Claude Monet Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works | The Art Story Web Services & Hosting by The Computer Studio | Designed by DesArtLab Impressionism Impressionism A movement in painting that first surfaced in France in the 1860s, it sought new ways to describe effects of light and movement, often using rich colors. The Impressionists were drawn to modern life and often painted the city, but they also captured landscapes and scenes of middle-class leisure-taking in the suburbs. Edouard Manet Edouard Manet Edouard Manet was a French painter and a prominent figure in the mid-nineteenth-century Realist movement of French art. Manet's paintings are considered among the first works of art in the modern era, due to his rough painting style and absence of idealism in his figures. Manet was a close friend of and major influence on younger artists who founded Impressionism such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir was one of the leading figures of French Impressionism during the late-nineteenth century.

Renoir tended to favor outdoor scenes, gardens bathed in sunlight, and large gatherings of people. Known as a master of light, shadow and color, Renoir was also highly esteemed for his depiction of natural movement on the canvas. In terms of the French Impressionists' lasting popularity and fame, Renoir is perhaps second only to Monet. Alfred Sisley Alfred Sisley Alfred Sisley was an English Impressionist landscape painter who spent much of his life working in France. As an enthusiast of plein air painting, Sisley was among the group of artists that included Monet, Renoir and Pissarro who dedicated themselves to capturing the transient effects of sunlight. He was a true Impressionist and committed landscape painter who never deviated from this style or subject into figurative work like many of his contemporaries. Camille Pissarro Camille Pissarro Camille Pissarro was a French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painter. Known as the "Father of Impressionism," he used his own painterly style to depict urban daily life, landscapes, and rural scenes.

Jacques Louis David Jacques Louis David Jacques Louis David was a French neoclassical artist who is best known for his historical and mythological paintings. In 1774, he won the coveted Prix de Rome prize. His most famous paintings include 'The Oath of the Horatii,' 'The Death of Marat' and 'The Coronation of Napoleon.' He was Napoleon's official court painter until the regime dissolved and David exiled himself to Brussels. Eugéne Boudin Eugéne Boudin Eugéne Boudin was a French marine and landscape painter who worked primarily in the second half of the nineteenth century. His reputation steadily grew throughout his long career, eventually being awarded the Legion of Honor in 1892. His plein air method of working had a significant influence on the young Monet and consequently the Impressionist movement. The French Salon The French Salon The Salon was a biannual Paris exhibition that, in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, became the most important regular exhibition in Europe. Initially restricted to members of the French Academy, it was later opened up; however, it remained strongly associated with the Academy's conservatism, and this eventually encouraged artists to exhibit outside of its confines.

Eugène Delacroix Eugène Delacroix Eugène Delacroix was a mid-nineteenth-century French painter and pioneer of European Modernist painting. Known primarily as a Romantic, Delacroix's paintings were passionate in their depictions of love, war and human sensuality, earning the artist both praise and controversy in his time. His preoccupation with color-induced optical effects and use of expressive brushstrokes were crucial influences on Impressionism and Pointillism. Jean Frédéric Bazille Jean Frédéric Bazille Jean Frédéric Bazille was an Impressionist landscape painter. Coming from a wealthy background, he helped his fellow artists, including Monet, Sisley and Manet with money and materials. His career and life were cut short, dying in battle during the Franco-Prussian War at just 29 years old. Romanticism Romanticism Romanticism was a nineteenth-century movement that celebrated the powers of emotion and intuition over rational analysis or classical ideals. Romantic artists emphasized awe, beauty, and the sublime in their works, which frequently charted the darker or chaotic sides of human life. John Constable John Constable John Constable was an English Romantic painter.

He is chiefly known for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his English home. He was not elected to the Royal Academy until he was 52 years old. His work remained largely unnoticed in England until later into his career, a fact which was due in part to his seemingly old-fashion artistic style. J.M.W. Turner J.M.W. Turner J.M.W. Turner (Joseph Mallord William Turner) was a mid-nineteenth-century British painter and watercolorist. Considered a key forerunner to the French Impressionists and the American Hudson River School of painters, Turner is known in history as "the painter of light." His trademark land- and sea-scapes are categorized as Romantic and Naturalist, given the artist's expressive and poetic application of natural light. Turner was among the last great pre-modern painters. Felix Nadar Felix Nadar Félix Nadar was the popular moniker of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, nineteenth-century French artist, photographer, balloonist and journalist. Nadar was a champion of the Impressionists, best known for his portrait photographs of the significant personalities of Parisian avant-garde.

Abstract Expressionism Abstract Expressionism A tendency among New York painters of the late 1940s and '50s, all of whom were committed to an expressive art of profound emotion and universal themes. The movement embraced the gestural abstraction of Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, and the color field painting of Mark Rothko and others. It blended elements of Surrealism and abstract art in an effort to create a new style fitted to the postwar mood of anxiety and trauma. Mark Rothko Mark Rothko Mark Rothko was an Abstract Expressionist painter whose early interest in mythic landscapes gave way to mature works featuring large, hovering blocks of color on colored grounds. Jackson Pollock Jackson Pollock Jackson Pollock was the most well-known Abstract Expressionist and the key example of Action Painting. His work ranges from Jungian scenes of primitive rites to the purely abstract "drip paintings" of his later career. Clement Greenberg Clement Greenberg Clement Greenberg was one the leading American art critics during the twentieth century.

