Impressionism Lecture Notes
Opening Slide: Caillebot
Question: “What is Impressionism? What do you think of?”
(beautiful, colorful pictures, landscapes, ballerinas)
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Impressionism is the most popular form of art today.
Scalpers selling tickets in Chicago for $100.
We see Impressionism as beautiful, calm, idyllic
Slide 2: “Impression: Sunrise – Claude Monet 1873
Slide 3: “Ballet Rehearsal on the Stage” - Edgar Degas 1874
Reality is that Impressionism is hard to define through simple shared techniques of a
group of artists. They actually had widely differing styles and techniques.
Monet: quickly painted, bright use of color, often painted outdoors
Degas: very studied- like a photograph, monochromatic, painted in the studio
Impressionism IS about technique, but even more it is about the purpose of art and the
relationship of the artist to their society. In fact it was a revolutionary art movement that
profoundly challenged social norms and expectations. It broke all of the rules of art, and
afterward, nothing would be the same. Although popular among the bohemian and art
crowd of its day, Impressionism was blasted by critics and the public as inept, crude and
downright offensive.
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“Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than this seascape!”
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"Try to make Monsieur Pissarro understand that trees are not violet; that the sky is
not the color of fresh butter...and that no sensible human being could countenance
such aberrations...try to explain to Monsieur Renoir that a woman’s torso is not a
mass of decomposing flesh with those purplish-green stains," wrote art critic
Albert Wolff.
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One critic warned that pregnant women should not go to see this exhibit as it may
cause her to miscarry.
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Name of the movement itself derived from an insult to Monet’s painting (a mere
impression or sketch)
Why is a form of painting that is so pleasurable to us so shocking to the society of its
day? To truly understand Impressionism as more than a bunch of pretty pictures we must
put it in context. And to do so we must address a number of cultural and political
realities of France in the 19th century.
Rebuilding of Paris
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Napolean III wanted to revamp Paris to make it a modern city. It was old and
crumbling. Packed with slums in the inner city. Small winding streets, filth and
poverty.
Undertook huge public works campaign to open it up. Parks & boulevards. Went
from 1 to 100 boulevards during this renovation. Equivelant of 1 trillion dollars.
Whole neighborhoods were demolished displacing hundreds of thousands of
people, sometimes several times in one year. Also convenient because it was the
slums that were the origins of uprisings and revolutions.
The Paris that we know and love is in fact a very modern city.
This created a dynamism and ephemerality in Paris. Things were constantly
changing. The sense of progress and vitality was pervasive.
Also mixed up the social classes by breaking up the slum districts, and the
booming economy helped to create an upwardly mobile middle-class with
expendable income. This will be central to Impressionism.
Slide 4 – “Death of Socrates” – Jacque-Louis David 1787
Paris is the capital of the art world – people judged art perhaps like we discuss sports
teams. Every year the SALON was held to display thousands of pieces of art that would
be judged by members of the Art Academy. People thronged from all over Europe to the
Salon to submit, view and judge art.
Address THREE kinds of art that set the backdrop for the blossoming of Imp.
1. Neo-classical – David This is the painting that is supported by the academy and that
filled the Salon shows.
 Studied and planned – clean with no errors – no visible brush strokes
 Academic and historical
 To understand the viewer had to be classically educated. NOT for the lower
classes
 Painting as learning
Slide 5: “Liberty Leading the People” – Eugene Delacroix 1830
2. Romanticism - Eugene Delacroix
 Closer to current times, but still metaphorical and idealized
 Does not require academic education to understand subject matter
 Passion
 Swirling unstructured movement
 Violence, noise death and emotion
 Exotic and emotional – not based upon learning
 Painter’s hand is visible – you can see the brushstrokes
Although controversial at first is accepted in the Salon. These two styles are the accepted
norm.
3. Realism
The next artistic movement is Realism, which set itself up in opposition to the idealism of
both of the previous schools of thought. Gustave Courbet is the primary spokesman for
this movement and a central figure in influencing the Impressionists.
Slide 6: “The Stone Breakers” – Gustave Courbet 1850
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About common laborers, but there is nothing idealized about them. They are not
symbolic of anything. Not historical, religious, allegorical or heroic.
Huge painting, almost life size. Displayed in the Salon of 1850, and reviled by
critics as “raising a cult of ugliness”.
The idea that the subject of art could be everyday life of common people was
revolutionary and many people didn’t know what to do with it.
It also highlighted class distinctions and the relationship between the poor and the
wealthy. One man is too young and the other too old for this kind of work.
