Impressionism
French Impressionist Plein Air Art Movement Led by Claude Monet.
Visual Arts Guide

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.

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).

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.

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.

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
Impression: Soleil Levant/Sunrise' (1872), Musee Marmottan.
Haystack in the Morning, Snow Effect (1891), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Haystack, Sunset (1890-1891), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Rouen Cathedral Facade (sunset) (1892-1894), Musée Marmottan-Monet.
Bridge over a Pool of Water Lilies (1899), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
Water Lilies (1907), Bridgestone Museum of Art, Tokyo.
Water Lilies (1914-1917), Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio.
Water Lilies (1916), The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo.
Weeping Willow (1918-1919), Kimball Art Museum, Fort Worth.

Edouard Manet
The Bar at the Folies-Bergere (1882), Courtauld Institute of Art, London.

Other Celebrated Impressionist Paintings

Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Nude in the Sunlight (1876), Musee d'Orsay.
Le Moulin de la Galette (1876), Musee d'Orsay.
The Boating Party (1881), Phillips Collection, Washington DC.

Edgar Degas
The Absinthe Drinker (1876), Musee D'Orsay.
Prima Ballerina (1876-77), Musee d'Orsay.
Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen [sculpture] (c.1881), Tate Modern, London.
Nude Wiping Her Left Foot (1886), Musee D'Orsay.

Alfred Sisley
Snow at Louveciennes (1878), Musee d'Orsay.
The Bridge at Moret (1893), Musee d'Orsay.

Camille Pissarro
Foxhill: Upper Norwood (1870), National Gallery, London.
Boulevard Monmartre, Rainy Weather, Afternoon (1897) Private collection.

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:
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) by John Singer Sargent.

• For styles of painting and sculpture in Ireland, see: Irish Art

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