19th Century Art: Impressionism, Post Impressionism, Early
Expressionism and Symbolism
Impressionism
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1860 to 1886
Born in France
First artistic revolution since the renaissance
Rejected renaissance perspective, balanced composition, idealized figures and chiaroscuro
Instead – immediate visual sensations through colour and light
Main goal was to present an impression or initial sensory perceptions recorded by an artist in a brief
glimpse
They discovered that colour is not a permanent characteristic of an object, but changes constantly according
to the effects of light, reflection or weather on the objects surface
To portray light they created short choppy brushstroke
What looked like dabs of paint far away, up close the eye fused separated steaks together ex. Blue and
yellow = green
Even shadows were painted with colour
The movement started by Monet, Bazille, Renior and Sisley
Open air painting, subject matter slice of contemporary life
Rejected by art critics at first for lack of refinement
Artists established right to experiment and personal style
Edouard Manet
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Father of modern art
Portrayed modern life candidly
Sketchy brushwork , unfinished, flat and hard
Manet , “Le Dejenuner sur l’herbe” (the luncheon on the grass)
1863
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Offended art goers on moral and aesthetic grounds
Naked woman was not idealized to look like a god or
goddess
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Her gaze was contemporary direct gaze
Manet, “A Bar at the Folies-Bergere” 1882
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Cabaret bar and bar maid
Sensory impressions rendered through colour
Claude Monet
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Obsessed with working outdoors – painted regardless of weather condition
Small dabs of paint corresponding to immediate visual observations
“optical mixing” – vibrant colours side by side, blended at a distance
Added complementary colour to the hue of object casting shadow
Monet, “Impression Sunrise” 1872
Monet “Rouen Cathedral, West Façade, Sunlight”
1894
(Right) “Rouen Cathedral Sunset” 1892-94
Monet “Water lilies” 1919-26
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1880s changed brushstrokes sweeps of
colour
Hundreds of water lily paintings
eliminated outlines and contours until
form and line almost disappeared
No central focus or perspective
Pierre-Auguste Renior
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Painted flowers, women, children, sunny outdoor scenes
Short brushstrokes of distinct colour
No outline, form suggested by highlights
Cut off figures edge canvas imply scene expanded beyond the frame and engaged the viewer
Un posed figures
Renior “Le moulin de la Galette” 1876
Renior “Luncheon of the Boating Party” 1880–1881
Pierre-Auguste Renior “The Theater Box” 1874
Edouard Degas
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Painted contemporary subject matter café scenes, especially ballerinas
however he had no interest in landscape painting and no concern for the effects of changing atmosphere
and light
Preference for linear drawing and composition and 3d depth firm contours,
artificial light set him apart from other impressionists
Shared interest in unplanned or spontaneous scenes
Speciality was the human figure in moment of arrested motion – ballerinas
Unconventional poses catch dancers off guard
Reflect the influence of Japanese prints figures informally off-centre or
edge frame
Degas “Prima Ballerina “ 1876
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Viewed from above, off centre composition and steeply titled floor
characteristic
Degas “Singer with a Glove” 1878 (left)
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Pastels - Draw and colour At same
time
Developed highly Original style
First to exhibit pastel as finished
works rather than sketches
Only painter to produce large body
work in them
Degas “Ballet Dancers on the Stage” 1883 (right)
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Outline figures
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Filling in patches pure colour
Bright colours, free strokes
Degas “The Glass of Absinthe” 1876 (left)
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Overloading of figures to one side balanced
by diagonal zigzag of empty tables drawing
reader into the picture
Realistic quality of a snapshot
Degas “The Little 14 Year old Dancer” 1879-81 (right)
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Degas sculpted this figure in wax when his
eyesight was failing and he had to create by
touch
Cast in bronze after his death
Mart Cassatt
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Trademark images were portraits of mothers with children
Inspired by Japanese prints, Cassatt adopted in oil, pastels and prints their brightly coloured flat images and
sharp designs
Figures dominate surrounded by expressive space
Impressionist palette of vivid hues, pale tints and golden light and shadows tinged with colour
Modern icons of maternity
Mary Cassatt “Young Mother Sewing”1893
Mary Cassatt “Tea” 1880
Berthe Morisot
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Domestic scenes and women and children
No outlines just touches of colour to indicate form and volume, free vigorous brush strokes
Personal visual experience
Berthe Morisot “Summer day", 1879
Berthe Morisot ”Woman at her Toilette ” 1875
Camille Pissaro
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Outdoors scenes with bright colours and patchy brushstrokes
Know for rural landscapes and Parisian street scenes
"Landscape at Pontoise", 1874 - oil on canvas, 61-81 cm (left)
Le Boulevard Montmartre, effet de nuit (The Boulevard Montmartre at Night)", 1897 (right)
Post Impressionism
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France – 1880-1905
Post impressionist wanted art to be more substantial not just capturing passing moment
Two camps – Seurat and Cézanne – formal design
Gaugin, van Gogh and Lautrec emotions and sensations
Georges Seurat
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Quasiscientific method known as pointillism
Confetti sized dots of pure colour over whole canvas
Complementary colours (opposite) side by side would mix in the viewers eye with greater luminosity
Grainy scintillating effect to canvas
Seurat “A Sunday on la Grande Jatte” 1884-86
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Assigned colours emotions and shapes to elicit predictable
response in viewer
Warm colours (orange -red family) happiness as well as
lines moving upwards
Dark, cool colours (blue-green) and descending lines –
sadness
Middle tones balance of warm and cool lateral lines
calmness
Seurat “le cirque” 1891
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Mood frenetic activity
Acid yellow contrast muted spectators
Henri de Tolouse-Lautrec
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Drew his subjects from contemporary life – theatre
and dance halls
Movement and private moments, Cropped
subjects, asymmetric composition derived from
Japanese prints
Figures in interior night scenes
Harsh lighting and dissonant colours to convey eras
surface gaiety underlying melancholy.