Best known as the ideological counterpart to Harold Rosenberg, Greenberg was a formalist who coined the terms "American-type painting" and 'Post-painterly abstraction.' He was a staunch champion of pure abstraction, including the work of Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still and Hans Hofmann. Pop Art Pop Art British artists of the 1950s were the first to make popular culture the dominant subject of their art, and this idea became an international phenomenon in the 1960s. But the Pop art movement is most associated with New York, and artists such as Andy Warhol, who broke with the private concerns of the Abstract Expressionists, and turned to themes which touched on public life and mass society. Andy Warhol Andy Warhol Andy Warhol was an American Pop artist best known for his prints and paintings of consumer goods, celebrities, and photographed disasters. One of the most famous and influential artists of the 1960s, he pioneered compositions and techniques that emphasized repetition and the mechanization of art.

Minimalism Minimalism Minimalism emerged as a movement in New York in the 1960s, its leading figures creating objects which blurred the boundaries between painting and sculpture, and were characterized by unitary, geometric forms and industrial materials. Emphasizing cool anonymity over the passionate expression of the previous generation of painters, the Minimalists attempted to avoid metaphorical associations, symbolism, and suggestions of spiritual transcendence. Gustave Courbet Gustave Courbet Gustave Courbet was a French painter and chief figure in the Realist movement of the mid-nineteenth century. His paintings often contained an emotional bleakness, and were praised for their precision and use of light. Along with Delacroix, Courbet was a key influence on the Impressionists. Jean-Francois Millet Jean-Francois Millet Jean-Francois Millet was a Realist painter in nineteenth-century France, and a founder of the Barbizon School. He is especially known for his depictions rural life and peasant labor. Charles Baudelaire Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire was a French poet and art critic during the mid-nineteenth century.

His poetry depicted the harsh realities of urban poverty in nineteenth-century Paris, and often focused on the flanuer (one who wanders the city to experience it). The Baudelarian idea of the flaneur is a lasting legacy of the modern era. Emile Zola Emile Zola Emile Zola was a nineteenth-century French novelist, playwright, essayist and political activist. He was also the self-proclaimed leader of literary French Naturalism. As one of the leading cultural figures in France, Zola was close with the likes of Manet and Cézanne, and was the favorite writer of Vincent van Gogh. Realism Realism Realism is an approach to art that stresses the naturalistic representation of things, the look of objects and figures in ordinary life. It emerged as a distinct movement in the mid-nineteenth century, in opposition to the idealistic, sometimes mythical subjects that were then popular, but it can be traced back to sixteenth-century Dutch art and forward into twentieth-century styles such as Social Realism.

Neo-Classicism Neo-Classicism Neo-Classicism encompasses several distinct movements in the arts and architecture during the mid-1700s to the late 1800s that drew specifically on ancient Western cultures for inspiration. Looking back to the arts of Greece and Rome for ideal models and forms, both human and structural, Neo-Classicism was a category for literature and music as well as the visual arts. Jacques-Louis David and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres were the most iconic French Neo-Classic painters. Japonisme Japonisme Japonisme describes the influence of Japanese art, especially woodblock prints, on French artists in the second half of the nineteenth century. Many Post-Impressionists were influenced by the flat blocks of color, the emphasis on design, and the simple, everyday subject matter. Vincent van Gogh Vincent van Gogh Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch painter, commonly associated with the Post-Impressionist period. As one of the most prolific and experimental artists of his time, van Gogh was a spontaneous painter and a master of color and perspective. Troubled by personal demons all his life, many historians speculate that van Gogh suffered from a Bipolar disorder.

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne was an influential French Post-Impressionist painter whose depictions of the natural world, based on internal geometric planes, paved the way for Cubism and later modern art movements. Edgar Degas Edgar Degas Edgar Degas was a French Impressionist painter, printmaker and sculptor with an extraordinarily long career from the mid-nineteenth century until after WWI. As one of the original group of Impressionists, although he preferred to be called a Realist, he traveled widely and employed the use of photography in his creative process. He is most renowned for his painting and drawings of ballet dancers in rehearsal and performances in the theatre. Georges Seurat Georges Seurat Georges-Pierre Seurat was a French painter who gave rise to the Post- and Neo-Impressionist artistic styles of the late nineteenth century. Seurat's greatest contribution to modern art was his development of Pointillism, a style of painting in which small dots of paint were applied to create a cohesive image. Combining the science of optics with painterly emotion, Pointillism evoked a visual harmony never before seen in modern art.

Paul Durand-Ruel Paul Durand-Ruel Paul Durand-Ruel was a French art dealer who became the first champion of the Impressionists. His gallery in Bond St showed Monet, Renoir and others to the art world of London, and then further afield in the United States. He was known to support his artists through solo exhibitions and stipends. Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé was a French Symbolist poet and critic in the late 1800s. Densely written, his poetry played with both the meaning and sound of words, making it difficult to translate. His work was greatly influential on the Dada and Surrealist movements. James Whistler James Whistler James Whistler was a nineteenth-century American expatriate artist. Educated in France and later based in London, Whistler was a famous proponent of art-for-art's-sake, and an esteemed practictioner of tonal harmony in his canvases, often characterized by his masterful use of blacks and greys, as seen in his most famous work, Whistler's Mother (1871).

