IMPRESSIONIST ART
Impressionism started in Paris, France.  In the mid-19th century the Salon was the only route for an artist to display his work and to achieve legitimate recognition.  The Salon system was challenged in the 1860s.  In 1863 60% of the art failed to be approved by the conservative tastes of the Salon judges.  That same year Napoleon III created a special Salon to display the rejected art, known as ‘Salon des Refues’ (The Salon of the Rejected). The Impressionist style flourished from the early 1860s to the late 1880s.

EDOUARD MANET  (1832-1883)
French painter.  One of the first 19th century artist to paint modern life.  Pivotal figure in the transition from Realism (representational art) to Impressionism.  It is largely recognized that ‘modern’ painting begins with Manet.

“Le Dejeuner Sur L’herbe”  (‘The Luncheon on the Grass’, 1863)
Oil on Canvas (Musee d’Orsay, Paris)
Manet’s ‘Luncheon’ painting outraged the conventional senses of many.  No mythical theme or allegorical message (standard for nude subjects).  Realist look - almost photograph-like quality.  Rejected by the Salon jury of 1863, Manet displayed Le Dejeuner Sur L’herbe in the Salon des Refuses (‘exhibition of rejects’) which sparked public notoriety and controversy.

“Olympia”  (1863)
Oil on Canvas (Musee d’Orsay, Paris)
The painting caused shock and astonishment because the woman looks at the viewer with a provocative gaze with the look and demeanor of a prostitute.  Manet was inspired by Titian’s Venus of Urbino.

“The Races at Longchamp” (1866)
Oil on Canvas (Art Institute of Chicago)

“A Bar at the Folies-Bergere”  (1882)
Oil on Canvas  (Courtauld Gallery, London)
Manet’s last major work.  It depicts a scene in the Folies Bergere nightclub in Paris.

CLAUDE MONET  (1840-1926)
Early founder of French Impressionist painting.  The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting “Impression, Sunrise”.  Monet began commissioned work at the age of 15.  Being an admirer of Turner, Manet was fascinated by the effects of light on his subjects.  To best capture these effects he painted outside, known as en plein air ('in the open air') landscape painting (also due to the new innovation of the tube of paint which permitted convenient outdoor painting).  Monet had an enthusiasm in painting un-idealized outdoor scenes as they appeared to his mind’s eye – to express one’s perceptions before nature. Monet effectively demonstrated that human beings do not see objects, but instead see light itself.

The Salon viewed Manet’s work to be unfinished or a ‘lack of finish’ (as compared with a Delacroix).  Critics were enraged at Manet’s lack of finish and consider him a lazy artist.  Manet’s paintings had visible brush strokes which reflected his lack of interest in detail.

“View at Rouelles, Le Havre” (1858)
Oil on Canvas  (Private collection)

“Impression, Sunrise”  (1872)
Oil on Canvas  (Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris)
The painting that gave rise to the name of the ‘Impressionist’ movement.

“Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare”  (1877)
Oil on Canvas  (The Art Institute of Chicago)

“Wheatstacks (End of Summer)”  (1891)
Oil on Canvas  (Art Institute of Chicago)
Wassily Kandinsky is influenced by Monet’s Wheatstacks.

“Water Lilies and the Japanese Bridge”  (1899)
Oil on Canvas  (Princeton University Art Museum)

"The Irises in Monet's Garden”  (1900)
Oil on Canvas  (Musee d’Orsay, Paris, France)

 
   
CAMILLE PISSARRO  (1830-1903)
Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter.  Known as the “dean of the Impressionist painters” due to his “wisdom and balance, kind and warmhearted personality”.  Cezanne said, “he was a father to me.  A man to consult and a little like the good Lord.”   Characteristics: colored shadows and sharp brush strokes. Interested in the subject of labor – people working.