Emphasizes the exhaustion of the working class, and yet gives them dignity.
They are working to build roads that the middle-class and upper class will ride
upon.
"irony directed against our industrialized civilization ... which is incapable of
freeing man from the heaviest, most difficult, most unpleasant tasks, the eternal
lot of the poor." Proudhon
Another quality of the painting is its texture, which had a huge influence on the
Impressionists. The paint is visible and patchy, not smooth and sleek like salon
art. It creates a sensuality about the material being used and supports the idea that
we should be dealing with what is real – including the paint itself.
Slide 7: “The Painter's Studio” - Gustave Courbet 1855
 In 1855 this painting was rejected by the Salon, so Courbet decided to hold his
own show in a tent outside of the Universal Exposition and called it the “Realist
Pavillion.” This was its centerpiece. It drew large crowds and was quite popular,
particularly to up and coming artists.
 Painting “A real allegory” reflects the role of the painter in modern life. Figure in
center is Courbet painting the landscape around the area where he grew up.
“paint the truth, paint your own time, paint from your own point of view.”
 To the left is the subject of art
 Age from birth to death spans the human life.
 All classes of people
 Should address political issues of the day. Main figure on left is a poacher (thief)
and it is actually Napolean III who Courbet thought stole the country when he
overthrew the republic to become emporer. This is a way of addressing political
realities and commenting on them without overtly criticizing public figures.
 People on right are his audience; artists, upper and middle class supporters of art.
 To far right is figure of writer Charles Baudelaire.
Slide 8: “Portrait of Charles Baudelaire” – Gustave Courbet 1848
Was to establish the philosophical position of the painter of modern life. It was this that
was to be adopted by the artist Manet and later the rest of the Impressionists.
Very talented writer, poet critic. Wrote his first criticism of art at seventeen. Best known
for his work Flowers of Evil. In painting, this is a man who aschews wealth and
immerses himself in books and literature and learning.
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Role of the artist is not archaeologist dredging up past but to make the present
permanent.
To train as an artist is to train your sensibilities and observation – Not through
learning BUT THROUGH OBSERVING!
Flaneur – separate from but part of the crowd. Observant to what goes on around
him. Wander the city without intention looking for sensations to formulate into
art.
City is where the modern painter must paint – the CITY AS THE SUBJECT.
The Crowd – the mass of humanity where the artist draws inspiration.
Ephemeral and changing.
From The Painter of Modern Life 1863
“The crowd is his domain, just as the air is the bird's, and water that of the fish. His
passion and his profession is to merge with the crowd. For the perfect idler, for the
passionate ob-server it becomes an immense source of enjoyment to establish his
dwelling in the throng, in the ebb and flow, the bustle, the fleeting and the infinite. To be
away from home and yet to feel at home anywhere; to see the world, to be at the very
centre of the world, and yet to be unseen of the world, .... The observer is a prince
enjoying his incognito wherever he goes. The lover of life makes the whole world into his
family … Thus the lover of universal life moves into the crowd as though into an
enormous reservoir of electricity. He, the lover of life, may also be compared to a mirror
as vast as this crowd: to a kaleidoscope endowed with consciousness, which with every
one of its movements presents a pattern of life, in all its multiplicity, and the flowing
grace of all the elements that go to compose life.”
Slide 9: “Edouard Manet” – Henri Fantin-Latour 1867
It was Manet who was to become the “painter of modern life,” that Baudelaire spoke of,
although unfortunately it did not occur until after B’s death.
We see Manet as flaneur. – walking stick, gloves, top hat – about to engage in a journey
about the city. Sharp eyes observing.
Slide 10: “Music in the Tuileries” – Edouard Manet 1862
 Often considered the first “modern” painting.
 Eye wanders with no focus – this is “the crowd”
 There is no traditional structure to lead the eye, just as in life
 This is the bourgeois class enjoying the social life of the city in a prominent
public park
 Manet is the flaneur on the edge of the painting – half in and half out of the scene
 Baudelaire is also represented
 If the title is “Music…” where are the musicians? We are. This places the viewer
inside the action of the scene. We are a part of this event. An idea that is
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prevalent in Manet’s work as well as the Impressionists. (VIEWER INVOLVED
IN THE PAINTING)
What Manet was also interested in was COLOR. If stylistically Courbet
introduced the Impressionists to texture, Manet introduced them to COLOR.
Manet believed that the point of art was that of aesthetic creation – colors relating
to colors. Line is rational – of the mind. Color is of the senses and associated
with direct experience of the world.