Whistler was also known as an American Impressionist, and in 1874 he famously turned down an invitation from Degas to exhibit his work with the French Impressionists. Georges Clemenceau Georges Clemenceau Georges Clemenceau was a French statesman and journalist who served as Prime Minister both before and after WWI. Known as 'le Tigre', he was instrumental in negotiating the Treaty of Versailles. As a journalist, he was a major supporter of Emile Zola, publishing 'J'Accuse', during the Dreyfus Affair in 1898. Post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism refers to a number of styles that emerged in reaction to Impressionism in the 1880s. The movement encompassed Symbolism and Neo-Impressionism before ceding to Fauvism around 1905. Its artists turned away from effects of light and atmosphere to explore new avenues such as color theory and personal feeling, often using colors and forms in intense and expressive ways. Symbolism Symbolism Symbolism is an artistic and literary movement that first emerged in France in the 1880s.

In the visual arts it is often considered part of Post-Impressionism. It is characterized by an emphasis on the mystical, romantic and expressive, and often by the use of symbolic figures. Pointillism Pointillism Pointillism is a mode of art-making, first developed in 1880s France, in which all of the paint is applied to the surface as tiny points or daubs of color. Based on the laws of color theory, pointillism relies on the viewer's eye to mix the disparate dots into the lines, shapes, shadings, and color ranges of the full scene. Fauvism Fauvism Fauvism was an early twentieth-century art movement founded by Henri Matisse and André Derain. Labeled as "wild beasts", Fauve artists favored vibrant colors and winding gestural strokes across the canvas. LANDSCAPE Painting: MONET & RENOIR Required readings: Joel Isaacson, "Impressionism and Journalistic Illustration," Arts Magazine, vol. 56, 1982 (coursepack). Questions for readings: How are the changes in social class or class structure reflected in the subjects painted by the Impressionists?

What themes or subjects depicted in journalistic illustration also appear in Impressionist paintings? Why? Are there similarities in style as well as subject between journal illustrations (popular illustration) and the Impressionist style exemplified by Auguste Renoir? Key images: Pierre-Auguste Renoir Style and Technique | artble.com Pierre-Auguste Renoir Style and Technique Full Name: Style Introduction Renoir´s works are easily identifiable by their use of bright colors, light-hearted subjects, and bold lines. Committed to pursuing his own style and with a dislike for traditional forms, Renoir collaborated with fellow students Monet, Sisley, and Bazille, and together they founded the Impressionist movement. Their style depicted subjects and landscapes naturally and painting was often held outdoors, which was considered somewhat radical. Pierre-Auguste Renoir Style Pierre-Auguste Renoir Early Years: In his early career, Renoir spent a great deal of time sketching on the Seine river banks at Asnières, Argenteuil, and Chatou with his friend and fellow Frenchman Claude Monet. It was during these meetings that the two young artists developed their famous technique and experimented with the bright colors that later became central to Impressionism.

It was also during this time of practicing painting light and water in the open air that Renoir and Monet discovered that the color of shadows is not brown or black, but the reflected color of the objects surrounding them. Renoirs early works captured real life scenarios and their themes were always pleasant and non-serious. Renoir was quoted as saying Why shouldn't art be pretty?, there are enough unpleasant things in the world. A master of depicting facial expressions, Renoir tended to paint youthful portraits of his associates, most of whom were artists and writers. Renoirs technique of broken brush strokes was combined with brash colors to portray the light and movement of the subject. He was greatly inspired to paint figures, particularly of women. A great worshipper of the female form, Renoir said I never think I have finished a nude until I think I could pinch it. ' With larger compositions, Renoir succeeded in assembling several figures in one frame and his compositions were complex and demanded several revisions. Middle Years: Its believed that Renoir used just five colors in his palette and his time as a porcelain painter taught him how to combine different colors well.

Impressionism was very much defined by its use of light colors and it was a style based on quick brush strokes but a trip to Italy introduced Renoir to the work of the Renaissance artists Raphael, Velazquez, and Rubens and this inspired him to change his technique and experiment with a more decorative and traditional style. Consequently, his subsequent paintings became more linear. He started using bold lines to outline his objects and black to provide contrast and he focused less on brush strokes and blending colors and more on form and contours. The resulting works resulted in what art historians call Renoir's "dry" or "Ingres period" because he accentuated the outlines of his figures. His painting The Large Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses) is a good example of this new style and he invested a great deal of time perfecting this piece. Experimenting with a more classical approach later in his career, Renoir developed his own unique style which fused his sunny, optimistic outlook with bold, contrasting lines. This style dominated the rest of his works, most of which focused on nude women.

As his new style became more distinguished and austere, Renoir also created canvasses which depicted mythological subjects, such as The Judgment of Paris, and his female subjects became more voluptuous. Advanced Years: After 1890, Renoirs work moved in a new direction yet again. He returned to using thin brush strokes and became less concerned with outlines, preferring a more sketchy approach. This period saw Renoir concentrate on epic nudes and domestic scenes and examples of this work include Girls at the Piano and The Large Bathers (Grandes Baigneuses). The latter is the most characteristic and successful of Renoir's later offerings. Renoir's style encompassed open-air landscapes, family scenes, and monumental portraits such as The Luncheon of the Boating Party . His subjects were always light-hearted and he enjoyed painting portraits that were brimming with life, sunlight, and realism. A worshipper of the female figure, much of Renoirs later paintings centered on nude, buxom women. Renoir very much indulged in art and dedicated his life to it. In his late career, Renoirs style changed again and he opted for stronger colors - often reds and oranges - and thick brush strokes.

