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Unit Sheet #22 Chapter 28 and Post‐Impressionism

Work of Art Artist Medium Date Page # Cathedral: The Portal Monet Painting 1894 803 Le Moulin de la Galette Renoir Painting 1876 806 A Bar at the Folies‐Bergere Manet Painting 1882 807 The Rehearsal Degas Painting 1874 807 The Bath Cassatt Painting 1892 809 Nocturne in and Gold McNeill Painting 1875 810 At the Moulin Rouge Toulouse‐Lautec Painting 1892‐1895 811 A Sunday on La Grande Jatte Seurat Painting 1884‐1886 812 Night Café Painting 1888 814 Starry Night Van Gogh Painting 1889 815 Gauguin Painting 1888 815 Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? Gauguin Painting 1897 816 Mont Sainte‐Victoire Cezanne Painting 1902‐1904 817 Basket of Apples Cezanne Painting 1895 818 Sleeping Gypsy Rousseau Painting 1897 821 Munch Painting 1893 823 The Kiss Klimt Painting 1907‐1908 823 Ugolino and His Children Carpeaux 1865‐1897 824 Gates of Hell Rodin Sculpture 1880‐1900 826 Casa Mila, Barcelona Gaudi Architecture 1907 829 Eiffel Tower Eiffel Architecture 1889 830 Carson, Pirie, Scott Building Sullivan Architecture 1899‐1904 832

Preview: The period from 1870 to 1900 saw intense artistic experimentation and development, particularly in . The Impressionists, a group that included , Pierre‐Auguste Renoir, , Berthe Morisot and others, held their first group in 1874, showing many works that had been painted en plein air (outdoors) and that captured scenes of contemporary urban life. “Post‐Impressionism” is term extended to artists such as , van Gogh, , and Paul Cézenne, who developed beyond the sketch‐like quality of Impressionism and explored the structure of painted form or the emotions wrought by color. French Symbolists, including Gustave Moreau, , and , painted subjective scenes that transcended the everyday world and were often dreamlike and sensuous. The leading sculptor of this era was Auguste Rodin, who explored the representation of movement and energy in bronze and marble. Rodin often sculpted fragmented forms that had immense influence on later modern sculptors. Architectural developments in this period varied: the Arts and Crafts and movements opposed modern mass production and embraced natural forms; the Eiffel Tower’s exposed iron skeleton represented the possibilities for new architectural expressions; and in the U.S., Louis Sullivan integrated organic form and the metal frame to become a pioneer in skyscraper design.

Impressionism c. 1875 France

Impressionism – Context: “ is the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent” –Baudelaire 1. First Impressionist Exhibition held in in 1874 2. Science of optics and color theory = analysis of perception (especially of color) 3. Japan is opened by Admiral Perry 1853 – forces trade with Europe = results in influx of Japanese prints 4. The emergence of an urban middle class = new patrons of art, new subject matter of painting 5. Synthetic chemicals for pigments = produced brilliant colors 6. Pre­mixed oil paint in lead tubes = portability/ painting outdoors 7. Photography continues to influence painting = especially in terms of composition 8. Increased use of by artists and commercial artists = wide distribution of art 1

Unit Sheet #22 Chapter 28 Impressionism and Post‐Impressionism

Characteristics of the Impressionist Style: 1. Rendering visual world as it appears to the eye – not as it physically exists ‐ Emphasis on optical sensations – Impressionist subject matter is the experience of looking 2. The surface of the painting asserts itself – texture, brush stroke, lack of modeling, thick paint ‐ Painters minimize the effects of modeling and perspective, forcing the viewer to look at the painted surface and to recognize it as a flat plane covered with pigment ‐ Often short, choppy brush strokes 3. Worked outdoors directly from nature – trying to capture transitory light/ color effects ‐ Portable pigments in tubes make possible working outdoors using intense contrasting colors 4. Representation of atmosphere, climate and light effects ‐ Artists work rapidly (or in sequence) to capture the changing light ‐ Forms bathed in light create the illusion (“an envelope of light”) 5. Worked directly on a white canvas (not neutralized by or green like before)

Influences on the Impressionist Style: Impressionist Color Theory: Based on scientific and medical discoveries ‐ Light is the source of our experience of color – white is made up of colored light ‐ Local color (the actual color of an object) is modified by the quality of the light in which reflections from other objects effect ‐ Shadows are not black/ gray but composed of colored modified by the reflections or other conditions ‐ Two complementary colors in small amounts placed right next to each other, bland in the eye to neutral tones ‐ Juxtaposition of colors on a canvas for the eye to fuse at a distance produces a more intense hue than the mixing of the same colors on the artist’s palette

