Impressionism

Impressionism Art Characteristics

 Concerned with perception of optical

sensations of light and color
 No sharp edges
 Minimal defined lines
 Form and space are implied not defined
 Intense color and use of light
 Impressionist Art
 Impression: Sunrise
 1872
 Paris, France
 Painting
 Artist: Claude Monet
 Painting which gave the name
to the new movement
 Impressionism was meant as
an insult as it stated that the
artists could only make an
impression of the scene
 Large brushstrokes and no
definitive lines
Impressionist Art
 Haystacks at Giverny (end of
summer, morning)
 1891
 Giverny, France
 Painting
 Artist: Monet
 Monet painted the same
subjects over and over again
at different times of day and in
different seasons to show how
light effected it
 His brushstrokes were
deliberately fuzzy to create the
impression of the subject
 The focus of his work was light
 He painted outdoors and did
not mix his colors on the
palette, but rather on the
painting
Rouen Cathedral
1892-95
Rouen, France
Painting
Claude Monet
Different times of day allowed different light – this
is 3 separate paintings in a series of many
Snow Effect at Eragny, Road to Gisors
1885
Paris, France
Camille Pissarro
Amongst the giants, Pisarro is often forgotten
for his contributions to Impressionist
movement
He lived very close to where he painted
 Impressionist Art
 Dance at the Moulin de la
Galette
 1876
 Paris, France
 Painting
 Artist: Renoir
 Impressionists often depicted
pleasant places where people
congregated to have fun
 In Renoir, the weather is
always good and the men and
women always attractive
 His goal was to capture the
mood of the event with color
and light
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère
1882
Paris, France
Painting
Edouard Manet
Manet has completely gone impressionist by
this point in his career – the unique
perspective of the mirror adds mystery to this
painting
Impressionist Art
 Summer’s Day
 1879
 Paris, France
 Painting
 Artist: Berthe Morisot
 Probably the most daring of all
the Impressionists as her
brushwork was the loosest
 Some of the subjects in the
painting are nearly
unrecognizable
 Her artwork was critiqued for
being too feminine (to many
scenes of women and children)
 Impressionist Art
 The Dancing Class
 1874
 Paris, France
 Painting
 Artist: Edgar Degas
 Painted in a style called linear
impressionism (use of more clear
lines)
 Famous for his depictions of ballet
dancers
 A behind the scenes look
capturing the dancers in relaxed
mode or stretching, certainly not
at their best or most graceful
 Degas created a space where the
walls are not parallel with the
viewer
Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer
1879-81
Paris, France
Artist: Edgar Degas
bronze, paint, tulle, satin, wood
Degas barely dabbled with sculpture although he kept the
ballerina theme when he did
Impressionist Art
 The Boating Party
 1893 – 1894
 Paris, France
 Artist: Mary Cassatt
 Painting
 The best known American
Impressionist; she moved to
Paris to paint
 Part of early critique of this
work was the apparent
‘rudeness’ of the man in the
boat who has turned his
back to us
 The central figure is the
baby (the man’s arm, the
oar and the boat all point
there)
Little Girl in a Blue Armchair
1878
Paris, France
Painting
Mary Cassatt
Cassatt’s focus on feminine subjects caused
her to be dismissed as frivolous
The Bath
ca. 1892
Paris, France
Painting
Mary Cassatt
Preferred asymmetrical un-posed
compositions
Her vantage point, from above shows her
interest in Japanese block paintings which
were all the rage in the late 19th century
 Impressionist Art
 Arrangement in Black and
Gray: The Artist’s Mother
 1871
 London, England
 Painting
 Artist: James A.M. Whistler
 An American ex-patriot who
moved to Paris and then
London
 The work is known popularly
as Whistler’s Mother
 A rather unemotional and
intellectual portrayal of the
subject is seen here
 Whistler named all his
paintings in musical
terminology
Nocturne in Black and Gold
(The Falling Rocket)
ca. 1875
London, England
Painting
James A.M. Whistler
Here, Whistler is much more impressionistic
and abstract
Fin de Siecle Art
 Eiffel Tower
 1889
 Paris, France
 Architecture
 Artist: Gustave Eiffel
 At the time the tallest
structure in the world at 984
feet tall
 Foreshadows the skyscrapers
of the 20th century
 Used as a radio tower, now a
cell phone tower
 Many Parisians still hate the
structure, yet it has still come
to represent France
Post-Impressionism Characteristics
 Post Impressionism is the retrospective label given to
the work of Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Georges
Seurat, who were painting in the final years of the
nineteenth century. These men never formed a
definitive school of painting but now it is possible to see
that they were seeking similar aims: (characteristics)
 (1) Celebration of visual images not for their
verisimilitude to nature, but as equivalents for nature in
their own right
 (2) Celebration of the application of paint on to the
canvas for its creative abilities
 Post-Impressionist Art
 Mount Sainte-Victoire
from the Large Pine Tree
 1885 – 1887
 Aix-en-Provence Region,
France
 Painting
 Artist: Paul Cezanne
 Cezanne preferred
landscapes and still life
 Cezanne shows depth by
working on planes rather
than using linear
perspective
Post-Impressionist Art
 Still Life with Peppermint
Bottle
 1894
 Paris, France
 Painting
 Artist: Cezanne
 He often combined
unrelated objects into his
still life paintings
 Disregard for perspective
was intentional
 Pointillism
 Sunday Afternoon on La
Grande Jatte
 1884 – 1886
 Painting
 Paris, France
 Artist: Georges Seurat
 Pointillism - Painting with tiny
dots to create a complete
figure from a distance
 The closer you get the more it
starts to blur and eventually
become indistinguishable
Post-Impressionist/ Expressionist
Art
 The Night Café
 1888
 Arles, France
 Painting
 Artist: Vincent van Gogh
 Born in Holland, he
mover first to Antwerp
then to Paris and
eventually to Arles
 Bright colors record van
Gogh’s own personal
feelings
 Post-Impressionist/ Expressionist
 Starry Night Art
 1889
 St-Remy, France
 Painting
 Artist: Van Gogh
 Intentional loose form not
rushed and painted
 Appears spontaneous,
thick strokes, blobs of
color
 Was preplanned from
sketches however
 His most reproduced
work
Post-Impressionist/ Symbolist Art

