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IMPRESSIONISM AND POST-

IMPRESSIONISM

AP ART HISTORY

THE IMPRESSIONISTS ORGANIZED THEIR FIRST EXHIBIT IN 1874 IN PARIS, USING THE NAME: ANONYMOUS SOCIETY OF PAINTERS, SCULPTORS, PRINTMAKERS. EACH MEMBER HAD A UNIQUE STYLE

IMPRESSIONISM OVERVIEW

Claude Monet

Their depiction of modern life

Their rejection of established European styles

The embracing of new experimental ideas known as “avant garde”

The incorporation of new techniques such as short, choppy brushstrokes, using pure bright colors.

New synthetic pigments and ready made paint solid in tubes

Interested in painting “plain air”, landscaping

ARTISTS WERE UNITED

In 1853, after more than 200 years, Japanese ports reopened to trade with west

Woodcut prints by Japanese masters of the ukiyo-e tradition, as well as other exotic objects such as fans and kimonos, became easily available in Europe.

The Japanese prints and items had a large effect on the artwork of many impressionists as well as post-impressionists.

Japonisme : the Japanese influence on European art during impressionism

Van Gogh – Japonisme -impressionism

Van Gogh like many other impressionists and post impressionists artists was one of the admirers of Japanese art.

Le Japonaise by Claude Monet

Flowering Plum Tree by Van Gogh 1887 (Hiroshige on

the Left)

Key impressionists artists

Claude Monet

Edgar Degas

Pierre Renoir

Camille PissarroPaul Cezanne

Van Gogh

Claude Monet, Rouen

Cathedral: The Portal 1892

• This one of 30 paintings that Monet completed using the same composition.

• Each one captures a unique tmeof the day, year and weather.

• Monet was recording his experiences with light and its effect on local color.

• He was well known for his other series of paintings using subjects as haystacks and water lilies

Auguste-Renoir : Luncheon of the Boating Party oil on canvas 1880

• In this artwork, the changing character of 19th century French society is evident. Businessmen, aristocrats, artists, were all welcome in the same establishments.

• Although the scene appears to be spontaneous, Renoir carefully crafted the composition to achieve this effect.

Gustave Caillebotte –Paris: A rainy Day oil on Canvas 1877

In this piece, Caillebotte captures the changes that Paris underwent in 1851 under the rule of Napoleon III.

Bron Haussman, prefect of Paris, transformed the medieval city into a modern one. Old buildings were torn down and boulevards were widened.

The cropping of the composition is evidence of the influence of the new medium of photography.

Caillebotte included the Gare Saint Lazare Train Station in the background which was new at that time.

Paris: A Rainy Day by Caillebotte in 1877

Edgar Degas – The Tub (pastel on paper 1885)

The influence of Japanese woodcut prints can be seen in the use of an elevated viewpoint, the semiabstract areas of the composition, and the simple everyday subject matter.

Although Degas was not interested in the effects of light or in landscape painting, his style is similar to that of impressionists.

Degas was the first artist to elevate pastel to a medium used for finished work rather than just for sketches.

Degas – The Tub 1885-1886

Mary Cassatt –The Bath, oil on canvas 1893

Cassatt was the only American to exhibit with the impressionists

She did many artworks that depict children being cared for by their mothers. These reflect new ideas about raising children. After 1870, French scientists and physicians encouraged mothers to care for their children themselves and to include regular bathing to their routine.

She liked depiction of common elements in women´s lives found among the floating world of Japanese prints.

The elevated viewpoint and simplified color and patterns are evidence of her respect for the Japanese style.

Cassatt – The Bath (oil on canvas 1893)

Post-Impressionism

Post-Impressionism in Western painting, movement in France thatrepresented both an extension of Impressionism and a rejection of that style’s inherent limitations. The term Post-Impressionism wascoined by the English art critic Roger Fry for the work of such late 19th-century painters as Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and others.

