Part I - This is an introduction to the Impressionists – a group of painters in the 1800’s who had a new way of seeing the world and a new way of putting that vision on the canvas.

The Impressionists – a group of rebel painters seeking to change the way people think about art.

Before the Impressionists, artists drew the edges of their objects with lines of paint. They were trying to create Realism.

Compare a realist landscape to one

by an Impressionist.

Compare a realist still life to one by an

Impressionist.

Compare a realist portrait to those by an Impressionist.

The Impressionists used loose open brush work instead of carefully painted smooth brush strokes.

Impressionism was a way of painting that showed the general

impression of the light on a scene or object.

Impressionists use unmixed primary and secondary colors

and small brushstrokes to show colorful reflected

light.

The Impressionists also used dashes and dabs of paint to

form the edges of objects and they had new brighter colors in tubes. They could

get out of their stuffy studios and

paint outdoors.

. Claude Monet was one of the leaders of the Impressionists and he used a broken color brush technique

rather than the more traditional method of applying the paint to the canvas.

MONET

This is the painting from which the Impressionists and their “movement” got their name.

The critic and reporter Leroy saw this painting at one of the Impressionists’ art shows and wrote about it in the paper.

He said that the “Impressionists” knew nothing about painting… he used the term as a slam against them… but they liked it and adopted it.

Impression Soleil Levant, 1873

Monet’s painting, Impression Sunrise - gave the "Impressionists" their name.

Pierre Auguste Renoir’s paintings

featured:delicate brushwork,

scenes of people having fun,

and light layered colors This made

him a favorite with Impressionist fans.

RENOIR

Monet and Renoir painted together along the river

banks.

They wanted to capture the light at certain times of the day

before the sun moved.

More than anything – he and Renoir desperately wanted to have a painting accepted to be shown in the great art show called the Salon.

However, their work was often rejected, because

they, and other Impressionists - did not paint the way the judges

liked.

Let’s compare Two Sisters on the Terrace done in 1881 by Renoir to an earlier work of “Realism” Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Gypsy Girl with Mandolin, done in 1870, only 11 years earlier.

What are some similarities and some differences?

The judges liked paintings in dark hues, that told stories from history, or made ordinary people seem ideal (better than they were). The Impressionists showed people as ordinary people, doing ordinary things.

During the last 20 years of his life Renoir was crippled by arthritis; unable to move his hands freely, he continued to paint, however, by using a brush strapped to his arm. Renoir died at Cagnes, a village in the south of France, on December 3, 1919.

Claude Monet spent the last years of his life working on twelve large canvas, The Water Lilies. These paintings are installed in their own special museum.

Part IIOther

Impressionist Painters

Berthe MorisotThe first woman to join the circle of the French Impressionist painters, she exhibited in all but one of their shows, and, despite the protests of friends and family, continued to participate in their struggle for recognition.

Her own carefully composed, brightly hued canvases are often studies of women, either out-of-doors or in domestic settings. Morisot and American artist Mary Cassatt are generally considered the most important women painters of the later 19th century.

Known for her perceptive depictions of women and children, Mary Cassatt was one of the few American artists active in the nineteenth-century French painting scene.

Mary Cassatt

Above is a Mary’s self-portrait.

Mary never married, but had a close friendship with Edgar Degas, who painted scenes with horse races & ballerinas.

Mary Cassatt

Edgar Degas was from a wealthy banking family, and although he studied law… he eventually became a serious painter. His favorite subjects were those a wealthy man would like, The opera, ballet and the race track.

DEGAS

This picture of young girls at the riding stable shows Dega’s technique of “cropping” his images – so they look like a snapshot.They have the look one would get from a camera, which was a new invention that greatly influenced the thinking of the Impressionist painters.

Degas and American, Mary Cassatt were good friends, and he helped her use the same style of composition (arrangement or design) in her own work.

Vincent Van Gogh is a controversial painter who learned from the Impressionists he met, but went on to add more personal “expression” into his paintings. He did not start out wanting to be an artist. He was a teacher and he worked in a bookstore. He then became a minister. He started painting and began showing the lives of the poor people he was helping.

Vincent Van Gogh moved to Paris to live with his brother Theo in 1886, and he found that his dark muddy palette of colors were out of date and were being replaced by the spectrum of Impressionist color. Van Gogh soon adopted these Impressionist and Post (after) Impressionist idea's and began painting with his own highly personal style.

The public was not ready for the intense style of Van Gogh, his bright colors and thick paint laid on the canvas in lines of bright textured layers. He only sold two works in his life, he was very poor and was supported by his brother Theo.

Van Gogh left Paris for the fresh air of southern France, and there he did some of his most inspired work. He painted in a fast a furious style, sometimes putting the paint on the canvas right out of the tube.

Paul Cezanne

Sometimes called the “Father of Modern Art” because his Impressionist paintings were so abstract.

We will be going to the computer lab and search for a landscape by one of the Impressionist painters – the picture you choose will be the painting you do in acrylic paint on canvas for part of your 20% final grade. The other part will be written , and wil be done in class – you do not need to come on exam day.

Goals for the Computer Lab:

1. Look at the paintings of the Impressionists, and find a outdoor scene / landscape you like.

2. Check the painting with me. It must be;

- colorful & challenging, but not too hard

- you may also bring in a photo of the outdoors you have taken yourself and use it

(However – you still need to have a colored picture by one of the Impressionist painters to match for

style and colors)

3. Copy and paste on a Word Document / The name of the painting

& artist, and your name must be typed on the document. Print to Color Printer.

http://www.renoir.org.yu/default.asp

Before you leave the computer lab – you will hand me a colored picture of your landscape. Type:- your name

- the name of the artist

- the year

- the title of the painting

6” x 8”