Portfolio 8: Impressionism
Prints within this portfolio:
Print
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Title
Year
Artist
Nationality
Ballerina
Villeneuve-La- Garenne
Girl with a Watering Can
Dancer with Bouquet
A Bar at the Folies-Bergér
By the Seashore
Cliff Walk at Pourville
A Sunday Afternoon on the
Island of the Grande Jatte
Boulevard Montmartre,
Morning, Gray Day
Water Lilies
ca. 1870s
1872
1876
1878
1882
1883
1882
Edgar Degas
Alfred Sisley
Pierre Auguste Renoir
Edgar Degas
Édouard Manet
Pierre Auguste Renoir
Claude Monet
French
English, French
French
French
French
French
French
1884-1886
Georges Seurat
French
1897
1916
Camille Pissarro
Claude Monet
French
French
After going through this portfolio, students will:
•
•
•
•
Be able to identify important and influential works of the Impressionist movement,
Be familiar with their contribution of these presented Impressionist artists,
Understand the media of these selected works and artists,
Connect the vocabulary associated with the fundamentals of art with these artists.
Inside this portfolio:
•
•
•
•
•
Information about presented print original,
Biographical information on the artist and his/her “movement” within art
Definitions of vocabulary words (an extended glossary is included in the back pages)
Discussion Questions
Activities, Follow-up Information, Extended List of Resources
--Copyright, 2009, Art Outreach, an extension of the Education Department and School of Art, Springfield Art Association of Edwards Place.
Springfield Art Association of Edwards Place, is an Illinois non­profit organization. For information on this and other Art Outreach Portfolios, contact the SAA at www.springfieldart.org.
Portfolio 8, Impressionism
Introduction to the Portfolio
What is art? What are the fundamentals of art? How do we know how to express how we feel, what
we think, or what we find in a painting—what is considered an appropriate vocabulary when
describing, discussing, and asking questions about the principles and subject matter in art?
These are all little questions with big, big (even endless) answers. Don’t be scared, though—that’s a
good, even great, thing!
Within this portfolio are prints and artists of a specific time periods, or movements, in art history
called “Impressionism.” Just as a day is broken up into different segments (morning, afternoon, and
evening) with its individual highlights (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), so is the history of art with its
movements, artists, and famous painting & sculpture.
On the following pages, you’ll find introductory information about the provided print title, artist and
associated movement & nationalist; the time period of the individual piece, as well as the artist’s
lifetime; and finally, the size/dimensions, media, and location (museum, cathedral wall, etc.) of the
original work. It is interesting to provide the context of the original work with the reproduction print
to the classroom, especially when the work of art – like Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the
Island of La Grande Jatte – is one of the mainstays in the Art Institute of Chicago’s permanent
collections, only a couple hours away. Or to know that Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel is more than
12,000 square feet of more than 300 figures more than 68 feet above the viewer’s head?! Needless to
say, it really humbles the average eighteen-by-twenty-four-inch poster.
Of course, more information about each highlighted work and artist is given than probably
necessary, and the Springfield Art Association encourages the Portfolio Presenter (your official title!)
to utilize his or her discretion on content in the context of time allotment and primarily, the age of
your audience, when discussing the work’s narrative and facilitating questions. Specialized
information about an individual work of art, artist, or “associated movement” (i.e. Water Lilies,
Claude Monet, Impressionism) can be easily accessed through the Michael Victor II Art Library at
the Springfield Art Association.
On behalf of the entire Springfield Art Association and its Art Outreach Program, we appreciate your
continued participation. The content of these, and all of our beautiful and educational portfolios,
could not enter the school doors without the incredible efforts of our Coordinators & Volunteers…I
mean, Portfolio Presenters. Thank you!
Portfolio 8, Impressionism
Introduction to Impressionism
There are many different definitions that match the word “impression”. When talking about an
“Impression” in the art world it is important to understand that an impression refers to a specific
moment. The title actually came from a critic seeing a Monet painting that looked ‘unfinished,’ that it
merely looked like the impression of a finished work, rather than having it complete; from then on, a
group of artists that were considered untraditional in their style and technique grouped together and
called themselves the “Impressionists.”
These artists joined forces when Paris, France, was booming with industrial and architectural change.