Slide 11: “Luncheon on the Grass” – Edouard Manet 1863
 Refused by the Salon in 1863- the most strict panel of judges ever. Rejected
thousands of paintings.
 Napolean III created “Salon of Refused Art” to address the outrage and curiosity.
This was the painting that gained the most attention – both positive and negative.
It shocked the public and critics.
 Once again, a scene from contemporary life – bohemian students having a picnic
in a very recognizable public park. Woman has just finished bathing and sits
naked (not nude) with the young men. Nudes are ok, because they are
representative of something else – metaphors. Like “The Stone Breakers” – this
is a naked woman.
 This most likely a prostitute – addressing a common reality of the day. Bathing in
public discourse was associated with prostitution. Original title was “The Bath.”
Although common, it was not to be publicly addressed. We will see much more
of this with other Manet paintings as well as with Degas.
 We are once again involved in this scene. We are also in this park and the young
woman is looking at us casually as we wander by. We are the flaneurs of modern
life.
 Raises questions and provokes – it does not take a common idea and refocus it to
make a statement (Classicism)
Slide 12: “Olympia” – Edouard Manet 1863
 Takes the ideas of Picnic even further. Painted in 1863, but didn’t show until
1865 because of concern over reaction – good call! This was SHOCKING!!!
Guards had to be placed by the painting to prevent people from attacking it.
 Based on Titian painting of Venus but radically transforms the result.
 Who is this woman and what is going on? Prostitute being presented gift from a
customer – US! We are complicit in this interaction – buying of a woman’s body.
 Olympia was a famous courtesan – in this case compared to a Goddess (of love).
 In the original is a dog=fidelity, here we have a cat=the opposite.
 She is clothed in a “slave” bracelet and a ribbon around the neck – (collar?)
 Once again, not nude, NAKED. And there is no shame. She looks us directly in
the eye with calm confidence and poise. This is a woman that is making no
excuses or apologies.
 This cemented Manet’s fame. His confrontation with present day realities, and
the complex ways in which he forces the viewer to deal with them, challenges
what has come before and inspires the up and coming artist that will become the
Impressionists.
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By 1865 Manet is so famous/infamous that any new artist must confront what to
do with Manet’s legacy.
Slide 13: “Studio at Batignolles” – Henri Fantin-Latour 1870
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Manet had become THE painter of France. He was a massive celebrity akin to
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Painters and writers were drawn to him. Here we have number of famous friends
and associates of Manet – several of which would become Impressionists.
Renoir – in the picture frame
Bazille – tall man second from right – very promising, but killed in FrancoPrussian war
Monet – far right.
Manet never showed with the Impressionists, but he was friends with them, and
inspired them. By the late 1870s, Manet would begin to learn from them.
Slide 14: “Impression: Sunrise” – Claude Monet 1873
 Painting Exhibited at first Impressionist exhibition of 1874. In the mode of
Courbet and Manet – created own exhibit to challenge the Salon.
 Gives name to the movement
 PHOTOGRAPHY – Imp. is influenced by the development of photography as
well. Invented in 1830 and growing ever popular. It leads artists to think in new
ways about how we really see reality. It also causes artists to think about what the
role of the artist should be. If the camera can capture reality so effectively, should
this be the role of the artist? For Monet saw painting as a way to study reality –
but reality perceived as glimpses of color, patches and form. Monet sees art also
going beyond “reality” and intends it to give an impression – a subjective
response to reality. He offers an intensified world shaped by the artist’s
perception.
 Impression is a sketch – rough draft, but it can also be seen in terms of
impressions that are made upon one’s senses. This is part of what Monet is
getting at.
 What is the scene? What does it show?
 Boaters – leisure life
 Factories and ships in background. This is progress and industry.
 About color following Manet – looks painted. No attempt to hide technique –
seems crude.
Slide 15: “The Beach at St. Adresse” – Claude Monet 1867
 Painted on the spot. “En Plean air”. Earlier painters went outdoors to sketch and
then returned to their studios. The Impressionists who painted out of doors
actually painted on the canvas on the spot. No sketches or drafts. The final
painting was done out of the studio.
 Subject matter is one of leisure. These are upper-middle class people enjoying the
beaches during the summer. Vacation. People on the move. Trains allow people
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to get out of the city and within 15 minutes one can be in nature. This is an aspect
of modern urban life. New vacation house built on hill (left)
Monet was raised in UM class family. Spent much time in this area – not raised
in the city.
