Impressionism(late 1860s- late 1890s)

Claire NicholsonMrs. Crowder 4th period

Impressionism- The Beginning• During the late 1860s a movement called

Impressionism started. • Louis Leroy- a mocking critic- coined the term

Impressionism in 1874 while seeing Impression: Sunrise by Claude Monet in an exhibition in Paris

• Impressionism is an act of adding vibrant colors and manipulating the light of an object

• It was a period in time where artists cast aside the painting methods of the Renaissance. Artists were inspired by nature and the visual reality in front of them and sought to portray it in a fresh and new way.

The picture in the background is Vincent Van Gogh’s room by Vincent Van Gogh

The Story

• Impressionism was an act that was shunned by the people of France. The main art show in France, The Salon, would not take any of the Impressionist artists.

• To show their art, the artists banded together and formed their own art show. There were eight exhibitions all together.

• An art dealer, Durand-Ruel, took the artists in hand and organized their seventh exhibition after boycott exhibitions were held.

• Impressionism ended when artists Signac and Lucien Pissarro entered their painting in the eighth exhibition.

The picture in the background is a picture by Picasso

Claude Monet• Claude Monet was born November 14,1840 in Paris,

France• Claude Monet was the central figure and the founder of

Impressionism.• Early in his career he started off painting landscapes, but

after the 1870s he started to focus more on changing the light of everyday objects

• Some of his most famous paintings were of water lilies• During the Franco-Prussian war, he left from Paris to

England where he made friends with Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir, and other people who were important to the Impressionism movement.

• His paintings sold well when he returned to Paris; he was able to buy land in Giverny where he planted a large garden that became the base of his series “Water Lilies”

• He died December 5, 1926 at the age of 86

Picture in the background is Water Lilies by Claude Monet

Camille Pissarro• He was one of the important figure heads during Impressionism• Camille Pissarro was born July 10, 1830 on the Caribbean Island of St. Thomas, in the Danish

West Indies. His parents were Abraham Gabriel Pissarro and Rachel Manzano-Pomié.• He first started a career as a business man but in 1852 he was acquainted with the Danish painter

F. Melbye and spent two years in Caracas with him • His parents sent him to a boarding school at the age of 12 in Paris where the director noticed his

interest in art and told him to take advantage of his life in the tropics and draw coconut trees. • He ran away to Venezuela. Under Melbye’s direction he created paintings and water colors, and

many drawings in ink, pencil, and wash.• In 1852, he returned to St. Thomas and sooner left for Paris to continue his studies and pursue a

career.• In 1874, joined Monet in a project to organize independent exhibitions; Renoir, Sisley, Béliard,

Guillemin, Degas, Cézanne, and Berthe Morisot were among the ones that were offered work. They were faced with a lot of criticism.

• He still experimented with theories of art; studied the effects of light, climate and season; and came up with a style that was all his own within the larger style of Impressionism.

• He became the center of a group of painters-Renoir, Monet, Degas, Cézanne- who respected his art and was an inspiration to him

• In his 74th year, Camille Pissarro had finally attained the respectability that had eluded him most of his life. His paintings started to bid for high prices and new artists admired his works.

• Camille Pissarro died of blood poisoning on 13 November, 1903 in Le Havre, France. He had five

sons-Lucien, Georges, Félix, Ludovic-Rodolphe, Paul Emile

The picture in the background is a landscape by Camille Pissarro

Pierre- Auguste Renoir• Renoir was born February 25, 1841, in Limoges, France. He was raised in Paris and at an early

age showed a great interest and talent in drawing.• He started painting plates in a porcelain factory as an apprentice. Later he worked for his older

brother decorating fans. • IN 1862 he entered the Atelier Gleyre to take his painting more seriously; it was there that he met,

Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, and Jean Frédéric Bazille. • Renoir struggled financially and emotionally during the 1860s because Paris’ renowned state-run

art show, the Salon, frequently rejected his works.• In 1869, the Salon accepted his painting Lise, and he continued to study with Courbet and Manet,

as well as Camille Corot and Eugène Delacroix. • Renoir and Monet painted together at La Grenouillère, a bathing spot on the Seine, in 1869. • During this time of Impressionism, the styles of the two artists were very identical, which shows

how closely they collaborated with one another and shared their different discoveries. • In 1874, after being snubbed by the official Salon for their renegade painting styles, Renoir and

other Impressionist painters such as Monet, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, and Berthe Morisot established their own independent exhibition.