Transportation was becoming more common and more modern with train stations in the middle of
urban areas, factories were mass-producing everyday items, and the hustle and bustle of the city was
more apparent than ever before. With the city of Paris and its people alive with new energy, the art
scene also became rejuvenated with new artistic movements. The leisure activities of Parisians
became the main theme of Impressionists. From walking the streets during a rainy day or spending
the weekend at the beach, the Impressionists were interested in presenting the audience and their
viewer with common, everyday occurrences, rather than the staged historical representation of the
French Academy painters. The French Academy also had an exhibition space, called the Salon—it
was like the “American Idol” of French artists; to hang a painting or work of art in a Salon exhibition
meant that you had “made it,” and achieved success as a working artist. It also worked in reverse; to
have a painted rejected from the Salon meant you had not met certain, specific credentials considered
both tradition and important to the Salon jurors.
That is, until 1874, when several of the Impressionist artists had their work rejected for an exhibition.
Instead of believing their work to be unimportant, however, they decided to unify and displayed their
work in an “un-Salon” show the same year. A friend of the group, photographer Nadar, offered his
studio space to exhibit the Impressionist show of 1874. There were eight throughout the
Impressionist movement; only Camille Pissarro, considered the ‘father of Impressionism’ exhibited at
all eight shows.
Impressionism was everything the Academy despised. The Academy
wanted historic battles, Romanesque principles, and mathematic
proportion (think of a “revisited Renaissance”) with proper
perspective and historical context. They wanted overarching
principles, figures, and scenes that symbolized the legacy of France
while representing its utmost familiarity with art and history.
Impressionists were considered an estranged and
unusual group because they didn’t paint in the studio, or use stylized
in-costume models like Jacques-Louis David (his Oath of the Horatii
seen on the left) or other Academic painters. Instead, Impressionists
painted things right in front of them. They hauled their canvases,
paints, and brushes out with them to the pastures, to the train
stations, and to their favorite cafés and camped out to better paint
from life; they wanted to study the effect of light on shadow,
buildings, people’s faces, and even haystacks! They considered that
important to document on canvas, compared to staged battle scenes.
To paint outside like the Impressionists was called en plein air, or “in
the open.” Although artists certainly paint en plein air today, it was
originally begun by the Impressionists.
Above: Monet’s Impression: Sunrise,
an example of Impressionism.
Below: Jacques-Louis David’s
Oath of the Horatii, from the
Academy. Portfolio 8, Impressionism
Things to Consider when Discussing Impressionism
• Impressionist painting is not staged or rehearsed like the traditional Academic paintings of
the time; instead, Impressionists wanted to capture a moment in time, the effect of light on
an individual object or scene, to mark their ‘impression,’ or feel of the day’s weather, those
walking on the park, or the waves in the ocean. The figures in the composition were never
posed or staged, but merely present in a particular scene.
• Impressionists, especially Claude Monet (evident in his Water Lily and Haystack series),
often painted the same object over and over again, but each time, during a different time
of day or season. Monet painted more than 500 paintings of his gardens at Giverny,
because he was interested in the way each season impacted the lighting and effect of each
scene.
• Colors are bright, vivid and applied in large, evident brushstrokes. Paints were mixed on
the canvas in a way that would create an optical illusion; for example, different shades of
yellow would be placed next to different shades of blue to get a greenish hue in the middle.
This is especially prominent in Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the
Grande Jatte, as well as his other works that create images out of little dots – a technique
called pointillism. (Post-Impressionists, like Vincent van Gogh, really manipulate the
Impressionists wide brushstrokes and becomes even more conspicuous with his use of
color and application)
• These are not the only Impressionists! This portfolio certainly concentrates around the
painting style and influential contributions of Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste
Renoir, and Edouard Manet, as well as Alfred Sisley and Camille Pissarro, but more
remain! Artists of the French Impressionist movement also include: Gustave Caillebotte,
Mary Cassatt (born in America), Berthe Morisot, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Eugéne
Boudin, Armand Guillaumin, and Frédéric Bazille. It is so hard to encapsulate an entire
period of art history in a short presentation, but please do not hesitate to bring in
information about these artists when discussing Impressionism as a movement!
