16/10/06 - History of Art - Impressionism

Style labels. Impressionism - modernist painting. Dominant way of understanding modern art. Mid-twentieth century art considered a high point. Greenberg considered contemporaries (e.g. Jackson Pollock) significant.

Avant-garde movements at this time in quick succession. Hence style labels. 'Isms' given by artists themselves. But style labels too linear for precision. Not complete enough. 1) Too much emphasis on technique and not enough on content. 2) Fails to place movements historically. 3) Emphasis of abstraction tends to deny concept of figure painting.

Impressionism - was it a coherent movement? Assumed to encapsulate coherence, but loses validity. Was subject matter important?

First Impressionist exhibition in 1874. Not particularly revolutionary artists. Landscapes following naturalism.

Pontoise and Barbizon. Similar high viewpoint, landscape. Both try natural way of painting.

Boudin, The Pier at Trouville 1869.

Jongkind, Marine 1864.

En plein air. Out of doors painting completely. Artists did this. Less emphasis on finish of painting, clear brushstrokes. Artist's touch a metaphor for process of 'seeing'.

Monet, Mouth of the Seine at Honfleur 1865.

Visible brushstrokes. Technique, formal developments. What about subject matter? Renoir, La Grenouillere 1869- 'froggy place'.

Monet, La Grenouillere 1869.

Renoir Bather with a Griffon 1870.

Content - 'flowerpot', false island in lake. Desribed as "some bad sketches" by Monet. Criticised therefore the style label. Experimental pictures.

Impressionist exhibition set up because their pictures were rejected by Salon. Mixed reactions from critics.
"An Exhibition of an Anonymous Society of Painters, Engravers and Sculptures." "Impression" originally a landscape term for quickly sketching rapid movements in nature.

Bertha Morissot, The Cradle 1872.

Degas, The Dancing Lesson 1871.

Figure painters.

Cezanne, A Modern Olympia c.1873.

Monet, Impression, Sunrise 1872

Cezanne's crude, joking. Monet's unfinished. Name stuck. A 'negative' name, coined by caracaturist. Degas did not like it.

Monet, Luncheon c.1873.

Formal. Highly finished. Detail. Not impressionistic.
Pissarro.
These were criticised for political/contextual reasons. Three years after revolution. 'Civil war' of Paris. Also, level of finish was crude. Middle class didn't want "careless", "rushed" art. And composition a problem - unfocused, ambiguous focus, unusual. Daring for artists.

Monet Red Boats at Argenteuil 1875

and Vineyards in the Snow 1873.

Rapid touches, painting quickly, observing quickly. Overall effect. Eyes do not focus on things, but everything in general. Honest painting.

No fixed style. Pissarro, A Woman Carding Wool 1875.

Palette knife, thick, rough handling. Garden of the Mathurins, Pontoise 1876.

Degas, friends with Cassatt, Morissot, Renoir, who painted figures. Monet and Sisley were landscape painters.

Degas Rehearsal of the Ballet on Stage c.1874.

Professional dancers, drawings. He combined the elements to look like he'd been inside the theatre. Pictured a 'moment'. Looks real, but contrived from pictures.

Two Dancers c.1874.

Reuses same figures. Lots of blank space suggests movement and time.

Impressionism not a coherent movement, then.

Pissarro agriculture. Industrial harvest. Rural harvest.

Corot and Sisley Chemin de Sevres, Louveciennes 1873.

Increase of suburbs. 1870s. Sisley, Monet, Renoir interested in social change.

Monet Rue Montorgeuil Decked out with Flags c.1878.

National holiday of celebration.

Degas Edmond Duranty 1879.

Shows his friend Duranty. Subtle portrait. Shows face, body language, clothing (outdoor coat worn indoors), his occupation (scholar, in study), neat piles, facial expression.

Renoir La Grenouillere 1869.

Particular places of social identities - not merely landscapes, etc.

Daumier shows difficulty of seeing things on stage. Crowds. Private language of Daumier. Observes modern life. Daumier The Orchestra During a Performance of the Tragedy 1852.

Influence of Japanese prints. New ways of seeing.

Hiroshige Sudden Shower over Ohashi Bridge 1857.

Kuniyoshi Mount Euji seen through a Fishing Net on a Clear Day c.1843.

Monet painted accidental pictures from Japanese prints, foreground objects mashing focus of background. Banks of the Seine, Spring through Trees 1878.

Degas and Monet, opposite poles.
Impressionism - actuality of looking, particular instant of time, naturalism. Monet and Degas both.
But taken as landscapist term, the figurative artists Degas and Cassatt not included.

Therefore more than one definition.