Impressionist and Modern Art Introduction Art Learning Resource – Impressionist and Modern Art
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art learning resource – impressionist and modern art Introduction art learning resource – impressionist and modern art This resource will support visits to the Impressionist and Modern Art galleries at National Museum Cardiff and has been written to help teachers and other group leaders plan a successful visit. These galleries mostly show works of art from 1840s France to 1940s Britain. Each gallery has a theme and displays a range of paintings, drawings, sculpture and applied art. Booking a visit Learning Office – for bookings and general enquires Tel: 029 2057 3240 Email: [email protected] All groups, whether visiting independently or on a museum-led visit, must book in advance. Gallery talks for all key stages are available on selected dates each term. They last about 40 minutes for a maximum of 30 pupils. A museum-led session could be followed by a teacher-led session where pupils draw and make notes in their sketchbooks. Please bring your own materials. The information in this pack enables you to run your own teacher-led session and has information about key works of art and questions which will encourage your pupils to respond to those works. Art Collections Online Many of the works here and others from the Museum’s collection feature on the Museum’s web site within a section called Art Collections Online. This can be found under ‘explore our collections’ at www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/art/ online/ and includes information and details about the location of the work. You could use this to look at enlarged images of paintings on your interactive whiteboard. Will all works of art be on display? If you are visiting to see specific works, please check beforehand to make sure that they will be on display by contacting the Learning Department. Galleries do sometimes change and works of art are removed from display for conservation and other reasons. www.museumwales.ac.uk/learning • Tel: (029) 2057 3240 1 Introduction art learning resource – impressionist and modern art How do I plan a successful visit to the art galleries? • Visit the galleries on your own before the visit. • Limit the number of artworks to be studied. • Check that the works you want to study will be on display on the date of your visit. This can be done by phoning the education office or by looking at our Art Online webpage at www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/art/online/ • Limit the amount of time you spend in the galleries (2-2½ hours maximum). • Leave before the pupils have had enough. • Divide your pupils into smaller groups. • Provide opportunities for pupils to work on focused activities in front of individual art works. • Ensure a good range of activities that involve looking, talking and making. • Read the ‘Drawing in the Galleries’ section on pages 61 and 62 to develop activity ideas. www.museumwales.ac.uk/learning • Tel: (029) 2057 3240 2 Contents contents Gallery Map Page 4 French Art of the Nineteenth Century (Gallery 11) Pages 5 - 13 French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism (Gallery 16) Pages 14 - 29 British Art around 1900: Looking to France (Gallery 15) Pages 30 - 40 Art after Cézanne: The ‘Primitive’ and the Modern (Gallery 14) Pages 41 - 52 Modern Art from 1930: Surrealism and Neo-Romanticism (Gallery 12) Pages 53 - 60 Drawing in the Galleries Pages 61 - 62 Copyright Ownership We have tried to identify copyright ownership in all cases; any further information would be gratefully received by the Learning Department, National Museum Cardiff, CF10 3NP www.museumwales.ac.uk/learning • Tel: (029) 2057 3240 3 Gallery Map gallery map 6 5 4 7 14 15 16 3 8 2 9 13 12 11 1 10 Cerameg Cymraeg Welsh Ceramics Gallery Key 11 French Art of the 15 British Art around 1900: Nineteenth Century Looking to France 12 Modern Art from 1930: 16 French Impressionism and Surrealism and Neo-Romanticism Post-Impressionism 14 Art after Cézanne: The ‘Primitive’ and the Modern www.museumwales.ac.uk/learning • Tel: (029) 2057 3240 4 French Art of the Nineteenth Century (Gallery 11) french art of the nineteenth century (gallery 11) French landscape painting changed during this period. Artists became interested in nature, not just as a backdrop for religious or historical subjects, but as a subject in its own right. A group of artists made everyday subjects and the natural world important. Ordinary working people, scenes of poverty and social injustice became the subject for much of their work. Their paintings show a real awareness of the world around them. Previously artists had created sketches and studies outside in the open air but not finished paintings. This changed in the nineteenth century. New railways enabled artists to leave the cities and explore the countryside first hand while tubes of ready-made paints allowed them to leave their studios and work in the open air. Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1796-1875) Castel Gandolfo, Dancing Tyrolean Shepherds by Lake Albano 1855-1860 Oil on canvas www.museumwales.ac.uk/learning • Tel: (029) 2057 3240 5 French Art of the Nineteenth Century (Gallery 11) french art of the nineteenth century (gallery 11) • Look at this painting. Let your eye wander through it. • Can you think of single words to describe what you can see? • Look at the colours. Can you think of new names for the different greens you can see here? • How many people are there? • What are they doing? • Why do you think Corot has included people here? • Look closely at the brushmarks and the paint. Can you describe the brushmarks? • Do you think this is a real or an imagined place? • What might be real and what might be imagined? • Describe the mood of this place. Castel Gandolfo, a papal summer residence is situated next to lake Albano in the Roman countryside. This was the countryside that had inspired Claude Lorrain, a seventeenth-century artist who greatly influenced Corot. Travelling to Italy was considered essential for the career of a landscape artist and Corot had been there during the 1820s and again later. He also travelled extensively throughout Europe filling his notebooks with drawings and painting in the open air. By the 1850s the style of his work had changed. His paint was thinner, the brushwork was quite feathery and the colours more subtle. He restricted his choice of colour and used muted tones of soft greens and greys. In this painting brighter colour have been confined to the people – the man’s red cap and the woman’s yellow headscarf, thus drawing attention to them. Dashes of red like this were commonly used in traditional landscape painting, to balance out the greys and the greens. The people here are important in contributing to the mood of the work. The mood and atmosphere created is more important than topographical detail. This period was a distinctive time in Corot’s career. He had gained an admiral reputation and this style of painting became very popular especially after Emperor Napoleon III bought an example in 1855. This work was comissioned, however, it is very similar in style to others from the period. It shows the influence of Italy and especially of Claude Lorrain in his composition, choice of subject matter and the depiction of light. Corot greatly influenced the Impressionists, especially in terms of how he showed light in his work and the idea of working outside in the open air. www.museumwales.ac.uk/learning • Tel: (029) 2057 3240 6 French Art of the Nineteenth Century (Gallery 11) french art of the nineteenth century (gallery 11) Honoré Daumier (1808-1879) Lunch in the Country 1868 Oil on board • What are these people doing? • What kind of activity is it? Is it an ordinary everyday activity or an unusual one? • Do you think it’s an imagined activity or a real situation that the artist saw? • Has it been painted slowly or quickly? • Can you explain why you think that? • Why do you think the artist painted such a small work? • Describe the mood of this painting. • Would you like to be there? Why? • Is it a quiet or a noisy painting? • What kind of noises might you hear? www.museumwales.ac.uk/learning • Tel: (029) 2057 3240 7 French Art of the Nineteenth Century (Gallery 11) french art of the nineteenth century (gallery 11) The subject of this painting – a group of men on a country outing, eating and drinking – became very popular during this period. Daumier depicts the simple joy of eating, not by showing the food on the table but by the gestures of the men and even the dog. He uses a strong line both to suggest movement and to describe much of the detail. The lines draw our attention to the man feeding the dog, suggests the movement of the arm as the cup is raised and even conveys the shuffle of the leaves in the background. The composition is full of spirit as the man in the centre enthusiastically drinks his tea and the cup almost becomes part of his face. Daumier earned his living drawing cartoons for satirical journals and is known as a graphic artist and sculptor as well as a painter. His lithography, where he drew on small tablets of stone to produce prints influenced his oil painting. As a consequence most of his oil paintings are also small in scale and use line as if he was drawing with his paint. This oil painting is a finished piece of work and a preparatory sketch exists in another collection. It was composed directly with paint and colour using broad brushstrokes with lines creating very lifelike movement.