Portfolio 8, Impressionism
I. Print Number One
1. Information about the Print
Title: Ballerina
Artist: Edgar Degas (19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917)
Year: ca. 1870s
Media: oil on canvas
Located Now: Walter Annenberg Collection (private collection)
2. Information about the Artist
Edgar Degas (1834-1917) is one of the most recognizable painters of the Impressionist
movement, but he was also a sculptor and printmaker. Born in Paris, Degas grew up wanting
to be part of the Academic painters, working on historical subjects and battle scenes.
He was associated with the Impressionist movement, but he preferred studying the realistic,
interior spaces – particularly the ballet, its figures and classes – compared to the ‘en plein air’
approach of his contemporaries. He was fascinated with the costume of dance and loved
drawing the silhouettes of dancers. The movement of ballerinas fascinated Degas, evident
from the hurried brushstrokes and bright colors of his paintings and pastels.
As mentioned earlier, Degas was a painter, and often painted large oil paintings on canvas.
However, many of his sketches and studies were done quickly on paper with pastels. Oil
paints take a long time to dry (much longer than today’s poster/tempera paints, or even
acrylics), but chalk, crayon-like pastels would be easy to carry around and draw with on-site.
3. Image Tags
• Cropping of Images
• Ballet, ballerinas
• Oil painting vs. pastels
4. Questions to Ask and Consider
• What makes this work of art Impressionist?
- It’s painted to convey a particular moment in time, a fleeting moment.
• Do you think this work of art is finished? What else would color in if you were Degas?
- Degas used rich, saturated colors to look more realistic than bright, neon colors.
• What is this girl doing? Why would Degas capture this moment?
• Can you tell where the light is coming from?
- Since the shadow falls diagonally to the right of the work, the sunlight is coming from the left-hand side,
highlighting the dancer. You can reinforce light and shadow by showing the bright white of her tutu,
compared to the darker layers behind her; the sunlight is shining on the front half of her.
• What does it mean to have a work be part of a “private collection”?
- It means that it cannot be seen in a public museum, like the Art Institute of Chicago, as it is owned by
a ‘private’ collector.
Portfolio 8, Impressionism
II. Print Number 2
1. Information about the Print
Title: Villeneuve-la-Garenne (Village on the Seine)
Artist: Alfred Sisley (30 Oct. 1839 – 29 Jan. 1899)
Year: 1872
Media: oil on canvas
Size: 59 x 80.5 cm (2 x 2.6 ft)
Located Now: The State Hermitage Museum, St.
Petersburg, Russia
2. Information about the Artist and Original Work
Though many Impressionists were French, Alfred Sisley was English. Though born in Paris,
he parents were from London (he even moved back as a teenager to attend school). Sisley
was not interested in figure painting the way Edgar Degas was with his ballerinas; instead, he
focused on the outdoors and painting “en plein air.” Though overshadowed by the
influential Claude Monet, Sisley is a thoroughly influential artist of the time, and his paintings
of the landscape are most consistent compared with other Impressionists’ work.
From the State Hermitage Museum website:
Impressionist painters turned repeatedly to the depiction of small provincial towns like Villeneuve-laGarenne. This canvas comes from the early period of Impressionism and still retains elements of traditional
compositions, with the centre of the landscape framed by trees, creating a stage-like effect. Yet this does not
deprive the painting of its naturalness: Sisley had a fine lyrical sense and had the rare gift of being able to
capture the modest charm and gentle beauty of nature. In this painting the "hero" is the vivid sunlight
illuminating the buildings, seen from the shade beneath the trees. Sisley successfully captured that feeling of
cool air, contrasting with the still heat of the opposite bank.
For more information, search “Alfred Sisley” at http://www.hermitagemuseum.org
3. Questions to Ask and Consider
• What is the perspective in this painting; where is Alfred Sisley standing?
• What is in the middle ground of this painting? What about the foreground? Background?
- Sisley divides his composition with different horizontal lines. The lowest line is the separation of the path
Sisley stands on, compared with the water line of the River Seine. The boat and the hill behind it are in
the middle ground. The houses are another set of horizontal parallel lines. It is interesting that,
throughout all these horizontal lines in the background, there are two strong vertical lines in the trees.
• What time of day is Alfred Sisley painting?