The female nude was a favorite subject of Renoirs and he depicted details of the scene through freely-brushed spots of color which fused his figures and their surroundings. In 1887, Renoir completed a series of studies of a group of nude female figures known as The Bathers. Such works are unique in the history of modern painting for their representation of feminine grace, and they show Renoirs ability to capture the soft and pearly texture of skin. Renoir's paintings are characterized by their use of vibrant light, and the artist used this masterfully, portraying his subjects both vividly and spontaneously. The painting Bal au Moulin de la Galette is a great example of Renoirs technique and is a renowned Impressionist painting. Pierre-Auguste Renoir Page Menu Claude Monet (1840–1926) | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art Works of Art (19) Essay Claude Monet was a key figure in the Impressionist movement that transformed French painting in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Throughout his long career, Monet consistently depicted the landscape and leisure activities of Paris and its environs as well as the Normandy coast. He led the way to twentieth-century modernism by developing a unique style that strove to capture on canvas the very act of perceiving nature. Raised in Normandy, Monet was introduced to plein-air painting by Eugène Boudin ( 2003.20.2 ), known for paintings of the resorts that dotted the region’s Channel coast, and subsequently studied informally with the Dutch landscapist Johan Jongkind (1819–1891). When he was twenty-two, Monet joined the Paris studio of the academic history painter Charles Gleyre. His classmates included Auguste Renoir , Frédéric Bazille, and other future Impressionists. Monet enjoyed limited success in these early years, with a handful of landscapes, seascapes, and portraits accepted for exhibition at the annual Salons of the 1860s.

Yet many of the rejection of his more ambitious works, notably the large-scale Women in the Garden (1866; Musée d’Orsay, Paris ), inspired Monet to join with Edgar Degas , Édouard Manet , Camille Pissarro, Renoir, and others in establishing an independent exhibition in 1874. Impression: Sunrise (1873; Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris), one of Monet’s contributions to this exhibition, drew particular scorn for the unfinished appearance of its loose handling and indistinct forms. Yet the artists saw the criticism as a badge of honor, and subsequently called themselves “Impressionists” after the painting’s title, even though the name was first used derisively. Monet found subjects in his immediate surroundings, as he painted the people and places he knew best. His first wife, Camille ( 2002.62.1 ), and his second wife, Alice, frequently served as models. His landscapes chart journeys around the north of France ( 31.67.11 ) and to London, where he escaped the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71.

Returning to France, Monet moved first to Argenteuil, just fifteen minutes from Paris by train, then west to Vétheuil, Poissy, and finally to the more rural Giverny in 1883. His homes and gardens became gathering places for friends, including Manet and Renoir , who often painted alongside their host ( 1976.201.14 ). Yet Monet’s paintings cast a surprisingly objective eye on these scenes, which include few signs of domestic relations. Following in the path of the Barbizon painters , who had set up their easels in the Fontainebleau Forest ( 64.210 ) earlier in the century, Monet adopted and extended their commitment to close observation and naturalistic representation. Whereas the Barbizon artists painted only preliminary sketches en plein air, Monet often worked directly on large-scale canvases out of doors, then reworked and completed them in his studio. His quest to capture nature more accurately also prompted him to reject European conventions governing composition, color, and perspective. Influenced by Japanese woodblock prints , Monet’s asymmetrical arrangements of forms emphasized their two-dimensional surfaces by eliminating linear perspective and abandoning three-dimensional modeling.

He brought a vibrant brightness to his works by using unmediated colors, adding a range of tones to his shadows, and preparing canvases with light-colored primers instead of the dark grounds used in traditional landscape paintings. Monet’s interest in recording perceptual processes reached its apogee in his series paintings (e.g., Haystacks [1891], Poplars [1892], Rouen Cathedral [1894]) that dominate his output in the 1890s. In each series, Monet painted the same site again and again, recording how its appearance changed with the time of day. Light and shadow seem as substantial as stone in his Rouen Cathedral ( 30.95.250 ) series. Monet reports that he rented a room across from the cathedral’s western facade in 1892 and 1893, where he kept multiple canvases in process and moved from one to the next as the light shifted. In 1894, he reworked the canvases to their finished states.

In the 1910s and ’20s, Monet focused almost exclusively on the picturesque water-lily pond ( 1983.532 ) that he created on his property at Giverny. His final series depicts the pond in a set of mural-sized canvases where abstract renderings of plant and water emerge from broad strokes of color and intricately built-up textures. Shortly after Monet died (a wealthy and well-respected man at the age of eighty-six), the French government installed his last water-lily series in specially constructed galleries at the Orangerie in Paris, where they remain today. Laura Auricchio Department of Art & Design Studies, Parsons The New School for Design October 2004 Citation Auricchio, Laura. “Claude Monet (1840–1926).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (October 2004) Further Reading House, John. Monet: Nature into Art. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986. Tucker, Paul Hayes. Claude Monet: Life and Art.

New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. Additional Essays by Laura Auricchio 1000+ images about Impressionist Style Art on Pinterest | Poppy fields, Summer landscape and Impressionism art Learn more at hubpages.com Impressionists Artists: 5 Facts About 5 Impressionist Artists - An Overview From Monet to Van Gogh: A History of Impressionism Prof. Brettell-Fine Arts & Music Questions & Answers Course Overview They appeared in a period of upheaval. They saw the rebuilding of Paris, the rise of industrialism, the ruin of the Franco-Prussian war. They displayed their startling and shocking works in a series of exhibitions from 1874 to 1886. And by the 1890s, this "loose coalition" of artists who rebelled against the formality of the French Academy had created the most famous artistic movement in history. "They" were the Impressionists, and Professor Brettell is your expert curator and guide to a movement that created a new, intensely personal vision of the world.

