Impressionism

Impressionism

• Photography in the nineteenth century both challenged painters to be true to nature and encouraged them to exploit aspects of the painting medium, like color, that photography lacked. This divergence away from photographic realism appears in the work of a group of artists who from 1874 to 1886 exhibited together, independently of the Salon

• The leaders of the independent movement were Claude Monet, August Renoir, Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, and Mary Cassatt. They became known as Impressionists because a newspaper critic thought they were painting mere sketches or impressions. The Impressionists, however, considered their works finished.

Why Impressionism?

• Photography

• Tin paint tubes

• Salon

Edouard Manet

• Stayed mostly traditional.

• Slowly began to increase strokes of paint.

Olympia

Luncheon on the Grass

The Balcony

A Bar at the Folies-Bergeres

Monet

• Leading Impressionist.

• First started to paint for light and color.

• Broke outline constraints.

• Series of same landscape or subject.

• Water lilies

Impression, Sunrise

Wheatstacks (End of Summer)1890-91

Poplars along the River Epte,

Autumn1891

Auguste Renoir

• Scenes of popular river resorts and views of a bustling Paris.

• People and children.

• Quick brush strokes.

La PromenadeThe Walk

1870

Nini in the Garden

A Girl With a Watering

Can1876

The Canoeists' Luncheon

The Luncheon of the Boating Party

Mary Cassatt

• Children, doting on her nieces and nephews and the offspring of friends.

• One of the first important women artists.

• Studied Japanese wood printing.

• Interior scenes of small groups or single figures.

Portrait of a Little Girl1878

Oil on canvas

Self-portraitc. 1880

Watercolor on ivory wove paper

Young Girl at a Windowc. 1883

Oil on canvas

Children on the Beach

1884Oil on canvas

Mother and Child1889

Oil on canvas

The Letter1890-91

Drypoint and aquatint on cream laid

paper

La Toilettec. 1891

Oil on canvas

The Boating Party

1893-94 Oil on canvas

Girl Arranging Her Hair

Degas

• Pastels

• Dancers

• Cropped pictures

Carriage at the Races

The Orchestra

at the Opera House

Ballet Rehearsal on the Set

Dancer

The Absinthe Drinker

The Star

Dancers Practicing at the Bar

Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer. 1879/81. Bronze,

painted in part, tulle skirt, satin bow, wooden

stand. The Metropolitan Museum of

Art,

Ballet Class

The Tub

Pastel on paper