Impressionism and twentieth-Century Art Movements

1. Impressionismand twentieth-Century Art Movements

2. Impressionism is one of the most popular of all art movements in Europe. • The paintings are colourful, cheerful in mood and easy to understand. • The artists who produced the works were considered dangerous revolutionaries in their own time. • Art education was very rigid and artists had to follow a very traditional route to become successful. • Their paintings were considered ridiculous and were mocked and jeered after their first exhibition. Art Politics and Revolution

3. The small group of artists who broke with this system in the mid-nineteenth century became known as the Impressionists. • It was many years before their work was accepted and their ground breaking innovations in painting were fully recognised and admired.

4. The Academy: • The government of France controlled the Academie des Beaux-Arts, • Students entered the studio of an established artist and studies according to the Academic system. • The Academy exhibited the work of artists once a year. This exhibition was called the Salon. • The system did not suit all artists and in the mid 19th century some searched for other ways to express ideas. Why did Impressionism start?

5. Realism: • Gustave Courbet set out to shock society out of its state of complacency with a new art movement called Realism. • Realists favoured ordinary scenes of modern life over historical, mythological and religious subjects. They wanted ‘truth, not prettiness’. • Burial at Ornans, a painting by Courbet, was exhibited at the 1850-51 Salon. It created an ‘explosive reaction’ and brought Courbet instant fame. Why did impressionism start?

6. Showed peasants in realistic settings instead of the rich in glamorized situations.

7. Barbizon Painters: • Artists from the Realist movement worked out of doors (en plein air). • They chose to live outside of Paris in the village of Barbizon, where they sketched directly from nature on the edge of the forest of Fontainebleau. • Peasants, houses, the forest and the fields were their sources of inspiration. • Camille Corot painted out of doors in Normandy, Brittany and around the Forest of Fontainebleau. • Corot was a transitional figure in painting and was highly influential on younger painters. • He praised nature and urged his followers to hold fast to the first impression they received from a scene. • In the end he criticised the Impressionists and condemned their work, but Claude Monet and Pierre Auguste Renoir learned a great deal from him.

8. Wealthy industrialists and the new middle class were the art-buying public in the mid-nineteenth century. • They trusted the ‘experts’ of the Academy, so their taste in art was rather conservative. Their preference was for story pictures with historical or moral content. • One of the most popular subjects was classical myths and legends of ancient Greece and Rome. • Artworks on these subjects were considered serious and respectable. • Nude figures were acceptable in this context, but very strict rules applied to the depiction of nude women in artwork generally. • Female subjects could not look obviously sensual, but were considered perfectly acceptable as nymphs or figures from ancient history, The Move Towards Impressionism

9. Ingres is associated with Academic art at its most sterile. • He was a very successful painter and his technique was academically perfect. • He believed that paint should be smooth ‘as the skin of an onion’. • To achieve his vision of ideal beauty he often distorted the proportions of his figures. • He became director of the French Academy and held the position for over forty years. His ideals developed into a rigid set of formulae. • Artists who followed his formula were guaranteed success and respectability: those who did not were destined for mediocrity. (poor/commonplace/average) Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

10. This one of the finest works by Ingres. It was criticised originally because of its deliberately distorted proportions in the models right leg. • The back view was also considered highly unusual. • However, the painting cleverly draws the spectator into the tranquil setting, with subtle light. • The hidden face adds mystery to the scene. The Valpincon Bather

11. Ingres work was highly influential on other artists and the style became very popular. • The Birth of Venus by Alexandre Cabanel was the hit of the 1863 Salon exhibition. • It was everything that visitors to the Salon sought. The figure is quietly erotic but idealised, passive and without character. • She is an image of perfection, with masses of luxuriant hair. Influence on Artists

12. As the style of art preferred by the Academy was so conservative, a lot of artist work was rejected. • In 1863, Emperor Napoleon III opened another salon in Paris to display more than 4000 pieces turned down by the Academy. • This exhibition was named the Salon des Refuses (The Salon of the Rejected). • This was an extremely influential landmark in the history of painting and art dealership, as it provided a platform for more radical and independent styles of art. • It also inspired artists to host their own independent exhibitions such as the many Impressionist exhibitions and the Society of Independent Artists who held annual shows of their work. The Salon des Refuses

13. During the 1800’s major changes took place which were to affect the entire future of art. These accrued for a number of reasons. • The traditional subjects and themes such as religion and history, lost the relevance they had in previous times. • Realistic painting was challenged by the invention of the camera, making the need for exact duplication of people and places in paint almost redundant. • Religious and royal patrons no longer commissioned vast quantities of art. • Basically, the introduction of independent art dealers and exhibitions gave artists freedom to paint subjects they enjoyed instead of having to rely exclusively on commissions from wealthy patrons or work within the boundaries of Academic art. In some cases artists no longer painted alone, but worked in groups to experiment with techniques and concepts. Modernity:

14. Some of the artists who met Edouard Manet regularly to discus art became better known as the Impressionists. • These artists had developed a particular style of painting by working directly from nature out of doors. • They had tried on several occasions to have their work accepted by the Salon. This never came to pass, so in April 1874 they held an independent exhibition. • The artists included Edgar Degas, Monet, Cezanne, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley and Morisot. • The paintings were mostly simple scenes of landscapes, cityscapes and everyday life. They were painted quickly with loose brushstrokes. The artists felt that this captured the life and play of light on the subject better. • This broke almost every rule of the Academy and visitors to the exhibition were shocked. They could not understand the work and thought it unfinished. • Critics said that the Impressionists couldn’t draw and that their colours were vulgar. The Impressionists

15. The famous name came about because of a painting in this first exhibition by Claude Monet. It was entitled Impression Sunrise. • One of the critics made fun of this by calling it an impression of nature and wondering ‘who were these “Impressionists”? • The group kept the name and had seven more exhibitions. • They struggled for the next twelve years to gain acceptance. Gradually their popularity grew and they began to have success with the buyers. • In time Impressionism became one of the most influential modern movements in art. The term ‘Impressionism’

16. This painting by Monet showed sunrise over the sea at Le Haver. • His aim was to create an impression of the rapidly changing, shimmering orange light of the morning sun on the water. • He wanted to capture the intense brightness with contrasting complementary colours, thereby making the primary colours brightest. Impression Sunrise

17. Impressionist Artists: • Painted directly from nature, out of doors. • Avoided black and mixed complementary colours to achieve dark tones. • Examined the effects of bright sunshine or light on water and snow. • Noticed blue and purple shadows in snow. • Observed change in colour and small strokes to capture the effect of reflected light. • Used loose brushstrokes to capture movement or quivering light. • Placed small strokes of colour side by side on the canvas, allowing the colour to blend in the viewer’s own vision. • Went againt the tradition of building up the surface in thin layers or transparent glazes. • Placed wet paint onto wet paint to create a soft-edged effect. • Were influenced by photography in the late nineteenth century. • Were inspired by Japanese prints that had just become available in Paris. Recap: Innovations of Impressionist painting

18. Modern subjects • Impressionist paintings were modern, not just in style, but also in subject matter. • The Impressionists were influenced by Edouard Manet. Unlike the Barbizon group, who painted rural scenes and peasants, the Impressionists painted modern life in Paris. • Their paintings featured the suburbs, with fashionably-dressed people involved in leisure and entertainment activities.