. Impressionism was based, in its strictest sense, on the objectiverecording of nature in terms of the fugitive effects of colour and light. The Post-Impressionists rejected this limited aim in favour of more ambitious expression, admitting their debt, however, to thepure, brilliant colours of Impressionism, its freedom from traditionalsubject matter, and its technique of defining form with short brushstrokes of broken colour. The work of these painters formed a basis for several contemporary trends and for early 20th-century modernism.

POST IMPRESSIONISM

Henri de Toulouse – At the Moulin Rouge (oil on Canvas 1892)

This is a depiction of the one of Toulouse Lautrec´s favorite nightspots in Paris

Toulouse depicted himself and his cousin in the background and painted his friends as well.

His work is very personal and emotional and often contains sarcastic edge.

He often incorporated the harsh indoor lighting of the clubs and cafes that he frequented.

The style of the work is influenced by Japanese woodcuts in the use of exaggerated color, the caricature like subjects, the use of outlines, and the mask life faces.

Toulouse – At the Moulin Rouge, 1892-1895

Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (oil on canvas, 1884-1886)

Seurat depicts people from all social classes enjoying a popular place of leisure.

He created the technique called “pointilism” which uses tiny dots of color to paint.

His work must be viewed from far away in order for other colors to blend in together optically. This technique was based on new ideas about science of color.

Georges Seurat, A dundayon La Grande Jatte

Paul Gauguin: Where do we Come From? What are we? Where are we going? (oil on canvas 1897-1898)

This piece depicts Gauguins fascination with Tahitian life and culture.

It also represents the cycle of life from birth through old age. This is very personal done prior to a suicide attempt.

Gauguin is known for his mastery of colors and the motive power of his palette.

Paul Gauguin: Where do we Come From? What are we? Where are we going?

Van Gogh – The Night Café (oil on canvas 1888)

Van Gogh is well known for his prolific output as well as for his ability to display his tortured inner world.

His use of bold color, impasto, and swirling brushstrokes made even the most mundane subject matter seen emotional.

This piece depicts the interior of a Café in Arles, the large gaslit room is typical of the time period.

The few people in the room help create an atmosphere of loneliness and desolation in the painting.

Van Gogh – The Night Café

Paul Cezanne . The Basket of Apples (oil on canvas 1895)

Cezanne focused on traditional themes such as portraits, still life and landscapes.

He explored the underlying shapes of objects as well as the use of color, rather than value to create form.

He deliberately made some areas flat and used disjointed perspective.

Cezannes work was inspirational to Pablo Picasso and the abstract art of the 20th century.

Cezanne

Van Gogh- Starry Night (oil on canvas)

Van Gogh shows the whirling and exploding stars, the earth and humanity huddling beneath it.

Cezanne, Mount Sainte Victoire

Cezanne replaced the transitory visual effects of changing atmospheric conditions that occupied the Impressionists

Edgar Degas, The Rehearsal on Stage, 1874 Oil on Canvas

Worked mostly indoors on subjects that suggest movement, such as ballet dancers

Asymmetrical compositions

Firmly drawn bodies contrast with feathery brushstrokes of costuming, setting

Influence of Japanese prints in compositional elements

Figures often seen from the back, cut off at the edges of the composition, or marginalized

Edgar Degas, The Rehearsal on Stage, 1874

Edouard Manet, Bar at the FoliesBergere, 1881-1882, oil on canvas

Faraway look of barmaid who seems bored by her customer

Mirror reflects into our world

Uncertainty as to what the mirror reflects

Trapeze act in far upper left corner

Composition pushes goods up close to customer

Edouard Manet, Bar at the Folies Bergere,

James Whistler, Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist’s Mother, 1871, oil on canvas

Debt to Japanese art in curtain design

Large areas of flat colors

Severity of composition, reflects the Protestant New England severity of his mother

Avoids the sentimentality of motherhood, and instead creates this portrait as an “arrangement”

Whistler etching of “Black Lion Wharf” hanging in the background

James Whistler, Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist’s Mother