French Impressionism

• In 1874, a group of artists called the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, etc. organized an exhibition in Paris that launched the movement called “Impressionism.”

• The group was unified only by its independence from the official annual Salon, for which a jury of artists from the Académie des Beaux-Arts selected artworks and awarded medals.

French Impressionism• The exhibiting collective avoided choosing a title

that would imply a unified movement or school, although some of them subsequently adopted the name by which they would eventually be known, the “Impressionists”.

• Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise (Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris) exhibited in 1874, gave the Impressionist movement its name when the critic Louis Leroy accused it of being a sketch or "impression," not a finished painting.

• Here is the work itself:

French Impressionism• Monet probably intended the title to refer to the

sketchy, unfinished look of the work, similar to receiving an impression of something on the basis of an exposure that is partially obscured and incomplete in its detail.

• The term, however, was quickly taken up by sympathetic critics, who used it in an alternative sense to mean the impression stamped on the senses by a visual experience that is rapid and transitory, associated with a particular moment in time.

French Impressionism

• It demonstrates the techniques many of the independent artists adopted: short, broken brushstrokes that barely convey forms, pure unblended colors, and an emphasis on the effects of light.

• Rather, than neutral white, grays, and blacks, Impressionists often rendered shadows and highlights in color.

French Impressionism

• Such images of suburban and rural leisure outside of Paris were a popular subject for the Impressionists, notably Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Several of them lived in the country for part or all of the year.

• New railway lines radiating out from the city made travel so convenient that Parisians virtually flooded into the countryside every weekend.

French Impressionism

• Monet's characteristically loose painting style complements the leisure activities he portrays. Landscapes, which figure prominently in Impressionist art, were also brought up to date with innovative compositions, light effects, and use of color.

• Monet in particular emphasized the modernization of the landscape by including railways and factories, signs of encroaching industrialization that would have seemed inappropriate to the Barbizon artists of the previous generation.

French Impressionism

• Perhaps the prime site of modernity in the late nineteenth century was the city of Paris itself, renovated between 1853 and 1870 under Emperor Napoleon III.

• His prefect, Baron Haussmann, laid the plans, tearing down old buildings to create more open space for a cleaner, safer city.

French Impressionism• The boating and bathing establishments that flourished in these

regions became favorite motifs. In his 1869 La Grenouillère for example, Monet's characteristically loose painting style complements the leisure activities he portrays.

• Landscapes, which figure prominently in Impressionist art, were also brought up to date with innovative compositions, light effects, and use of color.

• Monet in particular emphasized the modernization of the landscape by including railways and factories, signs of encroaching industrialization that would have seemed inappropriate to the Barbizon artists of the previous generation.

French Impressionism• We see in Impressionism a concentration on the

every day life of France, whether it be in the cities or the rural areas.

• Here we can see how an artistic movement can be influenced by the historical epoch that it exists within.

• Urban renewal, the growing mixing of classes in the new industrial age, the easy access to rural areas via trains and the urban renewal begun under Napoleon III are all reflected in the art of the Impressionist paintings.

French Impressionism

• Let’s take a look at some of the more famous paintings from the Impressionist movement.

• Here are a few from Edouard Manet (1832-1883)

French Impressionism

• Portrait d'Emile Zola 1868 (110 Kb); Oil on canvas, 146 x 114 cm (57 1/2 x 44 7/8 in); Musee d'Orsay, Paris

French Impressionism

• On the Beach 1873; Musée d'Orsay, Paris

French Impressionism

• Le Bar aux Folies-Bergère 1881-82; Courtauld Institute Galleries, London

This sparkling portrayal shows extensive use of peinture claire, (the technique of lighting faces or figures from the front, almost eliminating shadows) a technique Manet himself evolved.

French Impressionism

• Monet, Claude (b. Nov. 14, 1840, Paris, Fr.--d. Dec. 5, 1926, Giverny)

• French painter, initiator, leader, and unswerving advocate of the Impressionist style.

• He is regarded as the archetypal Impressionist in that his devotion to the ideals of the movement was unwavering throughout his long career, and it is fitting that one of his pictures--Impression: Sunrise (Musée Marmottan, Paris; 1872)--gave the group his name.

French Impressionism

• During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) he took refuge in England with Pissarro: he studied the work of Constable and Turner, painted the Thames and London parks, and met the dealer Durand-Ruel, who was to become one of the great champions of the Impressionists.

French Impressionism

• J. M. Turner: (1775 – 1851) Rain, Steam and Speed 1844; Oil on canvas, 90.8 x 121.9 cm; National Gallery, London

• Notice how the English Artist is an obvious influence on Monet.

• We see the impressionist expression of machine and nature, with no clear lines between.

• Chronologically, this predates the French Impressionist Movement

French Impressionism

• Here are a few of the classic paintings of Claude Monet

• Fishing Boats Leaving the Harbor, Le Havre 1874 (160 Kb); Oil on canvas, 60 x 101 cm (23 5/8 x 39 3/4"); Private collection

French Impressionism

“Haystacks”; Meule, Effet de Neige, le Matin (Morning Snow Effect)

French Impressionism

• The Bridge at Argenteuil • 1874; Oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cm; Louvre, Paris

French Impressionism

• Monet does a series of paintings of the Rouen Cathedral at different times of the day to show the impact of light on an object.

• Rouen Cathedral: Full Sunlight 1894; Louvre, Paris

French Impressionism

• La cathédrale de Rouen, le portail, temps gris (Rouen Cathedral, the West Portal, Dull Weather) dated 1894, painted 1892 (200 Kb); Oil on canvas, 100 x 65 cm (39 3/8 x 25 5/8 in); Musee d'Orsay, Paris

Post-Impressionism

• Post-Impressionism in Western painting was a movement in France that represented both an extension of Impressionism and a rejection of that style's inherent limitations.

