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IMPRESSIONISM. Impressionism. The Impressionists painted in the second half of the 19 th Century. Impressionism is characterized by attention to the effects of atmosphere and light on subject matter.
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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 (continued) • 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. • 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. • 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. • 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 • "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
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.
Camille • Pissarro • Self Portrait
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 • Degas often worked in pastels, as in this drawing of two dancers.
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.
Mary Cassatt: • Woman Pre- • paring to • Wash her • Sleepy Child
Mary Cassatt • Omnibus • (print)
Mary Cassatt • (print)
