photography suggested.
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Japanese prints were another influence. These prints became quite
popular in Europe in the late 19th Century. Impressionist artists
learned from them how to create dynamic compositions with cropped
figures, elegant patterns of line, and flat areas of delicate colour.
Major Impressionist Artists
Camille Pissaro
Claude Monet
• Edgar Degas
• Mary Cassatt
• Auguste Renoir
Claude Monet – Self Portrait
Claude Monet - Haystacks
Monet - Haystacks
Monet - Haystacks
Monet - Haystacks
Monet – Rouen Cathedral
Monet – Rouen Cathedral
Monet - Waterlilies
Claude Monet
• "Paint what you really see, not what you
think you ought to see; not the object
isolated as in a test tube, but the object
enveloped in sunlight and atmosphere,
with the blue dome of Heaven reflected in
the shadows" Claude Monet Quote
Monet - Waterlilies
Monet’s Waterlilies in the
Orangerie, Paris
Monet - Waterlilies
Monet - Waterlilies
Camille Pissaro
• CAMILLE PISSARRO was born on July 10, 1830 on the
Caribbean island of St. Thomas, Danish West Indies
• His parents sent him to Paris at age 12 to a small
boarding school where the director, seeing his interest in
art, advised him to take "advantage of his life in the
tropics by drawing coconut trees." When he returned to
St. Thomas in 1847, this advice had been taken to heart:
• He devoted all his spare time to making sketches, not
only of coconut trees and other exotic plants, but also of
the daily life surrounding him…the donkeys and their
carts on the sunny roads, the Negro women doing their
wash on the beaches or carrying jugs, baskets, or
bundles on their heads. In these studies done from life
he revealed himself to be a simple and sincere observer.
• Since he could not obtain his father’s permission
to devote himself to painting, he ran away one
day.
• Pissarro left the Caribbean Paris to further his
studies and pursue a painting career.
• His early efforts to paint the effects of light were
scorned by the art establishment of the time,
who favoured the traditional painting techniques
taught at the academies.
• Then a break: a chance meeting with Monet, Cézanne -and through them, a network of like-minded artists.
• Discouraged by their attempts to pass the critical
scrutiny of the Salon juries, in 1874 Pissarro joined
Monet to organize independent exhibitions. Renoir,
Sisley, Béliard, Guillaumin, Degas, Cézanne, and Berthe
Morisot were among those whose works were shown
together.
• Pissarro and his fellows met with thunderous opposition
from the established art community, which valued
technical detail and photographic realism -- and
expected the artist to idealize the subject; their new style
was seen as an absurdity. Articles panning the exhibition
coined the term "impressionist" as an insult.
• Through years of poverty and despair the
impressionists labored to gain a place in the
world. Pissarro remained true to the
Impressionist vision.
• He experimented with theories of art; studied the
effects of light, climate, and the seasons.
• And Pissarro was especially regarded as a
teacher; he became the centre of a group of
painters -- Renoir, Monet, Degas, Cézanne -who respected his art and turned to him for
inspiration.
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Camille
Pissarro
Self Portrait
Camille Pissarro – Orchard in
Bloom at Louveciennes
Camille Pissarro – White Frost
Camille Pissarro – Spring
Landscape with Flooded Fields
Camille Pissarro – Boulevard
Montmartre
Camille Pissarro – The Boulevard
Montmartre at Night
Camille Pisssarro – The Tuileries
Gardens
Edgar Degas
• Degas was a masterful draughtsman. Unlike
most of the other Impressionists he was
concerned with line, form, and movement of the
human body.
• His famous paintings of dancers reveal this
fascination with the human form.
• Rather than presenting only idealized dancers,
he gives us intimate glimpses of dancers resting,
scratching, or stretching backstage
• He is also renowned for his pictures of race
horses.
Degas – Rehearsal of a Ballet on
Stage
Degas – Sketch of a Dancer
Degas – The Dancing Class
Degas
• Degas often worked
in pastels, as in this
drawing of two
dancers.
Degas – Frieze of Dancers
Degas – A Day at the Races
Degas – Race Horses in the Rain
Degas – race horse
Degas – The Absinthe Drinker
Degas – Place de la Concorde
Mary Cassatt
• Mary Cassatt was an American woman
who lived most of her adult life in France,
so that she could study art and develop
her career as an artist.
• She is best known for her portrayals of
women and children.
• Cassatt admired the work of Degas. Seeing one
of his paintings in a shop window one day, she
realized suddenly how she wanted to paint.
• Degas was at first scornful of the idea that a
woman could paint, never mind paint well. In
response to his challenge, Cassatt painted “Girl
Arranging her Hair,” which Degas had to admit,
was a beautiful rendering of an unattractive
subject. The two artists developed a
(sometimes stormy) friendship and worked
together for a time making prints.
Cassatt – Girl Arranging her Hair
Degas’ portrait of Mary Cassatt
Degas – Mary Cassatt at the
Louvre
Cassatt – Children on the Beach
Cassatt – Young Mother Sewing
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Mary Cassatt:
Woman Preparing to
Wash her
Sleepy Child
Mary Cassatt – Five O’clock Tea
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Mary Cassatt
Omnibus
(print)
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Mary Cassatt
(print)
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Mary Cassatt
La Coiffure
(print)
Auguste Renoir
• Renoir is one of the most beloved painters
of the Impressionist period, perhaps
because, in his paintings, he presented a
world where everything was beautiful.
• He once said: “For me a picture has to be
something pleasant, delightful, and pretty - yes, pretty. There are enough unpleasant
things in the world without us producing
even more."
Renoir – Self Portrait
Renoir – Mme Charpentier and her
Children
Renoir – Portrait of Mlle LeGrand
Renoir – La Moulin de la Galette
Renoir – Luncheon of the Boating
Party
Auguste Renoir – At the Piano
Renoir – The Swing
Renoir - Blonde Bather