“Boulevard des Italiens, Morning, Sunlight” (1897)
Oil on Canvas (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)

“Lower Norwood Under Snow”  (1870)
Oil on Canvas (National Gallery, London)

“The Hay Wagon”  (1879)
Oil on Canvas  (Private Collection)

PIERRE AUGUSTE RENOIR  (1841-1919)
French artist and innovator of the Impressionist style.  It has been said, “Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens (Baroque) to Watteau (Rococo).”  Characteristics: light-hearted scenes from real life; pretty children; adults at leisure; flowers and beautiful nudes. Renoir’s respect for tradition was well known. It was his love of the Louvre that prompted him to say "It is in the museum that one learns to paint". By contrast, his fellow impressionist Pissarro argued that the Louvre should be "burn to the ground". Pissarro’s provocative opinion was not untypical at the time. It was the time when various theories of art were widely discussed. Every day, at venues, such as the local cafe, artist and intellectuals gathered to discuss artistic issues. In general, Renoir avoided these discussions. To Renoir, the job of the artist was to produce art, not to theorize about it. He complained that many of his fellow painters stayed up so late talking about art theory that they were too tired to get up in the morning to paint.  

“The Swing”  (1876)
Oil on Canvas  (Musee d’Orsay, Paris)

“Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette”  (1876)
Oil on Canvas  (Musee d’Orsay, Paris)
One of Impressionism’s most celebrated masterpieces.  Painting depicts a typical Sunday afternoon at Moulin de la Galette in the district of Montmartre, Paris.  In the late 19th century, working-class Parisians would dress up and spend time there dancing, drinking and eating galettes into the evening.

“Luncheon of the Boating Party”  (1881)
Oil on Canvas  (The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.)
Actor Edward G. Robinson (1893-1973) is quoted as saying: “For over thirty years I made periodic visits to Renoir's ‘Luncheon of the Boating Party’ in a Washington museum, and stood before that magnificent masterpiece hour after hour, day after day, plotting ways to steal it."

“After the Bath”  (1888)
Oil on Canvas  (Private Collection)

“Two Girls in Black”  (1881)
Oil on Canvas  (Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow)

EDGAR DEGAS (1834-1917)
French artist.  Regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism.  Degas rejected the term and preferred the be called a realist.  Master at depicting movement, whether in dances or racecourse subjects.  His portraits are notable for their psychological complexity and for their portrayal of human isolation.

“Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers”  (1865)
Oil on Canvas  (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City)

“Racehorses at Longchamp”  (1871)
(Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

“L’Absinthe”  (1876)
Oil on Canvas  (Musee d’Orsay, Paris)
The woman in the painting is Ellen Andree, actress, and the man is Marcellin Desboutin, a painter, printmaker and bohemian.  They are at the Café del la Nouvell-Athenes in Paris.  At its first showing the picture was panned by critics who called it “ugly and disgusting”.  It was put into storage until an 1892 exhibit where it was booed off the easel.  Many English critics viewed it as a warning lesson against absinthe and the French in general.  Later, art critics revised their harsh position, assigning a moral lesson to the painting, claiming that “the picture is merely a work of art, and has nothing to do with drink or sociology.”

“The Star”  (1877)
Oil on Canvas  (Musee d’Orsay, Paris)

“The Rehearsal”  (1877)
Oil on Canvas  (Private Collection)

“The Tub”  (1886)
Oil on Canvas  (Musee d’Orsay, Paris)

MARY CASSATT  (1844-1926)
American painter and printmaker. Cassatt lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists. Cassatt often created images of the social and private lives of women, with particular emphasis on the intimate bonds between mothers and children.

"Summertime"  (1894)
Oil on Canvas  (Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago)

 
EARLY MODERN ART  (Post Impressionism)
Modern art begins with the heritage of painters like Georges Seurat, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Georges Seurat.