Whether the subject was a city street, a holiday beach, a harvest field, or a demoiselle's boudoir, they virtually invented the sensibility—urbane, contemporary, ever-changing—that today we take for granted as the "modern." Who were the Impressionists? What's the difference between a Manet and a Monet? How does a Pissarro landscape differ from one by Cézanne? Were they really as personally scandalous as the Establishment alleged? And why is Impressionism, a 19th-century phenomenon, still so appealing in the 21st? What You Will Learn These artists documented life in the latter half of the 19th century and provided models of behavior, decorum, and urban beauty that persist to this day. This series of lectures will introduce you to the style, subject, and function of Impressionist painting by artists including Monet, Renoir, Cassatt, Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, and van Gogh. Separate analysis is given to the important Impressionist exhibitions and their contemporary critics like the writer Baudelaire.

Among key topics covered are the public and private worlds of Parisian modernity, life in the countryside, the new leisure class, and the influential legacy of Impressionism. Dr. Brettell, Professor of Aesthetic Studies at The University of Texas at Dallas, is a teacher and curator of international renown and is widely published on 19th- and 20th-century art. His lectures are designed as a way for you to view and discuss the Impressionist revolution with a deft mix of history, biography, and art: You'll learn how the Impressionist aesthetic was driven by the rise of the railroad and suburban tourism. You'll learn how Mary Cassatt painted the lives of wealthy expatriates, while Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec scoured the dives of Montmartre to draw Paris by night. You'll learn about technique: Degas's use of lighting effects. Renoir's plump, sensuous brushstrokes. Pissarro's use of slabs and pieces of paint. Gauguin and Van Gogh's bold, bright colors. You'll see how Berthe Morisot could convey women's sense of boredom, sadness, and frustration.

You'll see how Monet's approach changed in his later years from one in which the subject was in flux and motion to one of constancy and stability. You'll learn what happened to this radical movement as its leaders grew older—and more successful—by century's end. "We will take a chronological, and oftentimes biographical, approach to studying the artists rather than looking at each career separately," says Professor Brettell. "This is due in large part to the fact that there was a certain amount of collectivity among them, visible not only in the Impressionist exhibitions but in the artistic tours/retreats that pairs of painters took in order to study modern life and its environs. "As the life and career of each painter unfolds, we are introduced to their families, friends, and colleagues, all of whom become subjects in and influences on their work. The careers of many of the artists are discussed from their early exposure to art, their teachers, travels, and later stylistic influences." Great Impressionist Works You Will See Presented with these absorbing lectures are more than 200 vividly reproduced artworks for your study and enjoyment, including: Ballet Rehearsal on the Stage, by Edgar Degas.

This sepia-toned painting, done in the style of a photograph, was part of the first Impressionist exhibition and raised questions about how visual images were created. Impression: Sunrise (Marine), by Claude Monet. This painting of a sailboat at dawn may have given Impressionism its name, along with Monet's well-known Impression Sunrise. Light, freely painted, about color and immediacy, it is one of the most radical paintings in the history of modern art. Déjeuner sur l'herbe (Luncheon on the Grass), by Edouard Manet. This depiction of Manet's favorite model, Victorine Meurent, as a nude on a picnic with two clothed men was considered scandalous. It exemplifies Manet's tendency to shock, provoke, and raise more questions than he answers. The Beach at Trouville, by Claude Monet. Painted on Monet's honeymoon, this canvas depicts his wife and Madame Boudin at Trouville, on the Normandy coast. The dots on Madame Boudin's dress are actually grains of sand that blew onto the canvas as Monet painted. The Garden, by Berthe Morisot.

Morisot executed this work, her career masterpiece, with an incredible gestural abandon that few male artists could match. Vision after the Sermon, by Paul Gauguin. One of the most bizarre and powerful paintings in the history of art, this painting combines elements of high art, Japanese art, and religious imagery. Trace the Beginning of "Modern Art" The Impressionists were the first formal group of professional artists to include women: Berthe Morisot and the American, Mary Cassatt. Morisot, in fact, participated in seven of the eight Impressionist exhibitions, more than any other member of the movement except Pissarro. In their first exhibition in 1874, the "Société Anonyme des Artistes" (the name Impressionists came later) took an approach that was not only modern, but unprecedented. We tend to think of the history of art as one of individual geniuses who acted as teachers for subsequent groups of artists. But the Impressionists worked very differently. They chose to develop their craft as equals, painting and learning from one another in small groups. Rather than promoting sameness, this way of working highlighted the unmistakable differences among the groups and artists.

Impressionist painters often painted the same scenes, at times simultaneously, with their easels side by side. These occasions present a fascinating opportunity to compare technique and to see the Impressionist approach at work. Renoir's and Monet's 1869 studies of La Grenouillère (The Frog Pond), a well-known spot for swimming, socializing, and renting boats, offer a notable case in point. One of the legacies of Impressionism is to leave the viewer with a profound sense of life—of life captured on the canvas, through motion, light, and color, and life lived by these remarkable artists, always seeking to experience and to learn, to better capture the reality before their eyes. This course is an absorbing lesson in the marvelous cultural, historical, and visual experiences that great paintings provide. Hide Full Description 1 The Realist and the Idealist In 1855 Paris held the first of many international exhibitions, allowing Frenchmen and foreign viewers to witness the tensions raging in the French art world. At mid-century, the bitter rivalry was between two competing trends: the French Classical tradition exemplified by Jean-Dominique Ingres, and the French Romantic tradition presided over by Eugène Delacroix.

