«This is simply a denial of the elementary rules of painting. These naive and sincere children’s scribbles make you smile, but the depravity of this school of artists is nauseating and repulsive», – these are the comments that French press posted after the exhibition of young artists in the spring of 1874.
At this exhibition, Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro presented 165 works by 30 artists. It was the first exhibition of the Impressionists, who called themselves the Society of Anonymous Artists. But given the harsh criticism this exhibition received, the artistic future of the young nonconformists was in question. On the exhibition, in particular, were presented paintings by Alfred Sisley, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne and Berthe Morisot – in short, all those who are now considered classics of impressionism and true artists. Thanks to persistence, they convinced the audience not only of their sincerity, but also of their talent.
The Impressionists held eight exhibitions, the first in 1874, and the last in 1886. These, later recognized, classics of painting were united by a common struggle against conservatism and academicism in art, although their techniques were not identical. They created in opposition to the Paris Salon – an artistic organization that dictated art trends. Exhibitions of the Salon and artists recognized by the Salon automatically received public approval, but creating against the canons of the Salon was quite risky.
But impressionists, like every young generation, did not accept imposed authorities and canons. Impressionists put their perception of reality first, so to speak, they created according to their own rules. Their imagination differed from others in its exclusivity: for example, the sun was depicted as blue, and the water as yellow, human figures as vague and schematic. It was important not «what» is depicted, but «how». The object became a reason for solving visual problems. Some people say that childhood comes to life in their paintings.
Thanks to many inventions and discoveries of scientists, artists have fully managed not only to practice, but also to improve their skills. On the example of Newton’s research on the decomposition of sunlight through a spectroscope into seven colors, artists depicted a certain object or phenomenon on their canvas with a wide range of shades. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe`s opinion will sound aptly: «…light and darkness, bright and dark, are necessary for the appearance of color». So, depending on the lighting and the angle of the shadow, the gradation of color on the creative object was traced.
In the process of creating a picture, artists applied paint with strokes, and also used contrasting and intermediate shades. Most often, the background was chosen white, in this case the brightest moments were colorfully highlighted on the canvas.
The sketch creative method of impressionism is characterized by shortness, because only this made it possible to accurately record individual states of nature.
Artists sought to eliminate static in art, began to use asymmetric compositions to focus attention on actors and objects.
As mentioned, famous representatives of impressionism in painting were: Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne and Berthe Morisot. We will tell more about each of them below, because their contribution to the development of this painting style is unique. Of course, we do not list all the artists, so if you are interested in learning about other figures, we invite you to the online course on the history of European art in the «Lihtaryk» art studio.
This artist is one of the founders of impressionism. He did not realize himself as an impressionist, but painted simply filling the inspiration and an attempt to create something significant.
Passion for painting landscapes influenced his creation of a special technique of expressive strokes: lack of depth and descriptive details. The artist destroyed the usual stereotypes and introduced the public to a magical world – for the impressionist painter, art was never a window into reality, it was rather a way to be open and sincere. Monet clung to moments to show them in his works. And he depicted about 200 scenes on 200 canvases, among which are «Impression, Sunrise» (1872), «Lilac Bush in the Sun» (1873), «Boulevard des Capucines» (1873) and others.
«Impression, Sunrise» (1872) is a painting that became the manifesto of the Impressionists and gave the name to the painting style of the young informals. It caused all kinds of negative feedback from critics, because they did not see the integrity and harmony of forms in it, also the weak points were the lack of depth and descriptive details.
By the way, one of the Parisian newspaper, commenting on this painting, noted that the preparatory drawings for printing on the wallpaper have a more finished look than Monet’s «Impression». Well, maybe it’s true. But fortunately, the unformatted Monet and his colleagues were not going to back down – and in the end he managed to change the well-known canons.
Another fantastic painting by Monet is «La Japonaise» (Camille Monet in Japanese Costume), which was painted in 1876. Her individual details cannot be determined with precision, but the Impressionists had a habit of leaving some elements of the paintings unfinished. Monet’s wife, Camille Doncieux, played the role of a Japanese woman.
In 1877, the artist turned to industrial themes, he began to paint Saint-Lazare station, which would become his favorite place.
At the stage of the aesthetic and creative peak in his «serial» paintings, Monet decided to make the analysis of light and atmospheric effects on the object of architecture. The subject of painting experiments was the western facade of the Gothic cathedral in Rouen, which, thanks to its decorative and sculptural decoration, perfectly reproduced the shades of light absorbed by the porous structure of the stone. The artist painted famous Rouen Cathedral in Normandy more over thirty times.
