A Break From Tradition

Impressionism

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

Jacques-Louis David The Death of Socrates1787

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.

Edouard ManetOlympia1863

TitianVenus of Urbino1538

Edouard ManetOlympia1863

•Vulgar, confrontational, direct unashamed gaze•Too realistic/not idealistic•Hand positioning-control•Courtesan symbols=orchid, necklace, shoe, bouquet, black cat•Unrefined technique

Claude Monet Impression: Sunrise 1872

The first “true” Impressionist painting; how the group got their name!

Critic:

“Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape.”

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.

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!

Major Artists:

1. Frédéric Bazille2. Gustave Caillebotte 3. Mary Cassatt 4. Paul Cézanne5. Edgar Degas6. Édouard Manet7. Claude Monet8. Berthe Morisot9. Camille Pissarro10.Pierre-Auguste Renoir11.Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec