Impressionism is a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists during the 1870s

and 1880s.

I M P R E S S I O N I S M

IMPRESSIONISMThe name of the style derives from the title of a Claude Monet work, Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), which provoked the critic Louis Leroy to coin the term in a satirical review published in the Parisian newspaper Le Charivari. (Le Cha-ri-va-ri).

A Critic is someone who is paid to criticize or evaluate something (like a painting, a movie, a tv show, etc…). Satire means to make ‘fun’ of or ‘ridicule’.

In the beginning: The impressionist styles that these painters used (“The Impressionists”) were made fun of because they used brushstrokes that were not ‘realistic’ in style to create paintings.

The subjects of the paintings could only be seen unless you stepped back from the painting, instead of up close. Up close, all you saw was the brushstrokes and colors that made up the forms of the subjects. They also did not form lines and contours first and took their forms from freely brushed colors instead.

This was NOT the way the art world at the time had done things, so this set the ‘standard’ art world on its side, and made the impressionists a target of ridicule. Many critics did not see that this was real ‘art’, since it violated the rules of academic painting.

• Impressionist painting characteristics include relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes.

• Open Composition

• Accurate depiction of light and its’ changing qualities (often denoting the passage of time).

• Ordinary subject matter

• Inclusion of Movement

• Unusual Visual Angles

• The impressionists were radicals of their time. • They painted realistic scenes of modern life, and often painted outdoors. • In the painting below by Auguste Renoir, he depicted a busy outdoor dance in

Paris.

Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette (Bal du mouline de la Galette), Musee D’Orsay.

By Auguste Renoir - Paris, France.

How long was the movement? The Impressionists found that they could capture the momentary and transient effects of sunlight by painting “en plein air”- this meant painting outdoors. They portrayed overall visual effects instead of details, and used short "broken" brush strokes of mixed and pure unmixed color—not blended smoothly or shaded, as was customary—to achieve an effect of intense color vibration.

The movement lasted from about the 1880’s and the techniques were still being borrowed into the 1900’s.

Some of the techniques are still employed today, but true impressionism’s most popular time was from about the 1870’s until the 1890’s.

“IMPRESSION SUNRISE by Claude Monet the painting that ‘started it all!”.

Impressionism emerged in France and shortly thereafter worldwide the movement took off.

Although at the time other artists worldwide were painting “en plein air”, (or outdoors), the Impressionists, developed new techniques specific to their style.

Look at the brushstrokes in the ballerina’s dresses. They mix color and light with white to affect the highlights and shadows of the paintings. But keep the brushstrokes so it’s more about the form of the brushstrokes rather than the ‘realism’ of the painting.

“Dancers In Pink”, Edgar Degas.

The public, at first hostile, gradually came to believe that the Impressionists had captured a fresh and original vision, even if the art critics and art establishment disapproved of the new style. By recreating the sensation in the eye that views the subject, rather than delineating the details of the subject, and by creating a welter of techniques and forms.

Impressionism is a precursor of various painting styles, including Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism.

An important fact: Many of the impressionists painted their canvases white or a light color before putting any other paint in order to have ‘light’ come through in their paintings.

More works by Monet

Edgar Degas painted many ballet scenes in the impressionistic stye.

Degas also painted many horse races and events ‘en plein air’ (painting in the open air outside) using the impressionistic style.

Ironically, however, Degas rejected much of this, as he believed in the primacy of drawing over color and belittled the practice of painting outdoors, even though he did it.

Although Degas did not consider himself an impressionist, he is still considered one of many in the art movement. Degas did many paintings of ballet dancers and was fascinated by movement and form and how he could show this with brushstrokes.

Monet, Sisley, Morisot, and Pissarro may be considered the "purest" Impressionists, in their consistent pursuit of an art of spontaneity, sunlight, and color. Berthe Morisot was one of the few women impressionists.

Peintres by Camille Pissaro

Woman and child on a balcony by Berthe Morisot

Monet’s “Water Lilies”

"a completely new, fluid, and somewhat audacious style of painting in which the water-lily pond became the point of departure for an almost abstract art."

Monet has been described as "the driving force behind Impressionism”.

Crucial to the art of the Impressionist painters was the understanding of the effects of light on the local color of objects, and the effects of the juxtaposition of colors with each other. Monet's long career as a painter was spent in the pursuit of this aim.

Monet’s bridge at Giverny, his last home; where he created incredible gardens and painted everything from the water lillies to the weeping willows and the streams.

He is buried there and it is now a museum.

George Seraut, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884–1886, at The Art Institute of Chicago- this was known as “pointallism”; made by using the ‘point’ of the paintbrush rather than strokes, to create a painting.

More impressionistic work by Renoir

More examples of impressionism paintings ‘en plein air’.

Renoir again- look at the light and strokes made by the paint in order to create a real painting that depicted a whimsical and airy mood- note how the brushstrokes and color choices add movement.

The Impressionists relaxed the boundary between subject and background so that the effect of an Impressionist painting often resembles a snapshot, a part of a larger reality captured as if by chance.

Photography was gaining popularity, and as cameras became more portable, photographs became more candid.

Photography inspired Impressionists to represent momentary action, not only in the fleeting lights of a landscape, but in the day-to-day lives of people.

Click on the Link below for a 5 minute video on impressionism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RHGbWBgDvI

TIME FOR ACTIVITIES!

SCROLL DOWN FOR EXAMPLES WHEN YOU EXPLAIN ACTIVITIES

STUDENTS CAN CUT OUT COLORS AND CREATE THEIR OWN IMPRESSINISTIC LANDSCAPE PAINTING BASED ON SOMETHING THEY WANT TO DRAW OR A FAMOUS PAINTING WE JUST TALKED ABOUT.

YOU CAN LEAVE ONE OF THE FAMOUS SLIDES ON THE SMART BOARD AND HAVE STUDENTS SKETCH IT OUT ON A SHEET OF WHITE PAPER!

STUDENTS COULD ATTEMPT A SELF PORTRAIT – START IN CLASS AND FINISH AT HOME- OF THEMSELVES!

YOU CAN CUT PAPER FROM CONSTRUCTION PAPER OR MAGAZINES (LIKE THE SHOW HERE ABOVE, AND CREATE YOUR OWN ‘IMPRESSIONISTIC STYLE CUT PAPER PAINTING.