To this mixture was added the new strand of art called Realism. x 2 Napoleon III’s Paris Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, declared himself emperor of France in 1853. His aim was to modernize the economy of France, create a sophisticated and centralized rail-transport system, and completely rebuild and glorify the capital city, Paris. This systematic development meant that, for most Parisians, life was utterly disrupted and altered from fundamental patterns. x 3 Baudelaire and the Definition of Modernism A poet and art critic named Charles Baudelaire began writing systematically about art in 1846. His basic idea was that art should be "of its own times," and he struggled to find artists who would embody his ideals. x 4 The Shock of the New Edouard Manet, the son of a prominent civil servant, was among the best-educated and most authoritatively independent artists of the 19th century. He painted works that, although fundamentally Baudelairian, actually transcend Baudelaire. Manet's painting is as great as Baudelaire's poetry, and greater than his art criticism.

x 5 The Painters of Modern Life By 1865 Manet's fame made him the de facto leader of a group of young painters who wanted to push painting further and further into modern life. These artists included Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Frédéric Bazille, Camille Pissarro, and Paul Cézanne—all of whom would become central members of the Impressionist group. x 6 Pierre-Auguste Renoir Of the young artists in Manet's circle, Auguste Renoir was the most naturally fluent and, hence, sensual painter. His works vary widely in composition, subject, and style, indicating a willingness to experiment that was greater than that of any of his colleagues. x 7 Impressions in the Countryside In 1869 Monet, Renoir, Sisley, and Pissarro all moved to a landscape along the Seine just west of Paris and easily accessible to the capital by train. The aesthetic created by these four men in what we might call the Cradle of Impressionism stressed the modern and the mutable.

The landscapes were not only up-to-date in terms of their fashionable urban/suburban subjects, but also in their fascination with the frank use of materials. x 8 Paris under Siege The Second Empire crumbled in 1870 when, after provocation from Prussia, France declared war. Inadequately prepared, the French endured a humiliating defeat. This was followed by another in a series of 19th-century French revolutions, the Commune, based completely in Paris. These upheavals caused many Impressionists to leave Paris and France, and had notable effects on their lives and work. x 9 The First Exhibition Within two years of the group's return to Paris, they had organized themselves into a new and, in French art, unprecedented private and independent group of artists. Their aim was to organize an exhibition of their own work on their own terms, outside the governmental strictures that limited artistic freedom in France. The exhibition, in May of 1874, quickly came to be called an exhibition of Impressionists or an Impressionist Exhibition, possibly based on the title of a quickly painted canvas by Monet entitled Impression: Sunrise.

x 10 Monet and Renoir in Argenteuil After the First Exhibition, a core group of the artists spent the summer together in the suburban town of Argenteuil, just west of Paris, a popular spot for sailing on the Seine. That summer can easily be considered the classic moment of suburban Impressionism. x 11 Cézanne and Pissarro in Pontoise While "The School of Argenteuil" painted modern suburban landscapes along the Seine, Camille Pissarro gathered a different group of artists around the much less-modern town of Pontoise, on the river Oise. Although several artists were part of this group, the most important, after Pissarro, was the young provincial painter, Paul Cézanne. x 12 Berthe Morisot Berthe Morisot was the first woman in the history of French art to have a career comparable to the best of her male colleagues. She was also the first to be accepted completely by a group of male artists, including Manet, Degas, and Renoir. Her social position in the haute bourgeoisie and her gender shaped her oeuvre powerfully.

x 13 The Third Exhibition In 1877 a relative newcomer to the group, Gustave Caillebotte, organized the third Impressionist Exhibition. His modern and thoroughly urban works anchored what can now be called the single most important of all eight Impressionist exhibitions, defining the major artists for the next several generations. x 14 Edgar Degas One artist, more than any other, represented the modern urban condition as a psychological as well as social condition. Edgar Degas created a body of work in various media that defines Parisian modernism through the interaction of figures with their settings. x 15 Gustave Caillebotte Caillebotte was the wealthiest of all the artists associated with Impressionism. Long known as a collector and patron of the group, he was recognized as a painter in his own right only after World War II, when works from the family collection began to be acquired by major museums. x 16 Mary Cassatt Mary Cassatt was a well-born American painter who had worked extensively in Europe before she met Edgar Degas in 1876. He introduced her into the Impressionist circle, and she became the only American painter who was a major force in the movement.