 Manao Tupapau (Spirit of

the Dead Watching)
 1892
 Tahiti
 Painting
 Artist: Paul Gauguin
 Artist attempted to show
fear by use of somber
and sad colors
 Symbolism – the attempt
to give concrete form to
abstract ideas
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
1897
Tahiti
Painting
Paul Gauguin
Painting should be enjoyed from right to left
Gauguin claimed once he finished this painting he would commit suicide (he attempted)
Post-Impressionist Art
 The Thinker
 1879 – 1889
 Paris, France
 Sculpture
 Artist: Auguste Rodin
 Rodin used broken surfaces to
create a similar unfinished
effect that reflected light like
the painting of the
Impressionists
 His most famous work
 Note how the feet almost grip
the stone
 Originally sculpted as part of a
grand monument that was
never built in tribute to Dante’s
Inferno
 Post-Impressionist Art
 The Kiss
 1886 – 1898
 Paris, France
 Sculpture
 Artist: Rodin
 Left lower part un-
finished as a contrast
to the softness and
warmth of their
bodies
The Sleeping Gypsy
1897
Paris, France
Painting
Artist: Henri Rousseau
New style of modern naturalism called the
Naïve School
Naïve Art - characterized by a childlike
simplicity in its subject matter and technique
Turn of the Century American Art