It was typical for Edgar Degas to «observe without drawing, and draw without observing» – it remains for us to interpret this magical expression, as we know. He did not approve of the Impressionists’ desire to work en plein air (outdoors). In general, he was brought closer to them by the desire to move away from academic templates, address the topics of modern life and truthfully depict the moments of existence. Some of his most famous paintings were: «The Dance Lesson» (1879), «The Injured Jockey» (1896-1898), «The Ironers» (1884), «Race Horses in front of the Stands» (1866-1868), «At the Milliner’s» (1882) and others.
In the 1870s, the artist became interested in the ballet. He became so enthusiastic that now he is primarily associated with ballerinas and ballet. He adored depicting women, but, let’s face it, this is not news for the artist – many artists appreciate beauty and grace, tend to poeticize women. So what distinguished his ballerinas? The fact that they were not depicted in all their glory, but rather on the contrary – during working days behind the scenes, dressing up in costumes, preparing to go on stage. You will see these themes in the drawings «The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage» (1874), «Ballerina Posing for a Photographer» (1875), «Waiting» (1880-1882), «Two Dancers» (1898) and others.
He also admired pastel, which combines the qualities of painting and graphics at the same time. Lines were a characteristic feature of his technique – the artist conveyed color changes primarily with lines, while the Impressionists tended to convey color through strokes.
The plot of composition was always his main form of drawing. It vividly reveals the characteristic features of the artist’s creative individuality – the naturalness and extreme vigilance of the artistic vision, a keen interest in conveying movement, a ruthless, almost unbiased analysis and at the same time mocking irony.
Edouard Manet combined with the Impressionists a rejection of a well-defined academic manner and a desire to assert himself. He was an extremely social person who sought his place in artistic community and strived recognition. Perhaps, thanks to this, he was one of the most authoritative artists of modern art. But having only desire is not enough, so Manet created his own style, which was seen as innovative and which had a significant influence on future artists. Innovation was particularly in the desire to combine the achievements of traditional art and modern trends. In his work, Manet opposed traditional methods of modeling and perspective. In particular, the young lady in the center of the painting «Breakfast on the Grass», which was painted in 1863, testifies to his non-standard perspective. As you can see, the woman in the background is quite far from the people we can see in front. Considering this, it should be written in a smaller size. At the size she is on the canvas, this girl would be very large if we placed her next to the people in the foreground. But the reason why Manet played with perspective so much was not because he lacked the ability to portray it correctly. Let’s at least look at the details of the painting – they testify to a master of his craft. Perhaps he wanted us to think about the painting more and more deeply. Although the real reason is not known for sure.
Manet was a «rebel in art», defiantly and boldly applied paradoxical elements in his work. He used the painting technique «a la prima» (painting at first attempt, wet-on-wet) – painting when wet paint is applied to previous layers of still wet paint, often in one sitting) – and he always remained a studio artist.
Camille Pissarro is the oldest among the Impressionists. The artist’s life path was difficult, but he participated in almost all exhibitions, which is why he became the «patriarch» of this direction. Having met Monet and his talent, he borrowed the principle of color decomposition from him. Absolutely all the acquired skills that Pissarro took from his teachers, he managed to use in his work.
The painting «Landscape in Montmorency» (1859), which was presented at the Salon, was extremely successful. The pastoral landscape reproduces a scene from village life, spied by the artist near one of the farm houses. Short horizontal shadows indicate that the picture was painted at noon on a sunny day. The neutral pastel palette is strikingly different from the earliest works of the «Parisian» period in Pissarro’s work. Despite the obvious success associated with admission to the Salon, the paintings of the young artist continued to be sold at a ridiculous price.
From 1866, his palette became more and more lighter, he enthusiastically learned to paint an aerial environment permeated by sunlight. At the same time, conveying a sense of form with large strokes he began to paint with a palette knife (spatula). As a result, Pissarro, abandoning black paint, created his own firm and confident artistic handwriting.
In the 70s of the 19th century, the artist experienced the peak of popularity, but critics still called his landscapes «incomprehensible». During the Franco-Prussian War, about 1500 works were destroyed in his house – the result of 20 years of the artist’s work. Only 42 works survived.
Pissarro created not only as a painter, but also as a watercolorist and engraver – in the technique of etching and lithography, where he managed to transfer the atmosphere of the fleeting and changeable. Thanks to his talent, the last years of his life brought the artist desired success and wealth.
Pierre Renoir is a French Impressionist artist who seldom visited the plein air. The play of light and sunspots were interesting to him when they fell on the delicate skin of a woman or on the golden hair of a child.
He was always inspired by people. He implemented all the main principles of impressionism in portraits of his relatives, friends, wealthy customers, favorite models, sometimes even very famous and influential ones.