Like Morisot, Cassatt's paintings depict the lives of wealthy women. x 17 Manet’s Later Works Edouard Manet is known today chiefly as a painter of major Salon Paintings in the 1860s, and as the creator of a late masterpiece, The Bar at the Folies-Bergeres. That view is incorrect and undervalues the importance of his Impressionist experiments. He is among the few great painters in the history of art who adapted his style as a mature painter to that of younger artists. x 18 Departures Renoir and Monet became increasingly successful in the early 1880s and, perhaps as a result, increasingly dissatisfied with the group dynamics and politics of the Impressionists. Each of them also became restive about Paris and its suburbs as the sole subject of their art. x 19 Paul Gauguin A young banker-stockbroker named Paul Gauguin met Pissarro in the late 1870s and became a major collector of Impressionism. He also embarked on a career as an amateur painter and sculptor, and exhibited with the Impressionists in their last four exhibitions.

x 20 The Final Exhibition In 1885 Pissarro went to visit a young, academically trained painter named Georges Seurat. This meeting changed both men's careers and the subsequent history of art, introducing a scientific rigor into conception, composition, and execution of art. Their collaboration brought an end to the Impressionist experiment when they dominated the final Impressionist Exhibition in April of 1886. x 21 The Studio of the South—Van Gogh and Gauguin A young Dutch painter, Vincent van Gogh, came to Paris in February of 1886 and visited the final Impressionist exhibition. He befriended many of the artists but came increasingly under the spell of Paul Gauguin. In 1888, van Gogh moved to Arles in the south of France and succeeded in convincing Gauguin to join him to create an artistic brotherhood called "The Studio of the South." x 22 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, the only son of the Comte de Toulouse, was the wealthiest and most nobly born painter in the history of French art.

All of Toulouse-Lautrec's early subjects have their origins in the art of Manet and Degas. Hence, Lautrec can be considered a second-generation Impressionist. x 23 The Nabis In the late 1880s a small group of young men formed a brotherhood of artists called "Nabis" (the Hebrew word for prophet). Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard, the most important artists of the group, took the informal art of Impressionism into the interiors of 1890s Paris—a realm relatively unexplored by the Impressionists themselves. x 24 La Fin After their final exhibition, boycotted by Renoir and Monet, the Impressionists worked more or less independently of each other. Monet's pictorial production of the 1890s was dominated by the concept of "series" paintings. Pissarro and Degas also devoted much of that decade to series of their own. x Lecture Titles Clone Content from Your Professor tab What's Included Reviews Rated 4.7 out of 5 by 83 reviewers. Rated 5 out of 5 by Jmkm49 Wonderful History of Impressionism Dr.

Brettell does a great job in explaining and showing the Impressionist and their historical context. Although this course was recorded in 2002, it still holds up very well. August 23, 2016 Rated 5 out of 5 by JonC Impressionism is not quite what I thought it was This wonderfully detailed course covers the impressionist movement in Paris (and beyond) from the 1850's to the end of the century. I thought I was fairly familiar with the art, and that is more or less true. But the course opened my eyes to the amazing inter-connectedness of the artists and made their time in history, espeically the history of Paris, really come to life. Wonderful course. Well illustrated with slides of important paintings. I would have liked to see more of the familiar impressionist painting shown at least in passing, but the limited time is a problem for showing everything. August 17, 2016 Rated 5 out of 5 by artlover23 Loved Every Minute! Highly recommend! This is a great course and the professor was excellent.

He is extremely knowledgeable but made it easy to understand the history leading up to Impressionism, the artists, and their various relationships, and influences. I look forward to watching it again. I felt the professor was an outstanding speaker and loved his passion and enthusiasm for art. The best course I have watched so far. August 10, 2016 Rated 5 out of 5 by beachboywantabe LIKE A GOOD NOVEL, WAS ALMOST SAD TO FINISH My son and I both enjoy art, but we are not artists nor have we formally studied art. We are both drawn to impressionism, like many are, and wanted a course to better prepare for our visit to the art museums of Washington DC and Philly. We went through Sharon Hirch's "How to Understand Art" to get some foundations, and then turned to Brettell's "History of Impressionism." We loved the lectures, and they significantly enriched our visit to the Phillips (Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party among others), the National Gallery, and the Barnes in Philly. Brettell did a great job in combining the art with commentary on the context of the period and perspective on the artists as human beings. Loved it all!

July 17, 2016 2017-01-18 Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art Works of Art (16) Essay Famed for his sensual nudes and charming scenes of pretty women, Auguste Renoir was a far more complex and thoughtful painter than generally assumed. He was a founding member of the Impressionist movement , nevertheless he ceased to exhibit with the group after 1877. From the 1880s until well into the twentieth century, he developed a monumental, classically inspired style that influenced such avant-garde giants as Pablo Picasso . Renoir began his artistic career as a porcelain painter; however, his ambitions to become a professional artist prompted him to seek other instruction. He began copying paintings at the Louvre in 1860 and eventually entered the studio of the academic artist Charles Gleyre, where he met Claude Monet , Frédéric Bazille, and Alfred Sisley.

The four friends soon began painting in the forest of Fontainebleau , although Renoir always remained dedicated to figure painting and portraits. His early female nudes were heavily influenced by the earthy palette and buxom figure types of Realist painter Gustave Courbet . In the summer of 1869, Renoir painted for two months alongside Monet at La Grenouillère, a boating and bathing establishment outside Paris ( 29.100.112 ). Their sketchlike technique of broad, loose brushstrokes and their brightened palette attempted to capture the effects of the sun streaming through the trees on the rippling water. This painting campaign catalyzed the development of the Impressionist aesthetic ( 1974.356.32 ). After several of his paintings were rejected by the Salon in the early 1870s, Renoir decided to join Monet in establishing an independent artist’s society. The Impressionists , as they were called, sought to capture modern life and Renoir’s works from this period focused on everyday people, streets, and surroundings ( 61.101.14 ; 1974.356.34 ).