Toulouse-Lautrec “ At the Moulin Rouge” 1892
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Lautrec's most original contribution was to graphic
arts
Made lithography and the poster respectable media
for major art
Posters bold visual simplicity
Toulouse-Lautrec “Jane Avril at the Jardin de Paris” 1893
Toulouse-Lautrec, « Divan Japonais » 1893
Paul Cezanne
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New take on surface appearance
Cezanne represented the underlying geometry of objects
Reproduced nature as cylinder, cone and sphere
Simplify objects to near abstract forms
Cezanne “Mont Sainte-Victorie” 1902-4
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Pyramid defined through coloured planes
To create illusion depth, placed cool colours like blue
which seem to recede at the rear and warm colours like
red which seem to advance in front
Reveal the structure of things
Portray visual reality as reflected through a faceted
diamond
Systematic in still life
Carefully arranged fruit contrasting tones against one
another
Greens against reds and yellows against blues
Cezanne “Still Life with Apples and Oranges” 1895-1900
Cezanne “Large Bathers” 1906
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Cezanne initiated a major shift in art history
Liberated art from reproducing reality to its basic
components
Paul Gauguin
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Refused to reproduce surface appearances instead transforming colours and distorting colours to convey his
emotional response to a scene
Life is colour
Portraying his dreams was essence of his non-traditional art
Gaugin “Vision after the Sermon” or Jacob Wrestling with an Angel” 1888
Stylized the Breton women witnessing a supernatural vision to make them
symbols of faith
He painted the red ground separating the real world of the women from the
imaginary women by diagonal tree painted blue
Contributions flattening forms and intensifying colours arbitrarily for
emotional impact
Gauguin, “La Orana Maria” 1892
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Portrays the annunciation radically reinterpreted
Retained angels greeting to Mary and halos everything else Tahiti inspired
Simplified figures, firm outlines, rhythmic patterns, symbolism drawn from
primitive and far eastern sources, rich colours
Vincent Van Gogh
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Dutch Painter
Light drenched outdoor scenes of working class life
Healing powers of nature
Broken brushstroke and bright complementary colours
Used colours to express emotion
Many interpreted distorted forms and violent contrast colours as
evidence of mental imbalance –
shy awkward painter suffered from loneliness and emotional
collapse – depressed and hyperactive, paint all day well into night
candles in brim hat. Produced 800 paintings and drawings in 10
years.
Van Gogh “Sunflowers” 1887
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Favourite colour yellow
Many versions subject
Van Gogh “Self Portrait with a Straw Hat” 1887
Van Gogh “Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear” 1889
Van Gogh “The Starry Night” 1889
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Emotional reaction to scene through colour
Surging movement through curving
brushstroke
Stars and moon seem explode with energy
Composition carefully balanced – upward
thrust cypress echoes vertical steeple cut
across the vertical lines sky and hills, stop eye
traveling out picture
Dark cypress offsets the bright moon in the
opposite corner achieve balance
Forms of objects rhythmic brushstrokes overall effect unity rather than chaos
Van Gogh “Crows over Cornfield” 1890
Early Expressionism
Edvard Munch
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Modern anguish
Called his paintings his children – traumatic childhood mother
and eldest sister died consumption raise by very religious father
afraid of
Treated at sanatorium for depression
Psychological problems catalyst for his art
Specialized in portraying extreme human emotion like jealously
and loneliness
Aimed to induce strong emotional reaction in viewers
Forerunner of expressionism – a style that portrayed human
emotions
Munch “The Scream” 1893
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intolerable fear of losing ones mind
Every line painting shows agitation, no relief for the eye – high
anxiety
Paula Modersohn-Becker
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Developed a completely modern style
Single figures wide eyed nude self portraits and portraits of
peasants
Career cut short by her death child birth
Modersohn-Becker “Self Portrait” 1906
Symbolism
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Forerunner of surrealism
fantasy
Henri Rousseau
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Untrained hobby painter quit job as toll collector
Naive
Believed his fantastic childlike landscapes were realistic
Foliage minutely detailed, finish meticulous smooth no brushstrokes
Technical limitations were clear – figures were flat and scale, proportion and perspective skewed
Rousseau “The Sleeping Gypsy” 1897
Rousseau “The Dream” 1910
Odilon Redon
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Bizarre creatures
Hallucinatory world
Colour and line
Orpheus iridescent colour to evoke magical netherworld
Mythological musician – disembodied head beside a
fragment of his lyre
Glowing flowers signature style
Redon “Orpheus” 1913