Portfolio 8, Impressionism
III. Print Number Three
1. Information about the Print
Title: Dancer with Bouquet, after the Dance
Artist: Edgar Degas (19 July 1834 – 27 Sept. 1917)
Year: 1878
Media: pastel on paper
Size: .72 x .775 m
Located Now: Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France
2. Information about the Artist
Edgar Degas (1834-1917) is one of the most recognizable painters of the Impressionist
movement, but he was also a sculptor and printmaker. Born in Paris, Degas grew up wanting
to be part of the Academic painters, working on historical subjects and battle scenes.
He was associated with the Impressionist movement, but he preferred studying the realistic,
interior spaces – particularly the ballet, its figures and classes – compared to the ‘en plein air’
approach of his contemporaries. He was fascinated with the costume of dance and loved
drawing the silhouettes of dancers. The movement of ballerinas fascinated Degas, evident
from the hurried brushstrokes and bright colors of his paintings and pastels.
As mentioned earlier, Degas was a painter, and often painted large oil paintings on canvas.
However, many of his sketches and studies were done quickly on paper with pastels. Oil
paints take a long time to dry (much longer than today’s poster/tempera paints, or even
acrylics), but chalk, crayon-like pastels would be easy to carry around and draw with on-site.
and reality in his painting.
3. Questions to Ask and Consider
• Where is Degas standing? What is going on in this scene?
- His perspective is from the audience’s point of view. The ballerina is curtseying in front of the
audience, and she has a bouquet of flowers—a traditional gesture & gift, respectively, of an ending
show/ballet.
• What do you think this woman is thinking, or feeling?
• Would you say this image is painted with warm or cool colors? Why?
• What is the impression, or feeling, Degas is communicating with this woman? The other
figures?
Portfolio 8, Impressionism
IV. Print Number Four
1. Information about the Print
Title: Dancer with Bouquet
Artist: Edgar Degas (1832-1883)
Year: 1882
Media: oil on canvas
Size: 37.8 in × 51.2 in
Located Now: Courtald Institute of Art, London,
England
2. Information about the Artist
Édouard Manet (1832-1883) was an influential Impressionist painter, and integral to the
artistic transition from Realism to Impressionism. Unlike Academic paintings, Manet's works
demonstrate a rejection of traditional shading and, as a result, they lack depth and appear
quite flat. He believed that brushstrokes and the colors on a palette are the artist's primary
reality, so his strokes were more structured than perhaps other Impressionists’. Claude
Monet’s works were directly influenced by Manet’s ability to look at painting and the artist
tools this way, but it is an important lesson to teach throughout this portfolio they are not
one and the same. Manet was born before Monet; to eliminate confusion, tell the class they
can remember by saying “A Before O in the alphabet, MAnet before MOnet in art”; the class will
be dazzled at your charm and brain phrases!
3. Information about the Original Work
Manet's well-known work, A Bar at the Folies-Bergére (1881-82), shows a woman figure behind
the bar of a busy nightclub. A huge shimmering mirror image now reflects the whole interior
of the nightclub, but deprives it of three-dimensional reality. Manet plays on our perceptions
of mirroring and reality in his painting.
4. Questions to Ask and Consider
• Why do you think Manet painted the barmaid confronting, or looking straight at, the
viewer? Do you think there are two women presented in the composition, or just one?
- There is just one woman presented in the painting, as it is her back as being reflected off the mirrored
wall.
• What do you think this woman is thinking, or feeling?
• Would you say this image is painted with warm or cool colors? Why?
• What is the impression, or feeling, Manet is communicating with this woman?
• Are we, the audience, in the painting at all?
- Yes, the gentleman in the top, right-hand corner is the audience member’s reflection. Sorry ladies…
Portfolio 8, Impressionism
V. Print Number 5
1. Information about the Print
Title: By the Seashore
Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir ( 1841-1919)
Year: 1883
Media: oil on canvas
Size: 36.25 x 28.5 inches
Located Now: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
H.O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O.
Havemeyer, 1929.
2. Information about the Artist and Original Work
Pierre-Auguste Renoir celebrated the leisurely moments of a Parisian’s day-to-day life; from
boat luncheons to park parties, Renoir tried to celebrate the comfortable and well-known
hobbies and interests of the people. One of those particular hobbies was visiting the
coastline or the beach in the summer. Though maybe strange to us today, nineteenth-century
women would wear their finest, heavy dresses to the beach! Can you imagine wearing a
winter coat to the beach? The weight of a full-skirt dress would be just as heavy as a parka,
sometimes more! Regardless, it was a “sign of the times,” and meant that one could afford
both fine travels and an expensive wardrobe.
