Impressionism

A little history!

© In France several painters loved paintings in a realistic way. Some of those artists are Gustave Courbet and Jean-Baptiste Corot. A group of artists in France admired the paintings of these artists and later the groups started to paint together. The group consisted of:
- Claude Monet
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- Alfred Sisley
- Frédéric Bazille
- Camille Pissarro
- Paul Cézanne
- Armand Guillaumin

© In 1872 Monet and the rest of the group formed a society called “Cooperative and Anonymous Association of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers”. In 1874, they held their first exhibition, an Exhibition of the Impressionists. This was the start of a new art style: ‘Impressionism’.

Some more information!

© In the 19th century, a lot of art movements began to appear, including ‘Impressionism’
© In the 1860s-70s artists started to paint outside. Painting outside was not completely new, but now the artists also finished their painting outside. At first artists only sketched outside and started painting in their studios.
© An important invention of ready-to-use paint in portable boxes or tubes (to make it easy to carry) made painting outdoors possible. Although painting outside also causes some problems (it could be very cold or rainy), artist still thought that it was all worth it because of the freshness they achieved by working on the spot.
© The new way painting also involves strong colours with brushstrokes leaving a ‘sketchy’ finish. They wanted them to seem spontaneous.
© Not everyone liked this new style. They said it was ‘impressionistic’ and crude (rough). This led to the name ‘Impressionism’.

Characteristics of Impressionism!

© Artists started to paint outside.

© Impressionism focusses on light and shadow.

© In the paintings you can still see brushstrokes. Also, trees and leaves would just be painted as dots. Impressionism is not a very detailed and realistic style if you compare it to the styles before.

Our famous paintings!

The Water Lily Pond (1899) by Claude Monet

© Our first painting that represents Impressionism is called ‘The Water Lily Pond’. It was painted in 1899 by Claude Monet.’ He painted this painting in his own back garden at Giverny which is in the north of France. At that time, revolutions and wars were going on, but you don’t see this in the painting. The painting clearly shows a calm and peaceful world.

© If you look closely at the painting, you see that Monet used a lot of light. For example, you can see the reflection of the trees in the water. Also, the shadow of the Japanese bridge is visible on the water. Furthermore, the sunlight in the painting catches the leaves and lily flowers beautifully.

Boating on the Seine (1879-80) by Auguste Renoir

© Our second painting that shows Impressionism is ‘Boating on the Seine’ which was made in 1879-1880 by Auguste Renoir. He was one of the Impressionist artists that went on to be enormously successful.

© In the painting, Renoir wanted to create sunlight which explains why he used bright colour. He put complementary colours (colours which stand out against each other) together. For example, Renoir painted the boat orange which makes the blue water even brighter.