GEORGES SEURAT  (1859-1891)
Early French Post-Impressionist artist. Created “Pointalism” or “Divisionism” (painting small dots of un-mixed color).  Seen from a distance the points blend into a new color.  Very laborious process, unlike the ‘spontaneous’ approach of the Impressionist artist.  Historian William Everdell claimed that Modernism in painting began with Seurat's Divisionism, the "dots" used to paint "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte."

“Sunday After on the Island of La Grande Jatte”  (1886)
Oil on Canvas  (The Art Institute of Chicago)

“Bathers at Asnieres”  (1884)
Oil on Canvas  (National Gallery, London)

PAUL CEZANNE  (1839-1906)
French Post-Impressionist artist.  Worked with Pissarro.  Became frustrated with the Impressionist’s lack of form and structure.  Cezanne believed that color is all we see – brought strong, intense colors to his pictures.  Cézanne’s later works of three-dimensional forms has been attributed as the primary influence that led to Cubism (early 20th century). Both Matisse and Picasso are said to have remarked that Cézanne "is the father of us all."

“Les Joueurs de Carte”  (‘The Card Players’,  1894-1895)
Oil on Canvas  (Private Collection)
The Card Players is a series of oil paintings; five paintings in the series.  One version of The Card Players was sold in 2011 to the Royal Family of Qatar for a price variously estimated at between $250 million and $300 million, making it the most expensive work of art ever sold.

“The Lac D’Annecy”  (1896)
Oil on Canvas  (The Courtauld Gallery, London)

“Apples and Oranges”  (1895-1900)
Oil on Canvas  (Musee d’Orsay, Paris)

“Mont Sainte-Victoire”  (1885-1887)

The Montagne Sainte-Victoireis is a mountain in southern France, overlooking Aix-en-Provence.  It became the subject of a number of Cezanne’s paintings.   The mountain was Cezanne’s favorite subject and his perspective of it forever change art – transforming spatial voids into animate planes, static reality into a network of visual energy.  Cezanne substituted the perspective created by line with a backward-forward pulsation of color that made the two-dimensional canvas vibrate with the three-dimensional fullness of nature.  

“Chateau Noir” (1904)
Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Final period of Cezanne’s artistic exploration.   Works like “Chateau Noir” inspired Pablo Picasso to make his first cubist paintings – based on Cézanne's idea that all depiction of nature can be reduced to three solids: cube, sphere and cone.

PAUL GAUGUIN  (1848-1903)

French Post-Impressionist artist. Color was a strong theme in Gauguin’s work.  In 1891 Gaugin left France for the South Pacific to get away from the “claustrophobia” of civilization. His work was not well appreciated until after his death. Gauguin influenced many French avant-garde and modern artists such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.

“Nafeaffaa Ipolpo Aka When Will You Marry” (1892)

“Sunday (Mahana no Atua)”

“Two Tahitian Women”

VINCENT VAN GOGH  (1853-1890)
Post-Impressionist Dutch artist.  Moved to Paris; influenced by Pissarro.  Van Gogh’s style: juxiposition of saturated color never before seen in Western art; broad brushstrokes.  Color has special meaning (yellow = rebirth).  His greatest work occurred in the last two years before his death.  Suffered mental difficulties.  Van Gogh struck Gauguin, an admirer of the artist, with a razor.  Regretting his behavior, Van Gogh cut off his ear.  In 1890, at age 37, van Gogh shot himself.

“The Starry Night”  (1889)
Oil on Canvas  (The Museum of Modern Art, New York City)

“Still Life:  Vase with Twelve Sunflowers”  (1888)
Oil on Canvas  (Neue Pinakothek, Munich)

“Portrait of Dr. Gachet”  (1890)
Oil on Canvas  (Private Collection)

“Self-Portrait”  (1889)
Oil on Canvas  (Nation Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)

“Wheat Field with Cypresses”  (1889)
Oil on Canvas  (National Gallery, London)

“Irises”  (1889)
Oil on Canvas  (Getty Center, Los Angeles)

“Wheat Field with Crows”  (1890)
Oil on Canvas  (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam)

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