 Wainwright Building
 1890 – 1891
 St. Louis, Missouri
 Architecture
 Artist: Louis Sullivan
 It had an underlying
steel skeleton and
bricks were placed as
the ‘skin’
 ‘form follows function’
 Art Nouveau
 Staircase, Dr. Tassel’s
Home
 1893
 Brussels, Belgium
 Architecture
 Artist: Victor Horta
 Horta put nature into all
his work
 He designed the entire
home to give it a sense of
unity
Art Nouveau
 Casa Mila
 1905 – 1907
 Barcelona, Spain
 Architecture
 Artist: Antoni Gaudi
 A totally new style was created
by Gaudi
 Curved lines are everywhere
 Asymmetrical on purpose
 Looks more like it was molded
from clay then built of stone
and steel
 Balconies appear to be
mangled
Art Nouveau
 Sagrada Familia
 Started 1882 – 2010?
 Barcelona, Spain
 Architecture
 Artist: Antoni Gaudi
 Still incomplete as he
died before finishing the
plans
 Arguing for years how to
finish it
The Kiss
1907-1908
Vienna, Austria
Painting
Gustav Klimt
Part of Art Nouveau movement
Art Nouveau – called
“Jugendstil” in Germany and
“Stile Liberty” in Italy it is
characterized by organic,
especially floral and other
plant-inspired motifs, as well as
highly-stylized, flowing
curvilinear forms
 Fauvism
 Woman with a Hat
 1905
 Paris, France
 Painting
 Artist: Henri Matisse
 Fauvism tended to shock
the viewer
 Colors appear arbitrary,
placed mish mash around
the painting for no reason
 It is his wife
 Fauvism – French for ‘wild
beasts’ it is characterized by
strong use of color and anti-
realism
Fauvism
 Harmony in Red
 1908 – 1909
 Paris, France
 Painting
 Artist: Matisse
 Everyday scene full of
patterns, lines, and
harmony between the
colors
 Parts are 2 dimensional
while others are 3D
 Cubist Art
 Gertrude Stein
 1906
 Paris, France
 Painting
 Artist: Pablo Picasso
 Considered most important
painter of the 20th century
 Simplified forms into basic
shapes
 Painted her face from memory
– making this a cerebral not
retina-based painting
 Not truly a cubist yet
Cubist Art
 Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
 1907
 Barcelona, Spain
 Painting
 Artist: Picasso
 Demoiselles here means
prostitutes not young ladies
 Freed from reality, Picasso
worked with distorted figures
and proportions in favor of
shapes and angular pieces
 Cubism - objects are broken
up, analyzed, and re-
assembled in an abstracted
form—instead of depicting
objects from one viewpoint,
the artist depicts the subject
from a multitude of viewpoints
 Cubist Art
 Still Life with Chair Caning
 1912
 Paris, France
 Mixed Media
 Artist: Picasso
 Picasso began to paste real
materials onto the canvas,
here he chose a rope with a
piece of oilcloth with imitation
chair caning on it and a
fragment of newspaper
 Jou are the 1st 3 letters of
journal (the newspaper used)
but they are also the 1st 3
letters of jouer – to play
 Method was called collage
Cubist Art
 The Portuguese
 1911
 Paris, France
 Painting
 Artist: Georges Braque
 Depicts a guitarist playing at a
café
 There is, however, no truly
distinguishable figure here
 Forms are broken down into
cubes and portrayed at
different angles even
 Range of color was restricted
to focus on style
 Futurist Art
 Suburban Train Arriving at Paris
 1915
 Italy
 Painting
 Artist: Gino Severino
 Depiction of speed in a sequence
of multi-faceted positions;
fragmented but focused
 Futurists wanted to destroy art
museums and anything old
 Futurism – admired speed,
technology, youth and violence,
the car, the airplane and the
industrial city, all that represented
the technological triumph of
humanity over nature, and they
were passionate nationalists
German Expressionist Art
 Dancing Around the Golden Calf
 1910
 Dresden, Germany
 Painting
 Artist: Emil Nolde
 Influenced by Fauvism and
Matisse, Nolde’s use of bright
colors to convey meaning can be
seen here
 Biblical subject being shown in
sexual manner was controversial
 Colors help convey sexuality, fury
and ecstasy of this piece
 Expressionism - Its typical trait is
to present the world under an
utterly subjective perspective,
violently distorting it to obtain an
emotional effect and vividly
transmit personal moods and
ideas
The Scream
1893
Norway
Painting
Artist:Edvard Munch
Expressionism develops throughout Europe
travelling even to Scandanavia
The Scream is said to represent man’s
hopelessness in his struggle against nature
 German Expressionist Art
 Improvisation No. 30
(Warlike Theme)
 1913
 Munich, Germany
 Painting
 Artist: Vassily Kandinsky
 He believed colors caused
‘vibrations in the soul’
 Shows cannons firing to
welcome the 2nd coming
of Christ to Moscow
 The end . . .

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Modern & Post-Modern