Blue boat is a converted fishing boat. Economy is changing and traditional ways
of life are in transition.
Slide 16: “The Terrace at St. Adresse” – Claude Monet 1867
 Shows the idea together. This is same area – Monet family place.
 Domestic space and leisurely, but one that is associated with the industry and
progress that is the engine that allows for this to happen. Ships of commerce
moving between France and Britain.
 French flag – progress and growth of France.
 Paintings are about the interaction of people with the location. Place as an
expression of life.
Slide 17: Rouan Cathedral series – Claude Monet 1892
 Later Monet that most people know.
 Focus on observation – attention to subtle details
 Ephemeral – passing of time. Capture a series of moments.
 Also allowed for large numbers of paintings to be produced and sold. Monet is
quite a big name at this point. (1900 – paintings that sold for 50 franks 25 years
earlier, sell for 50,000) Monet has become a self-promoted – self-made
millionaire. Superstar of the Parisian art world. It is one of the first instances of
this kind of self promotion.
Slide 18: Rouan Cathedral series – Claude Monet 1892
Slide 19: Rouan Cathedral series – Claude Monet 1892
Slide 20: “Woman of Algiers” – Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1870
 Renoir – supposed to be the successor to Manet
 Revered Delacroix & we see the influence on this painting. Wanted to outDelacroix Delacroix
 Exotic scene that mimics a Delacroix painting of a harem girl.
 Despite the scene, this is not problematic like Manet’s “Olympia.” She is sensual,
seductive and inviting. We don’t have a problem looking at her, and it doesn’t
raise any problematic issues for us. We are to revel in the lushness of this
experience. And appreciate this woman as a visual object.
 This is art not as “high art” (lofty goals). This is utilitarian painting.
 This is an idea that will stay with Renoir for his whole career.
 Renoir, unlike Monet was born and raised poor. He lived in the slums that were
demolished to build what is now the extension of the Louvre. This may have
something to do with why he revels in this bourgeois life and does not see it as
problematic.
 Renoir is a painter of people and social life, different from Monet.
Slide 21: “The Ball at Moulin de la Galette” – Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1876
 One of Renoir’s most famous paintings.
 Social setting at a night club.
 What class of people? How do you know? - Men are middle/upper-middle class.
Women, lower. Respectable women would not be seen in a place like this.
Slumming it!
 About harmony and order – an urban paradise. No problems here.
 Not painted en plein air – painted in studio. Unlike Monet in this regard – a much
more studied painter. Eventually returns to Salon to make name for himself –
much to the disgust of Degas.
Slide 22: “La Loge” – Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1874
 Theater Box
 Woman is the subject of this painting. We see the beauty and lushness of this
woman, the radiance of her skin.
 Were are we? Not in front, we would be in mid-air. We are across the theater
looking at her through binoculars.
 Man also looking, but elsewhere at another conquest? Obviously not at the stage.
He possesses this and so he looks for more.
 We play a role in this voyeurism. She is looking right at us and does not seem to
be troubled by our gaze. In this world of Renoir, this is normal and acceptable.
Very reactionary in his views toward women.
 “I can’t see myself getting into bed with a lawyer… I like women best when they
don’t know how to read, and wipe their baby’s behind themselves.” - Renoir
Slide 23: “The Bar at the Folies Bergere” – Edouard Manet 1882
 In contrast with Renoir – a combination of “Ball” and “Box”
 What is going on? Woman being propositioned. Waitresses were encouraged to
flirt and many engaged in various kinds of prostitution.
 We are the man, but how does the woman feel about our gaze?
 Issue of the male observer of the female body is a good lead-in to the issues
addressed by Degas.
Slide 24: “Ballet Rehearsal on the Stage” - Edgar Degas 1874
 What is occurring? Ballet practice. We see backstage and the artifice is revealed.
 Degas is revealing the difference between appearance and reality. – ease of
appearance w/difficulty of work – civility of dance/vulgar behavior backstage –
elegance of dancers/low class status – façade of set/layers of backdrop.
 Once again these girls are being watched, evaluated and judged. – Man in chair
 Most ballet dancers were lower class and poor. This was a way to make contacts
and try to marry up. Wealthy men would come backstage to watch practice and
girls dressing. Make propositions. – Degas was one of these – Wealthy and raised
in upper-class family.
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Many of these girls are actually ugly. This reflects the scientific naturalism that
Degas, and society was very interested in.
