IMPRESSIONISM (late 19th Century)

BY: Vidi Quintana

HISTORY OF IMPRESSIONISM:

• The term Impressionism was derived from Claude Monet’s painting: Sunrise 1873. The word ‘impressionism’ was used by the unfriendly art critic Louis Leroy, he described the paintings as unfinished, and lacked details and laborious work that traditional artists had done. However, more sympathetic critics had taken up the term in an alternative sense to describe the visual experience that was transitory and rapid: the Impression stamped on the senses.

• Artists soon followed and used qualities of expressive brushwork and bright color while working from nature in the open air. Every aspect of light was an impressionists’ concern. The Impressionist approach was avant-garde and revolutionary, and not interested in telling stories. They applied color in looser and more distinct brush strokes instead of even shades and tones.

• Theodore Duret describes an impressionist painter :“The Impressionist sits on a river bank, depending on the weather, his angle of vision, the time of day, and whether its windy or still, the water takes on every possible tone, and he paints, unhesitatingly, the water and all its tones. When the sky is clear, and the sun shining, he paints sparkling silvery blue water; when it is windy, he paints the reflections of the lapping waves; when the sun is setting and darts its rays over the water, the Impressionist, to capture the effect, lays down yellows and reds on his canvas.”

IMPRESSIONIST ARTISTS:

• Claude Monet• Pierre-Auguste Renoir• Berthe Morisot• Edgar Degas• Camille Pissarro• Mary Cassatt• Alfred Sisley

Claude Monet, Sunrise 1873, Oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm.

Claude Monet: Rouen Cathedral, 1894. oil on canvas. 39¼“x 25 “

Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Le Moulin De La Galette, 1876. oil on canvas. 51.5 x 69 in.

Berthe Morisot: Young girl by the Window, 1878. Oil on canvas. 29.94 x 24 in.

Edgar Degas: The Rehearsal (Adagio), 1877. Oil on canvas. 26 x 39.38 in.

Camille Pissarro: Boulevard Montmartre, Afternoon Sun, 1897

Mary Cassatt: In the Box, 1879

Alfred Sisley: An Area of the woods Near Sablons, 1883.

Work Cited:

• www.practicalpainting.org• http

://pet-portraitartist.com/old-masters/artists-pics/Renoir-Moulin_de_la_Galette.jpg

• www.mystudios.com/women/ klmno/morisot_window.jpg• www.bbc.co.uk/.../media/ Rehearsal-Degas-web.jpg• http://www.biography.com/impressionists/index.jsp