Evening star., 1924-01-03
The North Window
BY LEILA MEcHLIN


recently acquired masterpiece by
Renoir. Lies Dejeuner des Canotiers,"
and additional paintings by other great
French impressionists, has quite nat
urally led to a revival of interest In
this school. Who were the French i'm
pressionists and what contribution
have they made to the art Of today
perchance the art of the future?
The name '1mpressionists." Muther
in his comprehensive History OF
Modern Painting tells US dates from
an exhibition in Paris which was got
up at Madar's in the early seventies.
The catalog recorded many titles which
began with the word impression"
such, for instance, as Impression de
mon pot au feu." and Impression dun
eniticism enai ciaretie s spoke Of It as the
'Salon des Impressionists." AT nrst
the artists whose works were shown
in this exhibition protested against
that appellation. but 1t stuck, and they
afterward not only accepted but
The beginnings of impressionism,
however. antedated that time. In 1852
we learn from Duret close friendship
was formed between four young men
who worked in Gleyre's studio, Claude
Monet, Sisley. Renoir and Bazille.
Monet took the lead among them and
took his clue. or. as Duret puts it,
found his road to Damascus" from the
work of Manet. Now Manet, according
to his biographers. got his idea of
opening the windows and letting in the
light from a memorable trip that he
took when young man from France
to Brazil, and from the inspiration
which the rediscovery of Velasquez in
the great Manchester expedition of ST
had given.
But the movement seems to have
been almost spontaneous. Zola wrote
novel in the COS in which he cham
pioned the cause of the~impressionists
The hero of this novel, Claude Lantier.
was martyr of the new style. He
out, but ten years after these new
doctrines had penetrated all the studios
of Paris like germs borne in the air."
y
1t was Edouard Manet who gave
his friend zola the ideas which he
expresses through the character of
Claude Lantier. OF Manet Zola wrote,
Criticism treated him as a kind Of
buffoon who put out his tongue for
the amusement of street boys" The
public did not understand at first
what he was about, but he was un-
moved by the jeers..
Manet started the movement, but
Monet and Sisley and Renoir each
added something to it, and as it
progressed others came into the
Degas, Pissaro and others. For
some years they gathered for dis
cussion and for mutual encourage
ment at the Cafe Guerbois.
Manet remained in Paris and gave
his chief attention to figure painting,
but the others all settled in the
country and worked not in the studio
but in the open air, face to face
with nature. There was one young
woman among them. Berthe Morisot-
The first collective exhibition was
held In 1874 and comprised work by
Pfssarro. Monet, Sisley, Renoir.
Berthe Morisot, Cezanne. Guillaumin.
This was held in April in a gallery
on the boulevard des Capucines and
may be regarded as a landmark in
modern art Financially this ex-
hibition was a disastrous failure, 'as
were others which followed.
The public heaped contempt upon
the painters. The public did not
understand the purple haystacks. the
colorful shadows, high-keyed pallets,
the method of painting with pure
color spots and SO recomposing the
| elements which the spectrum decom-
posed from the light. When In 10
seventy paintings by Claude Monet.
Sisley. Renoir and Berthe Morisot
were sold at auction at the Hotel
Drouot the total amount realized was
| a little over 10000 francs, about
ls2,o00. 1t is said on good authority
! 600 for the painting by Renoir now
owned by the Phillips Memorial CAL
lery.
The most notable, perhaps, of their
yearly exhibitions was that held In
1877. which created talk in the cafes.
boulevards, clubs. drawing rooms
+! in fact. set Paris agog. Every one
went to see it, but they went to
scoff: they regarded it as a huge joke.
| Duret tells how they began to laugh
when they were still in the street.
how they laughed as they were going
| up the stairs. how they were con-
vulse with laughter the first moment
they cast their eyes upon the pic
lures" 1t is the impreSsionists them
selves who laugh now, or would IL
they were still living, and "he who
laughs last laughs best"
X X
| And just what did the impression
| lists do? Duret sums 1t up thus:
| The painter confined in the studio
had invested nature with a certain
uniform aspect-a fixed and unchang-
ling character which the open air
painter was unable to recognize. For
| the studio painter foliage had hither-
| to been of a determinate shade of
green; water had been couleur d'eau;
| the sky had been of a particular kind
Of blue and the clouds of a particu-
lar kind Of gray. But for the i'm
upon nature. a landscape could not
present itself otherwise than under
a variety OF aspects which were de-
termined by variations Of light and
changes of atmosphere. And as the
jimpressionist was able to avail him.
self of the new resources obtained by
the use of pure tones. unadulterated
with shadow, he could apply to his
canvas those brilliant colors which
correspond with, the various effects
there were to be seen in the pictures
of the impressionists. splashes of
light which the sun, shining through
the leaves OF trees, casts on the
tground; the pure. delicate greens
which caress the earth in spring were
faithfully rendered; fields burnt by
the summer sun took a reddish tinge;
water was no longer of a uniform
color, but held on it's surface all col
ors In turn.
Then, having discovered that shad-
ows when seen IN the open air are
variously colored according to the
effects of light, the impressionists
painted them without hesitation blue,
| violet, lilac"
Furthermore, "the fact that the
impressionists- systematically painted
directly from nature led them to dis
pose the general arrangement OF
their pictures otherwise than their