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website:
“Like other artists who painted in an Impressionist style in the 1870s, Renoir eventually began to explore a
different manner of painting. A trip to Italy in 1881–82 brought prolonged exposure to Renaissance art and
led him to emphasize contours and modeling in his painting. He also began to abandon the notion that scenes
should be painted outdoors to capture nuances of light and atmosphere. "By the Seashore" is thought to have
been painted in the artist's studio, where Renoir's model, Aline Charigot—whom he married in 1890—
posed in a wicker chair. Although Renoir visited Guernsey the year this painting was made, the beach
depicted here is probably not in the Channel Islands but near Dieppe, on the Normandy coast.”
For more information, search By the Seashore at www.metmuseum.org.
3. Questions to Ask and Consider
• What is the weather like? If we were on the beach with her, would it be sunny? Windy?
How do you know?
- The texture of the brushstrokes suggests a little movement, but it’s not as strong of a wind as Monet’s
Parasol, for example, where the fabric is rushing around the figure.
• What is the focal point? What is in the middle ground and the background?
- Her face is the focal point, evident from the way she’s centered in the composition, and her confrontational
gaze towards the viewer.
- The green ocean would be in the middle ground, and the boats & small cliffs are in the background.
• How do we know she is right in front of us, while those boats are far away?
- Her face is relatively clear, while the boats and landscape behind her is fuzzy and not as clear,
communicating depth and perspective.
Portfolio 8, Impressionism
VI. Print Number 6
1. Information about the Print
Title: Cliff Walk at Pourville
Artist: Claude Monet (14 Nov. 1840 – 5 Dec.1926)
Year: 1882
Media: oil on canvas
Size: 27 x 37 inches
Located Now: The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago,
Illinois, part of the Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn
Memorial Collection (1933)
2. Information about the Artist and Original Work
Claude Monet is undoubtedly the Tiger Woods of the Impressionist movement. He is most
known for his series, or studies, of water lilies, haystacks, and gardens at his home in
Giverny, France. There are more than forty-four works by Claude Monet in the Art Institute
of Chicago’s permanent collection, including this painting Cliff Walk at Pourville.
This is an incredible painting to present Impressionism as a movement, the artist Claude
Monet as a contributor and strong component of that movement, but even the simple
fundamentals of art that you began the class with. There are many fundamentals with which
to discuss this painting:
• Line: the horizon line is straight, but the outline of the cliff is less structured, or
biomorphic
• Color, Shade: More than half of the painting is a variety of blues and greens; there is no
thick, black line like a coloring book to differentiate the separation of sky and sea, but the
blue ocean is a crisp, blue line against the hazy waves
• Texture is two-fold in this painting; one can discuss the texture of the paint itself, as
Monet applied paint to the canvas in thick, strong brushstrokes (compared to earlier
artists, like Leonardo da Vinci, where paint brush lines are almost invisible), and another is
the texture the paint creates: the view can tell they are on a grassy cliff because of the
texture Monet uses.
• Movement: Utilize the scenery in this painting to discuss movement. Ask if students have
been to a beach—is it windy, or at least, breezy from the waves? We can tell it is windy on
the day Monet painted for us because there are little whitecaps in the ocean, the sails on
the sailboats (the triangles in the background) are up, the fabric of the clothes the figures
are wearing are blowing in the wind, and the grasses are a variety of diagonal dashes.
3. Questions to Ask and Consider
• What is the weather like? If we were on the beach with her, would it be sunny? Windy?
How do you know?
• Why does the woman have an umbrella, or parasol?
- A focal point, but women would have carried parasols on sunny days to protect themselves from the sun.
• What is the focal point? What is in the middle ground and the background?
- This is an interesting question, because the shady side of the cliff strangely bisects, or cuts the painting
visually in half, so the audience follows the cliff line around to the figures, also a focal point with the
woman’s bright red parasol against the green grasses. There are several focal points emphasized here.