Slide 25: “The Little Fourteen Year Old Dancer” - Edgar Degas 1881
 Not the beautiful dancer that we often think. She was ugly and recognized as
such by viewers. “blossoming street urchin,” “pug nosed, vicious face,” “why is
her forehead as are her lips so profoundly marked by vice?”
 Displays Degas’ view of these women and his attempt to understand criminality
and baseness within human beings.
 Sculpture itself was shocking because it was made of wax, and clothed with actual
clothing and hair. It was too real for most people, and was an attempt to do with
sculpture what the Imps were doing with painting. Things as they are but
mediated through the perceptions of the artist.
Slide 26: “The Tub” - Edgar Degas 1886
 Takes study of prostitutes further, painting them bathing.
 This was done for the benefit of the customer to show that the women were clean
and safe from diseases. (obviously did not work)
 We are once again the customer watching her.
Slide 27: “Tea” – Mary Cassatt 1880
 So far I have talked about male painters and their role as flaneur. There were
female painters in the Impressionist movement as well, and they were also
painting modern life, but from a very different perspective. They are not flaneurs,
which is a male activity. They function in the domestic sphere.
 Shows a detachment as prominent as Degas or Manet
 Contemporary life without the need for noble subjects and without intervention of
the artist.
 Cassatt is able to “lift the bell jar off of upper class women and examine its ways
with an acuteness and sympathy that few men could attain.”
 Relationship among the women that is the subject, defined by social convention.
 Woman with hat is visitor, the other the host. This is a silent moment in a
conversation.
Slide 28: “Interior” – Berthe Morisot 1872
Woman with hat is visitor, the other two belong to the house. Mother and daughter?
There is a distance and separation between the pair and the visitor. Visitor absorbed in
her own thoughts while the mother and daughter perhaps wait for another visitor, or look
out upon the city.
Slide 29: “Woman Bathing” - Mary Cassatt 1891
 In opposition to Degas – Cassatt’s version of a respectable woman bathing –
clothed and in private.
 Woman not as object, but rather viewing her daily experiences, with sympathy
and interest.
Slide 30: “Not Stupid Enough” - Barbara Kruger
That the function of art is to address the contemporary. To raise challenging issues and
ask difficult questions of the artist, society and the viewer. Barbara Kruger in using mass
media style raises questions of identity and self-definition and the way that media is
involved in the process of defining the self.
Slide 31: “Untitled” – Marc Rothko
That the perspective of the artist is as important as what they are depicting, sometimes
more so. Rothko, in completely abstract paintings, with no representation whatsoever,
addresses his inner emotional and spiritual state. The subjective view of the artist is the
subject of the art.
Slide 32: Guernica – Pablo Picasso 1937
That art does NOT have to be concerned with replicating reality as it appears to the eye.
That sometimes what is most meaningful to say is best communicated through forms that
suggest another level of reality rather than literal depiction. Picasso addresses the
bombing of a village and the horror of the massacre in ways that address more than could
be done with literal representation.
Slide 33: “The More the Better: Three channel video installation with 1,003
monitors and steel structure” - Nam June Paik 1988
The idea that the medium of art itself could be the subject of the art. That it wasn’t
simply an invisible method to communicate an idea, but that the medium itself IS the
content. Nam June Paik uses the very material of televisions and media to comment on
the pervasiveness of video in out culture and our attitudes toward it.
Slide 34: “Self Portrait” – Warhol 1966
Separated art from the patronage system and developed the relationship of
artist/critic/dealer. Art and artists could be marketed and sold, and even in the case of
Andy Warhol duplicated quickly for consumption. His studio called “The Factory.”
Slide 35: “Canal Street” - Robert Frank 1958
Democratization of art. Art could be produced by anyone, about anyone, and for anyone.
Frank portrays rough candid shots of common people, addressing and crossing economic,
social and racial boundary lines. The art of photography is much more democratic in that
almost anyone can participate in the production of it. Since they can be easily reproduced
they can be purchased cheaply, allowing access to art for almost anyone. The movement
by Impressionism away from academic art and toward an art that represents normal
people, made art accessible to the public at large.
Slide 36: “Fountain” - Marcel Duchamp 1917
That the function of art, rather than promoting an idea or providing an answer, can be to
confront, challenge and ask questions – without providing answers. This involves the
viewer rather than placing them as a passive observer. They are involved in creating
meaning and struggle to provide answers. Art is about the audience, as much as the
artist. Duchamp’s “Fountain” challenged every notion of what defines art and asks us to
consider the question – what is art? What is its purpose? Duchamp does not provide an
answer for us.