Features of the artist’s work were emotionality, ephemerality and a quick picturesque sketch. Constantly searching for artistic truth, at different periods of his life he radically changed his style of writing and tried out new color solutions: sometimes he focused on the clarity of the drawing, sometimes he abandons the light palette in favor of deep red or black. The most famous paintings: «Bal du moulin de la Galette» («Dance at Le moulin de la Galette») (1876), «Luncheon of the Boating Party» (1881), «Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary» (1878), «The Swing» (1876), «The Umbrellas» (1880-1886), «Madame Georges Charpentier and Her Children» (1878) and others.
On the last one Madame Charpentier is sitting in the living room of her house with her children, daughter Georgette and son Paul, and a large dog. The painting consists of a certain trace of salon painting. The pose of the woman is quite formal, but Renoir’s artistic manner overshadows her artificiality. Not only blue, white and golden-yellow colors are filled with air in his work, but also his favorite «black», or rather, a mixture of colors, with which the madame’s dress was painted, full of reflexes and shades. Liveliness and immediacy, with which children’s images were marked here, bring a mood of fun into the atmosphere of the picture. Thanks to her, Renoir became one of the most sought-after portrait painters.
As a person Paul Cézanne was quite self-centered and not very social, but as an artist he was a genius. Paul’s early works were written under the influence of Eugene Delacroix. They are just as romantic, passionate, because they were written using a dark palette with broad strokes. In addition, he preferred a dark background, while the Impressionists usually chose white. Therefore, these are wild, gloomy paintings with creepy plots, such as kidnapping or murder. The terrible theme continues in the painting «Preparation for the Funeral» («Autopsy») (1869). Such works shocked the jury of the Salon exhibition of that time, but now they are considered an important stage in the creative development of the master. These were emotional pictures reflecting his mood.
In the painting «L’Estaque, Melting Snow» (1871), the sharp contrast of darkness and light, which distinguished his early works, is still visible.
But on the «Clearing» (1867), lighter tones are more visible. For the first time in Cézanne’s paintings, he depicted a mountain from his childhood (Sainte-Victoire Mountain), which will appear in his later masterpieces. The artist was not very concerned with the manner of painting, he was interested in forms and sought to find his view of the world, uncluttered by anything from the past.
In 1873-1874, he painted «Modern Olympia», a deliberately provocative work inspired by Manet, which offended the audience at the 1875 Salon exhibition. Both masterpieces depict a prostitute, but Cézanne decided to include himself in this daring, sensual picture.
Berthe Morisot is a French artist and the only woman who participated in the very first Impressionist exhibition. She often posed for Manet, he depicted her in all of his 16 paintings, imprinting her figure in history as slightly sad, melancholy, but always beautiful.
The artist, unlike her male colleagues, was favorably received at the Paris Salon for six years in a row, so she joined the group of «rejected» (as they called the Impressionists) as an already famous artist.
Berthe received high praise from society, and as a result, her works sold well. Talent and skill helped this fragile young lady to gain the respect of her male colleagues, so they perceived Morisot as an equal among equals.
The light color of the artist’s works, for example in such paintings as «Woman at her Toilette» (1875-1880) and «Young Girl with Basket» (1892), influenced the palette of Manet and was reflected in the brightness of the effects of his landscapes.
She was called a «virtuoso colorist» for her delicate gamut of colors. Morisot’s paintings depict subjects that are quite secular and dear to a woman’s heart – children, mothers, nannies on walks, ladies in their elegant dresses, everyday life and family joys.
There is no black outline in her works, so the artist’s paintings are characterized by special expressiveness and melancholic musicality. Until the end of her career, Berthe remained faithful to impressionism. In 2013, Morisot became the most expensive artist when her painting «After Luncheon» («After Lunch») (1881) was sold at Christie’s auction for $10.9 million.
Representatives of impressionism in painting managed to do the impossible. The atmosphere of a fleeting moment, its dynamism and colorfulness, reflected on the paintings, prompt the thought of the beauty of the universe that is being lost.
Do not stay away from beauty, attend master classes from the «Lihtaryk» art studio and learn more about impressionism in painting at online lectures. Being in Kyiv we also recommend you to choice the art studio as one of the places where to go in Kyiv.
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У меня синдром Стендаля сегодня. Утром ходили в Падуанский баптистерий. Смотрели фрески Менабуя. А после обеда у нас было посещение каппелы Скровеньи. Теперь я понимаю , что сделал Джотто для мира. Очень меня все это впечатлило в живую. Привет передала.
Мир прекрасен. Падуя очень понравилась:) спасибо за лекции Света!
Lily Golovchak
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