Portfolio 8, Impressionism
VII. Print Number 7
1. Information about the Print
Title: A Girl with a Watering Can
Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir (25 Feb. 1841–3 Dec. 1919)
Year: 1876
Media: oil on canvas
Size: 39.5 x 28.75 inches
Located Now: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, The
Chester Dale Collection
2. Information about the Artist and Original Work
From the National Gallery of Art website:
“This painting has long been a favorite of visitors to the National Gallery of Art -- and it seems that Renoir
painted it with exactly this hope, that it would please a large audience. The first impressionist exhibition, in
1874, had brought Renoir and his fellow artists more notoriety than business, and the auction he
optimistically organized for his own work the following year was a financial disaster. Unlike Cassatt, who
had family wealth, Renoir, the son of a tailor, was in a constant struggle for money in his early career. He
began to paint charming, light-filled scenes with women and children, like this one, in the hopes of increasing
sales. He probably thought that the pretty child in her fancy dress might also attract portrait commissions.
Although it was landscape that had provided the first, and most important, inspiration for impressionism,
Renoir's instinct always led him back to the figure. The deep blue of the dress, the bright red of the bow and
the girl's lips, and the cool greens of the lush garden behind her are all given a prismatic brilliance by Renoir's
brushwork. Rather than blend his colors, Renoir has applied them in individual touches that dissolve edges
and seem to shimmer with light. Impressionism sought to capture the effect of light on the senses,
communicating a visual signal with each stroke of the brush.” 3. Questions to Ask and Consider
• What is the first thing you notice about this painting?
- The girl’s red bow is an interesting moment in the painting because it falls in line with the red flowers in
the background with the rich green foliage behind her. This pairing of green and red would be considered
complimentary colors. It really makes the bow pop; we also look at other things that she has (the
title hints at it too)—her watering can is also green, another part of the complimentary color scheme.
• Do you see any pattern in this painting? What about repetition?
- Her lace has a pattern, detailing the edging of her dress and sleeves. There is repetition of curves; the curve
in the pathway, the curve of the tree line behind the grass. These curves really highlight the girl’s presence,
especially starting from the top, right hand corner and cascades down into the bright flowers in the lower
left hand corner.
Portfolio 8, Impressionism
VIII. Print Number 8
1. Information about the Print
Title: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
Artist: Georges-Pierre Seurat (2 Dec. 1859 – 29 March 1891)
Year: 1884-1886
Media: oil on canvas
Size: 81.7 in × 121.25 in (8 x 12 feet)
Located Now: The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.,
on permanent display in the Helen Birch Barlett Memorial Gallery
2. Information about the Artist
Georges Seurat (1859-1891) was the pioneer of developing pointillism, a painting technique in
which small distinct dots of color create the impression of a wide selection of other colors.
Like his contemporaries, Seurat was interested in the way color was seen (color theory) and
recognized as an optical illusion, in terms of lightness and shadow. Seurat also had a strong
scientific bent and pursued his interests through a study of light and later of color. Seurat’s
invented method of painting reduced the sharp outlines of objects, but rather to build form
out of color, shade, and texture. The desired colors are applied in dots of uniform size and
through their juxtaposition create the appearance of tints and shades. Although variations of
this composition can be seen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the painting in
this portfolio is located at the Art Institute of Chicago.
From the website of the Art Institute of Chicago: “Influenced by the Impressionists’ experimentation with color…Georges Seurat worked with innovative
techniques. On an enormous canvas, the artist depicted city dwellers gathered at a park on La Grande Jatte
(literally, "the big platter"), an island in the River Seine. All kinds of people stroll, lounge, sail, and fish in
the park. Using newly discovered optical and color theories, Seurat rendered his subject by placing tiny, precise
brush strokes of different colors close to one another so that they blend at a distance. Art critics subsequently
named this technique Divisionism, or Pointillism. The artist visited La Grande Jatte many times, making
drawings and more than 30 oil sketches to prepare for the final work. With his precise method and technique,
Seurat conceived of his painting as a reform of Impressionism. The precise contours, geometric shapes, and
measured proportions and distances in Seurat’s masterpiece (not to mention its monumental size) contrast
significantly with the small, spontaneous canvases of Impressionism.”
http://www.artic.edu/artaccess/AA_Impressionist/pages/IMP_7.shtml
3. Image Tags
• Pointillism (“tiny dots”)/Optical Illusion
• Contrast, Light & Shadow; Shades of Color
● The Art Institute of Chicago
4. Questions to Ask and Consider
• Do you see the border of the painting?
