Art History
Impressionism/Post Impressionism Study Guide
Impressionism: French Art Movement 1862-1886
Subjects: Varied widely among artists: Outdoors, Sea Sides, Dancers, Parisian Streets and cafes
Purpose: To portray immediate visual sensations of a scene
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First total artistic revolution since the Renaissance
Incorporated new theories of light and color
Radically departed from tradition
Rejected Renaissance perspective, balanced composition and chiaroscuro
Used opposite colors to depict shadows not black
Some Impressionist Artists:
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Edouard Maneto never called himself an Impressionist,
o more of a bridge between old and new
o borrowed from the old masters
o translated traditional painting into modern terms
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Claude Monet
o studied Constable and Turner
o obsessed with painting outside
o recorded changes in light
o painted the same scenes in all types of weather and seasons
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August Renoir
o celebrator of beauty, especially the female form
o more interested in people than landscapes
o portray people in happy scenes
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Edgar Degas
o not really a true Impressionist
o painted scenes of workers, dancers and horses
o admired Delacroix and Ingres
o off center compositions/cropping
o also was a sculptor
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Mary Cassatt
o American woman artist in a male dominated world
o instrumental in bringing Impressionists’ painting to the US
o painted intimate scenes of family life, mothers and children
o very influenced by Japanese wood block prints
Impressionist Paintings to Know for Test
• Manet:
o Picnic on the Grass
o Olympia
o Bar at Follies Bergere
• Monet:
o Impressionism-Sunrise
o The Highway Bridge
o Poplars (anyone)
o Saint Lazare Train Station
o Rouen Cathedral
o Waterlillies (anyone)
o Japanese Foot Bridge (anyone)
• Renoir:
o Girls at the Piano
o A Girl with the Watering Can
o The Swing
o Le Moulin de la Galette
o The Luncheon of the Boating Party
o The Bathers (anyone)
• Degas:
o The Bellelli Family
o Race Horses
o Carriage at the Races
o The Orchestra
o Woman Ironing (anyone)
o The Tub
o Dancers (anyone)
• Mary Cassatt:
o Little Girl in a Blue Chair
o Tea
o Woman Sewing in the Garden
o Young Mother Sewing
o La Toilette
o The Letter
o Woman Bathing
Post Impressionism: French Art Movement 1880-1905
Subjects: portraits, figures, landscapes, seascapes, still lifes, genre paintings
Purpose: to capture artist’s conception of reality
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Built on Impressionist ideas but went beyond them
Interested in more than just capturing a moment
Moved toward greater abstraction and expression
Interested in the artist’s vision of the world
Can be split into two distinct groups similar to Neoclassical vs. Romantic:
§ Formal more scientific painters
§ Seurat
§ Cezanne
§ Expressive more emotional painters
§ Lautrec
§ Gauguin
§ Van Gogh
Some Post Impressionist Artists:
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Georges Seurat
• Ultimate example of artist as scientist
• Very interested in color theory and mixing
• Pointillism
Paul Cezanne
• Did not draw his paintings first
• Used a very systemic approach
• Interested in planes of color
• Precursor to Cubism
• Worked alone in French countryside near his home
• Repeatedly painted the same subject
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
• Innovative framing, lighting and perspective
• Keen observer of Parisian nightlife
• Admired the work of Degas
• Great innovator in the graphic arts, ie posters
Paul Gauguin
• Interested in his own conception of reality
• Interested in primal emotions
• Pursued a primitive style in painting
• Lived and worked for many years in Tahiti
• Very influential to next generation of abstract painters
• One of the founders of Modern Art
Vincent van Gogh
• Began with social realism switched to sun drenched landscapes
• Very interested in Japanese Art
• Worked with short linear or swirling brushstrokes
• Alternated between depression and hyperactivity
• Very prolific painter, painted 900 paintings
• Pioneer of Expressionism
Post Impressionist Paintings to know for the Test
• Seurat:
o Bathers at Asnies
o Sunday on the Grande Jatte
o Models
o Invitation of the Sideshow
• Cezanne
o The Card Players (anyone)
o Still Life (anyone)
o Landscape (anyone)
o Bathers (anyone)
• Lautrec
o La Toilette
o At the Moulin Rouge (anyone)
o Moulin Rouge Poster
o La Goulue
o Marcelle Lender Dancing
• Gauguin
o Vision After the Sermon
o Yellow Christ
o Hail Mary
o Tahiti Paintings (anyone)
o Where do we come from?
• Van Gogh
o Potato Eaters
o House in Arles
o Postman Roulin
o Harvest Landscape
o All Night Café
o Sower
o Starry Night
o Dr. Gatchet
o Church at Auvers
o Wheatfield with Crows
Symbolism Study Guide
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The forerunner of surrealism it thrived in the late 19th century.
By the end of the 19th century, most artists were no longer interested in reproducing
nature’s sensations in the Impressionist manner.
In Symbolism, visual reality was rejected in favor of an exploration of feelings, fantasy,
dreams, imagination.
Color line and shape were used as symbols of personal emotions or responses to the
world.
Signs and symbols are used to convey ideas.
Key artists: Gustave Moreau
Odilon Redon
Henri Rousseau
Edvard Munch.
Related artists: Pierre Bonnard
Edouard Vuillard
Paula Moderson-Becker
Gustav Klimt.
Moreau: French Symbolist painter.
Moreau's main focus was the illustration of Christian and mythological figures.
Redon : Redon's work represents an exploration of his internal feelings and psyche.
He himself wanted to "place the visible at the service of the invisible"; thus, although
his work seems filled with strange being and grotesque dichotomies, his aim was to
represent pictorially the ghosts of his own mind.
Rousseau : French painter in the Naive or Primitive manner.
His best known paintings depict jungle scenes, even though he never left France or
saw a jungle.
Klimt : Austrian
Klimt's primary subject was the female body, and his works are marked by a frank
eroticism
Many of his paintings from this period utilized gold leaf
Munch: Norwegian Symbolist painter, printmaker
Important forerunner of Expressionistic art
While stylistically influenced by the Post Impressionists, Munch's subject matter is
symbolist in content, depicting a state of mind rather than an external reality.
Munch was interested in portraying not a random slice of reality, but situations
brimming with emotional content and expressive energy, carefully calculating his
compositions to create a tense atmosphere.
Bonnard : French
His often complex compositions, typically of sunlit interiors of rooms and gardens
populated with friends and family members, are both narrative and autobiographical.
His wife Marthe was an ever present subject over the course of several decades.
Vuillard : French
Living with his mother, a dressmaker, until the age of sixty, Vuillard was very familiar
with interior and domestic spaces. Much of his art reflected this influence, largely
decorative and often depicting very intricate patterns.
Paula Modersohn-Becker: German
One of the most important woman artist of her day and a forerunners of Expressionism.
Working in almost complete isolation, she developed a modern style.
She was searching for a great simplicity of form.
• Symbolism: Late 19th- Early 20th Century
• IDs for the Test
• Gustav Moreau
o The Appartition
o Le Sphinx
• Pierre Bonnard
o Dining Room overlooking the Garden
o The Terrace
o Bathroom Nudes (any)
• Edvard Munch
o Evening on Karl Johan
o The Scream
o The Dance of Life
• Gustav Klimt
o The Kiss
o Adele Bloch-Bauer
• Edouard Vuilllard
o Under the Lamp
o Dress withFoliage
• Odilon Redon
o The Cyclops
• Paula Modershon Becker
o Self Portrait with Amber Necklace
o Mother and Child Reclining Nude
• Henri Rousseau
o The Dream
o The Sleeping Gypsy
o The Snake Charmer