• The term Post-Impressionism was coined by the English art critic Roger Fry for the work of such late 19th-century painters as Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and others.

Post-Impressionism

• Post Impressionism is a term which is less easy to define than Impressionism.

• Though the impressionists differed in personal styles and favorite subjects, one thing which was consistent between the artists was their interest in the transitory effects of light and spontaneous compositions.

• Though the post-impressionists are also concerned with light, it is not as much of a central concern, and their personal styles differ greatly.

Post-Impressionism

• Let’s take a look at some of the most famous artists and paintings from this era.

• Georges Seurat: (1859-1891) • First and foremost, he is noted for his

invention of a method of applying paint in small dots of color. He called this method divisionism, but the term pointillism is more commonly used today.

Post-Impressionism

• Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grande Jatte, 1884-85

Post-Impressionism

• Boats, Low Tide 1885

Post-Impressionism

• Paul Cezanne(1839-1906)

• Cezanne's decision to defy the laws of perspective (and gravity) will greatly influence Picasso and Braque's invention of cubism (look especially at his landscapes, below, to see this relationship).

• With Cezanne, it becomes clear that art is not merely a matter of copying what one sees. The modern artist's mission becomes the purpose of re-creating the world to fit the needs of art.

• Mount St. Victoire, 1885-7

Post-Impressionism

• The Turning Road 1899

Post-Impressionism• Vincent Van Gogh

(1853-1890) • Van Gogh is the classic example of the tortured artist

who channels his personal demons and pain into astounding works of beauty.

• He was a failed art dealer who could not keep his opinions to himself with the sub-standard work he had to try and sell.

• He worked as a government minister in a coal mining town so destitute that no one else would take the job, and gave away most of his possessions to the destitute miners.

Post-Impressionism

• His father, a minister, impacts him enough to have Vincent take up the cause and work among the poor in a mining district in Brussels, Belgium.

• In fact, this has the reverse effect and makes van Gogh turn away from God, as he cannot understand why the almighty would allow the poor to live in these conditions.

• His unrequited love for a first cousin is a scandal, and his father essentially disowns him as a result.

Post-Impressionism

• Vincent takes up with a prostitute, and further scandalizes the family.

Post-Impressionism• It is when Van Gogh moves to Paris that he is

greatly impacted by the works of the impressionist painters.

• His brother, Theo, was an art gallery dealer and was able to introduce his older brother to many painters.

• Though he does make some friendships (including those with Degas and Seurat) he doesn't quite fit in with the Paris scene, and Vincent eventually moves to the town of Arles to set up his own studio.

Post-Impressionism• He invites a fellow artist, Gauguin, to move in with

him. • Together, they paint, drink in taverns, fight, and

eventually the friendship is terminated when Van Gogh, in one of his fits of emotional instability, threatens his friend with a knife.

• When Gauguin gives him an angry look, Vincent meekly turns away, then later slashes his own ear.

• He recuperates, but realizing he is a threat to himself (and possibly others), admits himself to a mental hospital.

Post Impressionism

• Despite Vincent's emotional and physical instability, he managed to create some of his greatest paintings in the last couple years of his life (having decided upon being an artist only 8 years earlier).

• Unlike the Impressionists, he chose his colors almost arbitrarily, painting not what he sees but what he feels.

Post-Impressionism

• Vincent grew increasingly depressed as he realized that his mental illness would never be cured, coupled with the realization that he had become a financial burden to his brother, who had recently fathered a child.

• It was in a wheat field that he shot himself. He managed to crawl back to his home and news was sent to Theo of his tragic condition.

• Theo came to say goodbye to his brother within hours of his death. Six months later, Theo also died.

• Vincent at the age of 13:

Post Impressionism

• Vincent van Gogh at the age of 18 yrs. He was at this time an art “dealer” who could not stop himself from informing a potential customer that a piece was, in fact, junk, and that they should not buy it.

• Needless to say, he did not last too long in that particular profession.

Post-Impressionism

• Here are a series of Van Gogh’s Self-Portraits

Post-Impressionism

• Bedroom at Arles, 1888• I have a terrible need of -- dare I say the word?

-- religion. Then I go out at night to paint the stars...- Vincent van Gogh, Arles, 1888

Post-Impressionism

• The Night Cafe, 1888• Van Gogh commented to his brother Theo that

he made the walls red because this was a place that, “one could go mad!”

Post-Impressionism

• “The Potato Eaters.”• Van Gogh’s empathy for the poor is reflected

here in that moving portrait of the peasantry's drab and simple existence.

Post-Impressionism• The Starry Night, 1889• The Starry Night is Van Gogh's most famous painting, and

perhaps his greatest. He paints the night sky from a hilltop overlooking a quiet town with a church and cottages.

• The most dramatic theme is the swirling stars, which dominate the scene. Competing for attention is a towering group of Cypress trees.

• It is probably significant that the Cypress is the traditional tree of graveyards, as they are a symbol for eternity.

• Van Gogh seems to say with this painting that the works of God and nature are everlasting and that the world of man exists merely as a shadow.

Post-Impressionism

• “Starry Night on the Rhone”

Post-Impressionism

• Vincent's Chair with Pipe. December 1888. Oil on canvas. National Gallery, London, UK

Post-Impressionism

• Roulin's Baby. 1888. Oil on canvas. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA.

Post-Impressionsim

• Pietà (After Delacroix). 1889. Oil on canvas. Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Post-Impressionism

• Just as a reminder of where we have come from, here is the Pieta of Michelangelo