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Impressionism |
 The Swing (La Balançoire), (1876) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. |
Impressionism (Flourished 1870-1880)Introduction |
 Ballet Class (1881) by Edgar Degas. |
The new style of painting called "Impressionism," that appeared in Paris during the late 1860s and early 1870s, was not recognized initially as anything special. Many of the members of the Impressionist "group" - which consisted of Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, Paul Cezanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Jean-Frederic Bazille, and Berthe Morisot - were at odds with the official Salon, the organizing body for the French Academy of Fine Arts in the Salon d'Apollon, within the Louvre Palace, whose selection-jury operated with unpredictable severity. The main initial influence on the new group was the artist genius Edouard Manet, whose stunning works Dejeuner sur L'herbe and Olympia had themselves been rejected by the Salon in the early 1860s. |
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INFLUENCES PAINTING COLOURS/HUES EVOLUTION OF VISUAL
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Thus, although other painters were impressed by some of its early works, Impressionism was not acknowledged as an important style of painting, either by art critics, collectors or the public. As a result, most members of the group suffered severe financial hardship, and all had to fight for attention and commissions from patrons and critics alike. Despite friendships with leading figures in other areas of the creative arts (like the writer Emile Zola and the poet Baudelaire) mutual support and reassurance within the group was the critical factor in its survival. Impressionist Painting: Plein-Air Landscapes French Impressionism was a spontaneous, colour-sensitive 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. Impressionists specialized in landscapes and genre scenes (eg. Degas' pictures of ballet dancers and Renoir's nude figures) although portraiture was one of the few regular sources of income, and still-lifes would also be painted. The name "Impressionism" 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. Ironically, Monet only decided on the title when completing the exhibition catalogue, and almost named the work View of the Harbour at Le Havre! In total, between 1874 and 1882, the Impressionists staged seven exhibitions, all in Paris. |
 Dancers Preparing for an Audition (c.1882) by Edgar Degas. |
The most 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), Edouard Manet (1832-83), Paul Cezanne, and Berthe Morisot (1841-95) Each painter had a differing approach to art and to their development as an artist. Manet, noted for his modern approach to oil painting and his revolutionery reinterpretations of Neo-classical themes, was primarily interested in regaining influence via the Salon. Pissarro was a great teacher, Sisley something of a loner, Renoir alternated between figurative and landscape work, while Cezanne was shy and hampered by family issues. Degas, perhaps the most complex individual, initially hated plein-air painting and preferred working in his studio, where he would demonstrate amazing versatility in drawing, watercolours, pastels, and sculpture. Only Monet was completely and confidentally committed to the group's goal of mastering the depiction of light. |
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BEST IMPRESSIONIST
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Impressionist Style of Painting Pure Impressionism, as advocated by Monet, was outdoor plein-air 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 indirectly heralded the coming 20th century style of Cubism. By the 1880s, after a series of successful exhibitions in Paris, the Impressionist movement began to fragment. |
| WORLD'S
GREATEST ARTWORKS For a list of the Top 10 painters/ sculptors: Best Artists of All Time. For the Top 300 oils, watercolours see: Greatest Paintings Ever. For the Top 100 works of sculpture see: Greatest Sculptures Ever. |
Some members, the purists like Monet, preferred to focus almost exclusively on the study of light. Others, like Pissarro and Sisley continued painting plein-air landscapes, but without Monet's ideological fervour. Renoir travelled and focused on figurative works - in nature and in the studio. Degas settled on genre studies and other studio work, after a period of interest in painting racehorses. Cezanne left Paris, settled in Aix-en-Provence and focused on his quest to discover natural forms - a task in which he succeeded brilliantly, inspiring Picasso and Braque to develop their early Cubist style of painting. Later Impressionists: Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism The slightly younger generation of painters were less content to be dictated to by nature (or Monet), and preferred instead to experiment with colour (eg. Henri Matisse 1869-1954, Paul Gauguin 1848-1903 and the Fauvists), with colour theory (eg. Georges Seurat 1859-1891), with everyday scenes (eg. Toulouse-Lautrec 1864-1901, Mary Cassatt, 1844-1926 and Edouard Vuillard 1868-1940), or with forms of expressionism (eg. Vincent Van Gogh 1853-90). Around these Impressionist-influenced artists, coalesced a general movement known as Post-Impressionism. An important contributor to Impressionist portrait art was John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) a friend of Claude Monet, who returned from France to settle in London in 1885. The Impact of Impressionism on Western Art Impressionism is probably the best-loved as well as the single most identifiable style in the history of Western art. Although not as overtly revolutionery as modern art movements such as Cubism, anti-art Dada, or Surrealism, its impact on Modern Art was enormous. It set entirely new standards for how artists "saw" and depicted nature - influencing generations of painters including numerous artistic communes, at Grez-Sur-Loing, Pont-Aven, and Concarneau - and paved the way for the new international style of Expressionism. It continues to exert a significant influence on painting, even today. Famous French Impressionist Paintings Claude Monet Edouard Manet Other Celebrated Impressionist Paintings Pierre-Auguste Renoir Edgar Degas Alfred Sisley Camille Pissarro 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. Examples of Impressionist works painted in Britain include: Girls Running, Walberswick Pier (1888-94) by Philip Wilson Steer, The Piazzetta and the Old Campanile, Venice (c.1901) by Walter Richard Sickert, and Carnation, Lily, Rose (1885-6) and The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, by John Singer Sargent. |
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