• Even though the independent Impressionist exhibitions were ridiculed, Renoir continued to succeed. He received valuable support from several sources: Caillebotte, one of the first patrons of the Impressionists; art dealer Durand-Ruel; and collectors like Victor Choquet, the Charpentiers, and the Daidets. Renoir was frequently commissioned to paint family portraits, including Madame Charpentier and Her Children (1878).

• In his later years he suffered from rheumatoid arthritis which made painting more difficult and painful.

• He died at Cagnes-sur-Mer on December 3, 1919, but not before he lived to see his portrait, Madame Georges Charpentier (1877), hung in the Louvre in Paris.

The picture in the background is called Luncheon at the Boating Party by Pierre- Auguste Renoir

Timeline for 1863-1873 During the Time of

Impressionism• 1863-1873• The Dawn of a new style - Impressionism• Manet - the 'father' of Impressionism - gained growing concern in Paris.  The paintings of  Morisot,

Pissarro, Renoir were also shown, but they were not general accepted. • Manet• Dejeuner sur l' herbe• 1863• It was a painting shown in the salon. The man looking out from it was based on one of Manet's

brothers(or both), while his companion was the sculptor Ferdinand Leenhoff, brother of Suzanne Leenhoff, whom Manet married in October.

• 1874 • The Birth of Impressionism• The first Impressionist exhibition was held in this year. Exhibitors were offered the freedom to show

whatever they chose, without the interference of a jury. Many of the reviewers reacted favourably; however , there was no shortage of hostile reviews.

• The name 'Impressionist' was given by a critic called Louis Lorey after the exhibition.　• 1876• Gaining Gound• The second Impressionist exhibition in this year attracted wider review coverage than the first and on the

whole critical comment was slightly more favourable. The pictures that attracted most comment were Degas' Portrait in an office and Monet'sThe Japanese Girl.

• 1877• Financial Disaster• The third exhibition in 1877 was not a great success and brought no improvement in the Impressionists'

financial position.• 1879• Publication of 'La Vie Moderne'• It was a magazine aimed at promoting the work of Impressionists by a friend and patron of Renoir. The

name of the publisher was Georges Charpentier. In the same year, the fourth exhibition was held.• Monet • Camille Monet on her Deathbed• 　

Timeline for 1863-1873 During the Time of Impressionism (cont.)

• 1879• Monet remarked to Clemenceau on this macabre work:  'I caught myself... searching for the

succession, the arrangement of coloured gradations that death was imposing on her motionless face.'

• 1880• Growing Dissent• The fifth exhibition in this year was a bad one. As the artists could not agree about a title for

their exhibition and Cezanne, Monet, Renoir and Sisley ultimately refused to participate. The show was therefore very unbalanced and - badly lit, poorly hung and unsuitably housed - had poor attendance figures and even worse reviews.

• 1881• Degas stole the show• The Realist tendencies of 1880 were confirmed in the composition of the sixth Impressionist

show, dominated by Degas and he was responsible for dividing the group, and joined those boycotting the exhibition.

• 1882• The Seventh Impressionist exhibition• An art dealer, Durand-Ruel, took the artists in hand and organized their exhibition in an

attempt to restore a semblance of unity to the group.• 1886• The End of an Era• In the eighth exhibition, the paintings by Seurat, Signac and Lucien Pissarro were admitted, it

was clear that this was the end of Impressionism in the sense of the movement that had begun in 1874. At the same time, 'Neo-Impressionism' began.

Primary Source

• This is statement said by Louis Leroy written in a form of a dialogue for viewers of Claude Monet’s art:

• Impression — I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in it … and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape.

The background is a picture by Henri Matisse

Map of France

• Impressionism was a steady movement that originated and spread through France.

After Impressionism

• Impressionism ended in 1886. • In the eighth exhibition, paintings by Seurat, Signac

and Lucien Pissarro were admitted. It was clear that this was the end of Impressionism.

• When Impressionism ended it gave way to a new artistic movement called Neo-Impressionism.

• Neo-Impressionist movement took the colors and themes of Impressionism.

• Neo-Impressionist movement took the colors and themes of Impressionism.

The picture in the background is an example of art post-impressionism

Bibliography• "Claude Monet." Who2. 4 Apr. 2008

<http://who2.com/ask/claudemonet.html>.

• "The Artists." Camille Pissarro. 28 Apr. 2008 <http://www.pissarro.vi/artist.htm>.

• "1863-1873." Time Line of History. 6 May 2008 <http://www.hku.hk/faso/finearts/timeline.htm>.

• "Pierre-Auguste Renoir." The Impressioists. 1 Aug. 2008 <http://www.biography.com/impressionists/renoir-bio.jsp>.

• "Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism." Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism. 6 May 2008 <http://www.princeton.edu/~freshman/art/history/artp.html>.