*
*
• 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.
• 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.
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.
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.
Showed peasants in realistic settings instead of the
rich in glamorized situations.
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.
*
• 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,
*
• 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)
*
• 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.
*
• 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.
*
* 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.
*
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.
• 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 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.
• 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.
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.
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.