Japanese Wood Prints – influence on the composition in Degas’s work (which artists collected) 1. Asymmetry of compositions – off balance, off center placements of subjects 2. Dramatic cropping of image/ picture plane 3. Use of flat areas of color/ pattern – less traditional modeling 4. Stacking up object in picture plane to create space/ depth 5. Leaving large areas “empty” in a composition

Photography: 1. Cropping of subjects at edges of the picture plane gives casual “snap‐shot” quality 2. Imbalanced or asymmetrical compositions – the most important element in the painting is often NOT located at the center of the canvas

Impressionism – Characteristics of Impressionism: ‐ Rendering visual world as it appears to the eye, not as it physically exists ‐ Painters minimize the effects of modeling and perspective, forcing the viewer to look at the painted surface and to recognize it as a flat plane covered with pigment ‐ Emphasis on optical sensations and the immediacy of visual impression ‐ Worked outdoors directly from nature, trying to capture transitory light/color effects ‐ Forms bated in light create the illusion ‐ Worked directly on a white canvas (not neutralized by brown or green like before) ‐ Short, choppy brush strokes using intense and often contrasting colors

Claude Monet: ‐ The “subject” of Monet’s painting is color and light – the “sensations of color” ‐ Beginning in 1890, Monet paints the same subject in series – over and over again in different light at different times of the day and in different atmospheric conditions – 16 views of Waterloo Bridge in and 40 views of Rouen Cathedral ‐ The work in series recorded the passing of light/atmosphere/time over one object ‐ Form, outlines, contours, solidities melt away in an “envelope” of light which bathes everything equally ‐ Constructs a large garden at Giverny (north of Paris) and orchestrates a natural environment in which to paint ‐ Final series of Water lilies large scale works bordering on abstraction 2

Unit Sheet #22 Chapter 28 Impressionism and Post‐Impressionism

‐ Failing eye sight at the end of Monet’s life affects his work – brush strokes become looser and more gestural

Degas’s Art: “… my blanket was spread out on the floor of the studio” “I am a colorist in line” ‐ Influenced by the line of Ingres and the color of Delacroix ‐ The other Impressionist Painters – the fresh color, brush stroke, subject matter ‐ Photography (he experimented with photography later in life) – the sense of immediacy ‐ Influence of Japanese Wood Cuts on the Composition of Degas’s Work (he collected them): 1. Asymmetry 2. Dramatic cropping of image/picture plane 3. Use of flat areas of color/pattern 4. Stacking up objects in picture plane to create space/depth 5. Leaving large areas “empty” in a composition ‐ Attempts a studied informality in his compositions – works primarily in the studio from sketches and even photographs – a “pre­mediated instantaneousness” ‐ Due to failing eye sight and an aversion to painting the outdoors, does not embrace the Impressionist sensibility completely (the landscape on a summer holiday was “more Monet than my eyes could stand”) ‐ Major themes of his work (subject matter) are: 1. The opera/theater/music/ halls of Paris 2. Bathers/women 3. Horses (at the race track) 4. The ballet and ballerinas ‐ Subliminal or implied themes in his work: 1. The suppressed drama of human relationships (loneliness, death, family dysfunction) 2. Women’s sexuality (the bather’s naked backs like a promise withheld) 3. Intimacy with the world – transference through art (art a substitute for life) 4. Ephemeral quality of life – the everyday fleeting incidents that make up life 5. The isolated moments – the waiting, work, the rehearsal, the traveling of life, the fatigue, repetition, gesture of the lives 6. Reality does have a “hint of ugliness without which nothing works” 7. Regarding his use of light, Degas does not see himself as an Impressionist because his light does not dissolve images but articulates their forms and outlines and is not as interested in natural light sources but one light source which creates specific effects (as in the theater) – described as an “Impressionist of the night”

Auguste Renoir: ‐ Specialized in the human figure, pleasure of middle class ‐ Presented as unconscious of the observer (the artist) Post­Impressionism

“The Impressionists study color exclusively, but without freedom… The heed only the eye and neglect the mysterious centers of thought.” –Paul Gauguin

“The Neo­Impressionists were bringing their witness to the great struggle which is taking place between the workers and capitalism.” –

“Gauguin freed us from all the restraints which the idea of copying nature had placed upon us. For instance, is it was permissible to use vermilion in painting a tree which seemed reddish… Why not stress even to the point of deformation the curve of a beautiful shoulder or conventionalize the symmetry of a bough?” –

Post­Impressionist Artists: George Seurat, Paul Cezanne Major artists: , Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse­Lautrec