- It’s also painted in the Pointillist technique!
• What shadows and shapes do you see throughout the image?
- Point out the dark, saturated green in the foreground with the paler green grass in the background.
• Do these figures look realistic, or flat?
- Seurat’s pointillism gives each individual shape & figure realistic depth and perspective.
• Has anyone seen this painting before at the Art Institute of Chicago?
- It remains one of the most important mainstays in their permanent collection.
Portfolio 8, Impressionism
IX. Print Number 9
1. Information about the Print
Title: Boulevard Montmartre, Morning, Gray Day
Artist: Camille Pissarro (10 July 1830 – 13 Nov. 1903)
Year: 1897
Media: oil on canvas
Size: 73 x 92 cm (2.3 x 3 feet)
Located Now: Private Collection
2. Information about the Artist and Original Work
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) is considered an important nineteenth-century French painter
(often called the “Father of Impressionism”), but did you know he was actually born in the
Virgin Islands? Pissarro painted both rural and urban life. He developed and perfected the
technique behind Impressionism. Pissarro braved through extreme financial hardships in his
lifetime and only gained fame after his death.
Camille Pissarro, though a painter, was very familiar with other media, especially the camera
and photography, an increasingly-popular instrument. Notice how the people at the bottom
are cut in half compositionally, or cropped? Just as the camera could not catch an entire
scene, Pissarro experiments with cropping scenes in his painting. As an Impressionist,
Pissarro believed that photography was a powerful way to study reality and a useful aid in
their research of studying the world around them. He definitely supported the art of
photography but at this point in time the people would have appeared as specs in a
photograph. By painting the scene, Pissarro made the crowd full of human figures and a
busy street. Photography was such a new invention, that posing for a picture took hours, so
it was in fact easier to paint than take a picture during this time period.
3. Image Tags
• Perspective
• Transportation
4. Questions to Ask and Consider
• What season do you think Camille Pissarro is portraying?
- Discuss the color scheme evident here; it’s a gray day with a muted palette, but there are bright green dots
all lining the trees—have you seen little dots on the trees before? In the spring, right, when the leaves and
flowers are blooming? It’s probably springtime in Paris!
• What are the people driving around in? What sort of transportation was available to
Parisians in the 1890s?
- The subjects are driving, riding, or walking in between horse-drawn carriages. Cars were not available
until the 1900s, so horse-drawn cabs (like the ones sometimes seen around Springfield at night) would
have been the way to get around the city of Paris.
X. Print Number 10
Portfolio 8, Impressionism
1. Information about the Print
Title: Water Lilies
Artist: Claude Monet (14 Nov. 1840 – 5 Dec.1926)
Year: 1916
Media: oil on canvas
Size: (200.5 x 201 cm) 6.5 x 6.6 feet
Located Now: The National Museum of Western Art in
Tokyo, Japan, on display in the Matsukata Collection
2. Information about the Artist and Original Work
If Claude Monet attended “Impressionist High School,” he would be in the yearbook with
the superlative “Most Likely to Paint Water Lilies.” There are more than 250 oil paintings in
Claude Monet’s Water Lily series! His favorite subject during the last thirty years of his life
were undoubtedly his gardens at Giverny; Monet’s home and garden was full of wonderful,
lush colors that brightened up any viewers’ eyes. The gardens of the Impressionists often
appear in their art; their private gardens provided them with images of cultivated nature, not
to mention it was easy to set up shop and paint in their own backyard! As Monet grew older
(he painted until his death in 1926), he painted on large canvases so large he couldn’t bring
them outside anymore. His vision had been worsened due to cataracts, so his large canvases
allowed him to maximize his familiarity with light, color, and texture. Monet’s Water Lilies are
some of the most famous paintings in art history, selling for record prices at auction houses
today. Though many of them are in museums, like the Art Institute of Chicago and the
Musée D’Orsay in Paris, France, there are still Monet Water Lilies in private collections.
