IMPRESSIONIST ART A French movement that began in the 1860s, when artists decided to actually paint in the open air & nature as they saw it, a direct study of nature. The artists can be described as “scientists examining visual phenomena”.

Characteristics of Impressionism Highly colored, light-filled scenes showed a range of everyday people marks of pure color placed side-by-side to achieve brilliance & luminosity use of color to create shadows bold & forceful brushstrokes to show the dynamism of nature

Edouard Manet (1832 - 83) The first of the Impressionists, although he wasn’t really one of them. His works mix the classical and the modern, & many of his works caused a scandal. (You’ll see why when you look at some of his works.)

Olympia (1863) - her straight-forward expression shocked viewers

La Dejeuner sur L’Herbe (aka Luncheon on the Grass -1863)

The Bar at the Folies-Bergere (1881-82) - depicts an everyday scene without any traditional devices.

Claude Monet (1840 - 1926) The best representation of an Impressionist artist. He liked to observe the effects of light on his subjects.

Impression, Sunrise (1870) - the work that gave the movement its name.

Rouen Cathedral, West Portal & Saint-Romain Tower, Dull Weather (1892)

Rouen Cathedral, the West Portal & Saint-Romain Tower, Full Sunlight, Harmony in Blue & Gold (1893) The same subject as the previous painting, this demonstrates Monet’s interest in multiple paint- ings of the same subject to observe the effects of light and time of day.

Waterlilies (1906) Monet moved to a farm in Giverny, outside of Paris. He used the surrounding landscape as subjects for his later works. He did several paintings of waterlilies during the early 20th century.

Edgar Degas (1834 - 1917) His favorite subjects are ballet dancers, the theater, racetracks & nudes (although he didn’t combine the two, painting nude ballet dancers, for example). He did not go out to nature to work, but instead used a studio. He later worked in sculpture.

Cotton Exchange in New Orleans (1873)

The Dance Class (c. 1873 - 75)

Horses Before the Stands (1866 - 68)

Woman Combing Her Hair (c. 1886) Pastels on Cardboard

Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841 - 1919) Early years of his career were spent doing portraits. He then shifted to doing paintings of regular people enjoying themselves - boating, lunching, strolling through Paris. In his later works, he focused on nudes, deciding he wanted to be a classicist. Toward the end of his life, he had to paint with brushes tied to his hands because of arthritis & then began to work in sculpture.

The Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881)

The Bathers (Les baigneuses - c. 1918)

Other Impressionists of Influence Camille Pissarro - the pure landscapist Gustave Caillebotte - scenes of Parsians Mary Cassatt - originally from Philadelphia & a friend of Degas, her works show mothers & their children Berthe Morisot - Manet’s sister-in-law, works of women in domestic settings

Pissarro’s The Rainbow (1877)

Caillebotte’s Paris Street, Rainy Day (1877)

Cassatt’s Mother & Child (1889)

Morisot’s Peasant Hanging Out the Washing (1881)

Auguste Rodin (1840 - 1917) Rodin isn’t really an impressionist sculptor, but he worked during that period, so he’s stuck there. He was controversial like the Impressionist painters, because his work was realistic in some cases, but very unrealistic in others.

The Thinker (1880)

The Kiss (1886)