Impressionism

The Impressionist movement

began in France in the 1860s.

It was probably the most important

and successful art movement ever.

Until the 1880s, the only way

that artists could be

successful was to have their

paintings shown at Le Salon.

This was France’s yearly

official art show.

Judges awarded prizes to the

winners .

Exhibiting paintings at the Salon

was the only way for artists to

become known and get work.

Work that was considered to be “acceptable”

at Le Salon had to look realistic, like this

Ingres, 1800s, Madame d’Haussonville

Or historical like this…………. Ingres, Napoleon on His Throne, 1806

Or Biblical, like this…..

The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugene Delacriox, 1846

However, this traditional way of

looking at the world was changing,

mainly because of the invention of

the camera

Many artists began to take photographs and this affected

the way they painted:

They were able to capture movement and spontaneity.

They experimented with less formal poses

and cropping

Advances in technology also made

it possible for manufacturers to

mass produce paint and put it in

tubes.

The artists began to paint outside.

They became interested in using pure

color and painting the effects of

changing light on color.

But when these artists tried to

exhibit their work at Le Salon,

they were rejected because the

critics said that the paintings

looked sloppy and unfinished.

And so they got together and

put on their own exhibitions.

The leader of the Impressionists

was Claude Monet. The term

Impressionist came from his

painting Impression: Sunrise

“Impressionism” was intended as an

insult, but the name stuck and

eventually the artists embraced it

Monet often painted the same subject at different

times of day and in different weather. He painted

haystacks in the fields…..

Waterlillies…..

Rouen Cathedral……..

Landscapes……

People……

And his garden, which became famous.

Other important Impressionist painters were

Edgar Degas….

Pierre-August Renoir

Paul Cezanne…

And Mary Cassatt, an American who helped to

make Impressionism popular in the United States

The Impressionist movement

was revolutionary for the art

world because it paved the way

for abstraction.

Artists were no longer restricted

to painting in a realistic manner.

Georges Seurat

Pointillism and Optical Mixing

Seurat placed

small dots of

color close

together so

that they

appear to mix

when viewed

from a distance

Seurat placed

small dots of

different colors

next to each

other. When

viewed from a

distance, they

appear to mix.

This is called Optical Mixing

Turn in the practice oil pastel (orange, lemon, etc.)

Go to the computer lab and look at Monet

Landscapes or Impressionist Landscapes

Copy and paste into a Word document

Change format to Landscape and enlarge to fill the

page. Print.

Try to recreate the style of the

brushstrokes with your pastels

Complete the reading packet on

Impressionism.