3. Image Tags
• Optical Illusion/Unblended paints
- Monet did not mix his colors on the palette; rather, he laid the paint side by side to create an optical
illusion of another color. He also used a variety of different colors to represent the different times of day. The
water lilies in this painting are pinks, yellows, and oranges – all warm colors on the color wheel. But we
know lily pads are green, so Monet is visually communicating the effect light has on subject matter.
4. Questions to Ask and Consider
• If you were Claude Monet painting in your backyard, what would you paint?
• Do you see any reflection, or movement in this painting?
- Point out the green streaks throughout the painting. They wouldn’t have been in the water, but rather they
are the low hanging branches of the willow trees that would have been all around the pond. They are a
reflection on the water’s surface, which is why they start and end sporadically throughout the composition.
• What time of day do you think Monet’s suggesting to the viewer?
- Discuss the use of warm colors on the lily pads & flowers, compared to the bright blue of the sky’s
reflection on the water. It is probably a nice, sunny day in Giverny.
Portfolio 8, Impressionism
Portfolio 8, Impressionism
Literary Resources of the Michael Victory II Art Library at the
Springfield Art Association
Impressionism
• Courthian, Pierre. Impressionism. New York: Harry N. Abrams Publishing, 1979. Library
Call Number: 759.054 IM7 c836 19179
• Belliolli, Andrea, editor. A Day in the Country: Impressionism and the French Landscape.
California: The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984.
Claude Monet
• Stuckey, Charles F., editor. Monet: A Retrospective. New York: Park Land Publishing, 1985.
Library Call Number: 759.4 MON
Camille Pissarro
• Pissarro, Joachim. Camille Pissarro. New York: Harry N. Abrams Publishing, 1993. Library
Call Number: 759.4 P676P
Pierre-August Renoir
• Pach, Walter. Renoir. New York: Harry N. Abrams Publishing, 1960. Library Call Number:
759.4 R295 P115
Édouard Manet
• Courthion, Pierre. Manet. New York: Harry N. Abrams Publishing, 1987. Library Call
Number: 759.4M313C
Berthe Morisot
• Stuckey, Charles F. and William P. Scott. Berthe Morisot: Impressionist. New York: Hudson
Hills Press, 1987. Library Call Number: 759.4 M8265
You may also request information about the following subjects presented in this portfolio, including:
• Water Lilies
• The Musée D’Orsay in Paris, France
• The Art Institute of Chicago
• Impressionism in America
Supplementary Activity Suggestions
1. Q-Tip Painting: Reinforces Pointillism and in particular, Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on
the Island of La Grande Jatte
2. Sketching outside, or “en plein air” like the Impressionist painters
Portfolio 8, Impressionism
IMPRESSIONIST PAINTING
MATERIALS:
*tempera paint, especially red,
yellow, blue and white *small
pieces of sponges *2 pieces of
9X12 white paper for each student
*pencil *scissors *shallow pans for
paint, one for each color*tape
OBJECTIVES: Art Production: Students will create an "easy" Impressionist
landscape painting using a sponge technique. On one piece of paper have students
draw a simple fence or bridge (turn paper horizontal first) to use as a stencil. Cut the
stencil. Tape it in place onto the second piece of paper (also positioned horizontal).
Next, have students lightly sketch in areas such as bushes, hills, a pond, clouds, etc..
To "paint", have the students dip a clean sponge in the paint and gently press the
sponge onto the desired area of the paper. Repeat this process using a different
sponge for each color. Press around the stencil careful not to lift the edge. Do not
use too much paint or press too hard. Use a straight up and down motion to avoid
smearing. Tempera paint mixes when wet, so plan color layers to avoid dark, drab
colors. Finally, carefully remove the stencil from the painting. Art History: Claude
Monet was a French artist who painted everyday scenes, often outside. Students
should know that Impressionist painters did not paint in detail. They were more
interested in the effect light had on a scene. Monet used dots and dashes of color to
give the "impression" of what he saw. Art Criticism: Students will study and
compare their designs and analyze the ways the elements and principles of design are
applied to their work. Aesthetics: The students can judge the aesthetic qualities of
the pieces. Polar pair words and vocabulary words: separate/blended,
Impressionism.
EXTENSION ACTIVITIES: Have students create an Impressionist style
painting use a brush to make dots and dashes of color like Monet.
CLASS TIME:
30 min
Portfolio 8, Impressionism
Portfolio 8, Impressionism