1. Impressionism
A Break From Tradition

2. Setting the Stage: Paris, France c. 1870-1890 CE
The French Royal Academy of Art dominated the field of art.
This group preserved the Academic styles of art.
Academic Art:
Images of historical subjects, religious scenes, and portraits were valued
landscape and still life scenes were not!
Very precise, smooth, realistic looking art
No brushstrokes were evident, layers and layers of thin paint glazes
Desaturated colors
Very specific/rigid set of rules that artists must follow
Scenes looked very posed and stiff/ idealized human forms

3. Jacques-Louis David
The Death of Socrates
1787

4. continued Salon de Paris:
An annual juried art show held by the Royal Academy.
Artists received prizes, commissions, and prestige by being admitted to the show.
However…
Some artists began to get rejected year after year, because they were rule breakers and wanted FREEDOM to abandon the Academic tradition.

5. Edouard Manet
Olympia
1863

6. Edouard Manet
Olympia
1863
Vulgar, confrontational, direct unashamed gaze
Too realistic/not idealistic
Hand positioning-control
Courtesan symbols=orchid, necklace, shoe, bouquet, black cat
Unrefined technique
Titian
Venus of Urbino
1538

7. Critic:
“Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape.”
Claude Monet Impression: Sunrise
1872
The first “true” Impressionist painting; how the group got their name!

8. General Characteristics of Impressionism:
Short, thick, fast brushstrokes (capture the essence, not details)
As little color mixing as possible (vibrant colors). (To save time.)
Used Optical Color Mixing. Yellow next to blue = green.
Shadows=add complementary color, not black
Wet-into-Wet painting (no more thin layers of paint) SPEED!!!!
Interested in how natural light effects colors and atmospheric effects.
Close attention is paid to the reflection of colors from object to object.
Paintings were made en plein air (in open air, aka outside).
Made possible by development of metal paint tubes.

9. The Salon of the Refused in 1863
After being refused for several years from the Salon, Manet and other rejected artists participated in a separate show called:
The Salon of the Refused in 1863
Most people came to the show to laugh and ridicule the artwork, but they kept on painting.
The Impressionists had 8 independent art shows in the following years.
They set the wheel in motion for all of Modern Art that was yet to come!

10. Major Artists:
Frédéric Bazille
Gustave Caillebotte
Mary Cassatt
Paul Cézanne
Edgar Degas
Édouard Manet
Claude Monet
Berthe Morisot
Camille Pissarro
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec