The Impressionists – a group of
rebel painters seeking to change
the way people think about art.
Part I - This is an introduction to the Impressionists – a
group of painters in the 1800’s who had a new way of
seeing the world and a new way of putting that vision
on the canvas.
Before the Impressionists, artists drew the
edges of their objects with lines of paint. They
were trying to create Realism.
Compare a realist
landscape to one
by an Impressionist.
Compare a realist
still life to one by an
Impressionist.
Compare a realist
portrait to those by
an Impressionist.
The Impressionists used
loose open brush work
instead of carefully painted
smooth brush strokes.
Impressionism was
a way of painting that showed the
general impression of the light on
a scene or object.
Impressionists use unmixed
primary and secondary colors and
small brushstrokes to show
colorful reflected light.
The Impressionists also used
dashes and dabs of paint to form
the edges of objects and they had
new brighter colors in tubes. They
could get out of their stuffy studios
and
paint outdoors.
MONET
. Claude Monet was one of the leaders of the
Impressionists and he used a broken color brush technique
rather than the more traditional method of applying the paint
to the canvas.
This is the painting
from which the
Impressionists and
their “movement”
got their name.
The critic and
reporter Leroy saw
this painting at one
of the
Impressionists’ art
shows and wrote
about it in the paper.
He said that the
“Impressionists”
knew nothing about
painting… he used
the term as a slam
against them… but
they liked it and
adopted it.
Impression Soleil Levant, 1873
Monet’s painting, Impression Sunrise - gave
the "Impressionists" their name.
RENOIR
Pierre Auguste
Renoir’s paintings
featured:
delicate brushwork,
scenes of people
having fun,
and light layered
colors This made
him a favorite with
Impressionist fans.
Monet and Renoir painted
together along the river
banks.
They wanted to capture the
light at certain times of the day
before the sun moved.
More than anything – he and
Renoir desperately wanted
to have a painting accepted
to be shown in the great art
show called the Salon.
However, their work was
often rejected, because
they, and other
Impressionists - did not
paint the way the judges
liked.
Let’s compare Two Sisters on the Terrace done in 1881 by Renoir to an earlier
work of “Realism” Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Gypsy Girl with Mandolin, done in 1870, only 11 years earlier.
What are some similarities and some differences?
The judges liked
paintings in dark hues,
that told stories from
history, or made ordinary
people seem ideal
(better than they were).
The Impressionists
showed people as
ordinary people, doing
ordinary things.
During the last 20 years of his life Renoir
was crippled by arthritis; unable to move
his hands freely, he continued to paint,
however, by using a brush strapped to his
arm. Renoir died at Cagnes, a village in
the south of France, on December 3, 1919.
Claude Monet spent the last years of his life working on
twelve large canvas, The Water Lilies. These paintings are
installed in their own special museum.
Part II
Other
Impressionist
Painters
Berthe Morisot
The first woman to join the circle of
the French Impressionist painters,
she exhibited in all but one of their
shows, and, despite the protests of
friends and family, continued to
participate in their struggle for
recognition.
Her own carefully composed,
brightly hued canvases are often
studies of women, either out-ofdoors or in domestic settings.
Morisot and American artist Mary
Cassatt are generally considered
the most important women
painters of the later 19th century.
Mary Cassatt
Known for her perceptive depictions of
women and children, Mary Cassatt was
one of the few American artists active in
the nineteenth-century French painting
scene.
Mary Cassatt
Above is a Mary’s selfportrait.
Mary never married, but
had a close friendship
with Edgar Degas, who
painted scenes with
horse races & ballerinas.
DEGAS
Edgar Degas was from a wealthy banking family, and although he
studied law… he eventually became a serious painter. His favorite
subjects were those a wealthy man would like, The opera, ballet and
the race track.
This picture of young girls
at the riding stable shows
Dega’s technique of
“cropping” his images – so
they look like a snapshot.
They have the look one
would get from a camera,
which was a new invention
that greatly influenced the
thinking of the Impressionist
painters.
Degas and American, Mary
Cassatt were good friends,
and he helped her use the
same style of composition
(arrangement or design) in
her own work.
Vincent Van Gogh is a
controversial painter who learned from the
Impressionists he met, but went on to add
more personal “expression” into his
paintings. He did not start out wanting to
be an artist. He was a teacher and he
worked in a bookstore. He then became a
minister. He started painting and began
showing the lives of the poor people he
was helping.
Vincent Van Gogh moved to Paris to live with his
brother Theo in 1886, and he found that his dark muddy
palette of colors were out of date and were being
replaced by the spectrum of Impressionist color. Van
Gogh soon adopted these Impressionist and Post
(after) Impressionist idea's and began painting with his
own highly personal style.
The public was not ready for the
intense style of Van Gogh, his bright
colors and thick paint laid on the
canvas in lines of bright textured
layers. He only sold two works in his
life, he was very poor and was
supported by his brother Theo.
Van Gogh left Paris for the
fresh air of southern
France, and there he did
some of his most inspired
work. He painted in a fast
a furious style, sometimes
putting the paint on the
canvas right out of the
tube.
Paul Cezanne
Sometimes called the
“Father of Modern Art”
because his
Impressionist
paintings were so
abstract.
We will be going to the computer
lab and search for a landscape
by one of the Impressionist
painters – the picture you
choose will be the painting you
do in acrylic paint on canvas for
part of your 20% final grade. The
other part will be written , and wil
be done in class – you do not
need to come on exam day.
Goals for the Computer Lab:
1. Look at the paintings of the Impressionists, and find a
outdoor scene / landscape you like.
2. Check the painting with me. It must be;
- colorful & challenging, but not too hard
you
- you may also bring in a photo of the outdoors
have taken yourself and use it
(However – you still need to have a
colored picture by one of the
Impressionist painters to match for
style and colors)
3. Copy and paste on a Word
Document / The name of the painting
& artist, and your name must be typed
on the document. Print to Color Printer.
6” x 8”
Before you leave the computer lab – you will
hand me a colored picture of your landscape.
Type:
- your name
- the name of the artist
- the year
- the title of the painting