Less important artists: Signac, Bernard, Bonnard, Vuillard, Sisley, Denis

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Unit Sheet #22 Chapter 28 Impressionism and Post‐Impressionism

Context: 1. Reaction to Impressionism – Impressionist aesthetic exhausted – optical reality “played out” 2. Personal view of the artist primary – move away from naturalism and realism ‐ Stylization of subject matter or images constructed in some “invented order” ‐ Exploring the world of imagination 3. Political sub­text to work – working class/lower class/underworld of industrial revolution’s cities ‐ Alienation of modern cities and societies with disturbing undercurrents to work (and society) 4. Fascination with foreign in two respects: the “primitive” (non‐urban) and non‐western cultures/peoples 5. Experimentation with primary elements of art, painting style and art techniques ‐ Artists begin to concentrate on formal and stylistic aspects of art making ‐ Issues of artist’s personal (unique) style, and technique become central preoccupation 6. Art for art’s sake – one of the central investigations: how to make a truly ?

Characteristics of Post­Impressionist Painting: Variety of style – not one style but the emergence of individual styles 1. Variety of painting techniques ‐ The artist’s individual technique becomes a preoccupation/signature ‐ Paintings become formal exercises rather than records of visual reality 2. Variety of influences on artist’s styles ‐ Medieval art (Gauguin) ‐ Japanese art/prints (van Gogh) ‐ Commercial art/posters (Toulouse‐Lautrec) ‐ Exotic cultures of (Gauguin) 3. Varied subject matter of painting ‐ The exotic (Gauguin, Bernard) ‐ The fringes of modern cities (van Gogh, Seurat) ‐ The fringes of night life (Toulouse‐Lautrec)

Impressionism: Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Cassatt, Sisley, Pissarro Central idea: rendering visual world as it appears to the eye, not as it physically exists ‐ Emphasis on optical sensations and the immediacy of visual impression Subject Matter: middle class urban nouveau riche enjoying life in cities – landscapes, ‐ Rejection of idealistic interpretations and literary anecdotes ‐ Worked outdoors directly from nature trying to capture transitory light/color effects ‐ Spontaneous representation of atmosphere, climate and light effects Technique: painters minimize the effects of modeling and perspective, forcing the viewer to look at the painted surface and recognize it as a flat plane covered with pigment ‐ Create the illusion of forms bathed in light ‐ Artists worked directly on a white canvas (not neutralized by brown or green like before) ‐ Characteristically short, choppy brush strokes using intense and often contrasting colors accurately caught vibrating quality of light

Post­Impressionism: Cezanne, Seurat, van Gogh, Gauguin, Toulouse­Lautrec Central Idea: one of the central investigations: how to make a truly modern art – moving away from naturalism and realism toward the world of imagination ‐ Art concentrates on formal and stylistic aspects of art making constructed in some invented order Subject Matter: different subject matter than the Impressionists: urban, detached, individual ‐ Different relationship between the artist and the subject matter – individual’s relationship to society changed ‐ Political sub‐text to work (working class/lower class/underworld of cities – the ragged edges of industrial revolution’s cities) the modern found in the marginal areas of life and city ‐ Disturbing undercurrents to work (and society) ‐ Issues of artist’s style, technique, and form become central ‐ Innovation and diversity in subject matter and technique ‐ Fascination with foreign (primitive) cultures/peoples Technique: experimentation with primary elements of art, and painting technique ‐ Highly individual and identifiable painting techniques develop by each artist ‐ Personal view of reality imposed through stylization of subject matter order replaces spontaneity 4

Unit Sheet #22 Chapter 28 Impressionism and Post‐Impressionism

Rodin: Central idea: “He was the first to make of unfinishness and aesthetic principle…What matters in sculpture is not whether it is ‘finished’ or ‘complete’ but whether it conveys to the beholder the way it grew” –Janson Subject Matter: the human form, most often represented in vigorous movement or dramatic poses ‐ Often dramatic subject matter and complex themes with passion, emotion, sexual desire, longing, frustration, and inner agony Technique: dissolves the surface of forms – play of light off surfaces emphasized ‐ Fragmentary aspect to his pieces – studies of body parts and gestures

Late Architecture: Paxton, Eiffel, Labrouste, Richardson, Sullivan Developments: These Developments meant: 1. Cast Iron – new tensile strength, minimum mass unobstructed space on the interiors 2. Mass production of building elements, including glass less expensive building costs 3. Elevator – greater height (# of floors) possible enormous scale especially height, possible 4. Prefabricated components (built off‐site) used rapid construction, less expensive

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