His most iconic painting from this period, Dance at the Moulin de la Galette ( Musée d’Orsay, Paris, RF2739 ), explores dappled light as it flutters over young Montmartre revelers flirting, drinking, and dancing . Renoir’s penchant for portraiture attracted the attention of a range of patrons with avant-garde sensibilities. From the politically radical pastry cook Eugène Murer ( 2003.20.9 ) to the wealthy society lady Madame Georges Charpentier ( 07.122 ), Renoir painted all of his patrons with affectionate charm. One of the most splendid and ambitious portraits Renoir ever realized, the painting of Marguerite Charpentier with her children blends a modern informality and intimacy with the compositional rigor of an old master portrait. The painting also prominently displays the Charpentiers’ advanced taste for Japanese arts . Portraiture sustained Renoir financially, especially after the Charpentier painting was exhibited at the 1879 Salon to great success. Renoir, in fact, met one of his best patrons, the banker Paul Bérard, at Mme Charpentier’s home.

They became very close—Renoir painted all of his children ( 61.101.15 ) and visited the Bérards’ country house in Wargemont regularly, where he explored other genres such as seascapes ( 56.135.7 ) and luxuriant still lifes ( 61.101.12 ). With his newfound financial freedom, Renoir began to explore other artistic directions. His doubts about the spontaneity and impermanence of the Impressionist aesthetic led him to refuse to participate in the fourth Impressionist exhibition in 1878. Instead, Renoir decided to look back to the old masters for an art of structure, craft, and permanence. His first painting in this vein, Luncheon of the Boating Party ( Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., 1637 ), exhibits a new solidity and clarity in the depiction of the figures and their placement within space, especially when compared to the Moulin de la Galette.

Renoir left for Italy in 1881 to continue his self-education in the “grandeur and simplicity of the ancient painters.” He returned enamored of Raphael and Pompeii and his figures consequently became more crisply drawn and sculptural in character ( 29.100.125 ). Reclining Nude ( 2003.20.12 ) is an excellent example of his painting style in the mid-1880s. The marble or porcelainlike figure is sharply defined against an impressionistically brushed landscape. The spatial relationship between the nude and the amorphous background is deliberately unclear. While the back view of the nude quotes the coldly linear odalisques of Ingres, the bushy vegetation and coastal view recall the landscapes Renoir painted on the English Channel island of Guernsey, which he visited in 1883 ( 56.135.9 ). This series of sculptural nudes in a vague landscape culminated in Renoir’s Large Bathers now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art ( 1963-116-13 ).

By the late 1880s and early 1890s, Renoir had shifted his investigation of the old masters from linear classicism to the coloristic traditions of Titian and Rubens as well as the unabashedly sensual beauty of eighteenth-century French art. Young Girl Bathing ( 1975.1.199 ) exhibits this softened touch. The figure’s amplitude, the way her hair blends into the lush landscape, her demure glance away from the viewer, and the caressing brushstrokes allude simultaneously to the nudes of Rubens and Fragonard . Renoir’s most important series of the decade came from an invitation by the French government to execute a painting for the Musée du Luxembourg, a new museum devoted to the work of living artists. Renoir made five versions of Two Young Girls at the Piano for the Minister of Fine Arts to choose from; the version in the Metropolitan’s Robert Lehman Collection is one of the finest ( 1975.1.201 ). The subject of girls at a piano recalls eighteenth-century French genre scenes , especially those of Fragonard.

Renoir had painted the subject several times before, most notably in a major portrait commission ( 1998.325.3 ). In the early twentieth century, despite old age and declining health, Renoir persisted in artistic experimentation. He took up sculpture, hiring a young assistant and collaborator, Richard Guino, to create models after his designs. He continued to paint portraits and his Tilla Durieux is arguably the finest of his late portraits ( 61.101.13 ). The pyramidal composition, lavish costume, and textiles framing the sitter derive from Titian’s portraits, attesting to Renoir’s continued admiration of Renaissance art . The warm, red tonalities and expansive sense of monumentality, however, are features of his late style. During this period, Renoir lived mostly in the south of France near the Mediterranean coast. His physical deterioration was the impetus for this change of climate, but Renoir was also drawn to an arcadian ideal of Mediterranean classicism in his art. This artistic preoccupation is nowhere more apparent then in his twentieth-century bathers.

The Rubenesque nudes he had been painting reached a level of unprecedented exaggeration in the twentieth century, culminating in the massive Bathers at the Musée d’Orsay ( RF2795 ). Mary Cassatt infamously described these pictures as of “enormously fat red women with very small heads.” Nevertheless, their over-the-top vision of edenic plenitude was admired by Picasso , Henri Matisse , and Aristide Maillol. Renoir was celebrated in the early twentieth century as one of the greatest modern French painters, not just for his work as an Impressionist but also for the uncompromising aesthetic of his late works. Cindy Kang Institute of Fine Arts, New York University May 2011 Citation Kang, Cindy. “Auguste Renoir (1841–1919).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (May 2011) Further Reading Bailey, Colin B., et al. Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age. Exhibition catalogue. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.

Distel, Anne. Renoir: A Sensuous Vision. New York: Abrams, 1995. Einecke, Claudia, and Sylvie Patrie, eds. Renoir in the 20th Century. Exhibition catalogue. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2010. House, John, et al. Renoir. Exhibition catalogue. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1985. Additional Essays by Cindy Kang Kang, Cindy. “ Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) .” (March 2011) Related

Question: What style of art was exemplefied by Monet and Renoir?
Answer: Impressionism