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Impressionism |
![]() The Swing (La Balançoire), (1876) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. |
Impressionism (Flourished 1870-1900)The dazzling new style of painting called Impressionism, that burst upon the Parisian art scene in the early 1870s, specialized predominantly in landscapes and genre scenes. The name was coined by the French art critic Louis Leroy, after visiting the first exhibition of Impressionist painting in 1874 where he saw 'Impression: Soleil Levant' (1872) by Claude Monet. French Impressionism was a colourful spontaneous style of painting which rejected the conventions of the dominant school of Academic art, in favour of a naturalistic and down-to-earth treatment of its subject matter. Its roots lay in the French Realism of Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot and the plein-air methods of the Barbizon school. |
![]() Ballet Class (1881) by Edgar Degas. |
Famous artists of the Impressionist movement were Claude Monet (1840-1926), Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Alfred Sisley (1839-1899), Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Gustave Caillebotte (1848-94), Edouard Manet (1832-83), Berthe Morisot (1841-95), and the American painter Mary Cassatt (1844-1926). Of these, Degas and Manet were especially interesting. Degas for his versatility in drawing, oil painting, watercolours, pastels, and sculpture; Manet for his range of style, which encompassed modern reinterpretations of Neo-classical themes as exemplified by Olympia (1863) and Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe (1862). |
![]() Bar At The Folies Bergeres (1882) by Edouard Manet. |
Pure Impressionism, as practised by Monet, was largely outdoor plein-air landscape painting, supreme examples being his series of paintings of haystacks and water lilies. Impressionist artists sought to capture fleeting moments, and if, during these moments, an object appeared orange - due to the falling light or its reflection - then the artist painted the object orange. Naturalist colour schemes, being devised in theory or at least in the studio, did not allow for this. Thus Impressionism offered a whole new pictorial language - and paved the way for Picasso's Cubist interpretation of reality in 1907. Another popular Impressionist subject was genre-type scenes. Among the most famous examples are Edgar Degas' pictures of ballet dancers and nudes, Henri Toulouse Lautrec's night club scenes, and Renoir's nudes. |
![]() Dancers Preparing for an Audition (c.1882) by Edgar Degas. |
By the 1880s, after a series of successful exhibitions in Paris, the Impressionist movement began to fragment. Some members, the purists like Monet, preferred to focus almost exclusively on the study of light. Others were less content to be dictated to by Nature, preferring to experiment with colour (eg. Henri Matisse 1869-1954, Paul Gauguin 1848-1903 and the Fauvists), with shape (eg. Paul Cezanne 1839-1906), with composition and colour formation (eg. Georges Seurat 1859-1891 and Edouard Vuillard 1868-1940), or with their own forms of self-expressionism (eg. Vincent Van Gogh 1853-1890). Around these former Impressionists, coalesced a movement known as Post-Impressionism. |
![]() Boulevard Monmartre, Rainy Weather, Afternoon (1897) by Camille Pissaro. |
Even so, the Impressionist style was undoubtedly the single most identifiable style of in the history of Western art. It influenced generations of painters including numerous artistic communes, such as those at Grez-Sur-Loing, Pont-Aven, and Concarneau, and continues to exert a significant influence on painting, even today. Famous French Impressionist Paintings Claude Monet |
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Edouard Manet Other Celebrated Impressionist Paintings Pierre-Auguste Renoir Edgar Degas Alfred Sisley Camille Pissarro British Impressionism French Impressionist
art theory was introduced to Britain around 1863 by James McNeil Whistler
(1834-1903) from 1863 when he settled in London. Styles of Impressionism
were then developed by his pupils Walter Sickert (1860-1942) and
others, and exhibited by the New English Art Club. Another important contributor
to British Impressionist art was John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
a friend of Claude Monet, who returned from France to settle in London
in 1885. Examples of Impressionist works painted in Britain include: |
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For styles of painting and sculpture in Ireland, see: Irish Art How to Update This Mini Review of the Impressionism Style of Art Irish
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