Art History
Impressionism (1865 – 1900) • Depiction of everyday, leisure class life • To capture the fleeting, ever changing effects of dappled light • Style/painting approach influenced by two inventions: 1. The portable camera and 2. Paint tubes (portable) • Commercially available paint allows for painting ‘en plein air’ • Artists capture a quick impression of a scene using painterly, choppy fleeting brush strokes (evidence of the artist’s hand) • Considered messy and unfinished by critics • Colour, light and atmosphere are always changing in natural spontaneous scenes • Subject matter shows leisure class outdoors (parties etc.) and indoors (bars and cafes) • New advances in the science of colour theory and optics lead to artists’ exploration of optical colour mixing and effects • Successive Contrast: Viewer intensely regards one large field of colour and generates the complimentary colour in afterimage • Simultaneous Contrast: A colour placed adjacent to another is affected/altered by that colour. Eg: Looking at a pair of complimentaries, the viewer optically mixes the 2 colours, creating a neutral/grey brown • Some impressionists stopped using black (feeling that black does not exist in nature) • Shadows and dark colours are full of colour • Use of ‘Painters Black’ and simultaneous contrast effects

Pre/Impressionist Paintings
The Fifer – Edouard Manet 1866 • Pre – impressionism • Influenced impressionism • Character is posed • Brush strokes not super choppy • Ambiguous light source • Still using black • Setting is neutral backdrop • Everyday middle class person (subject matter common) • Colour range starting to be more pastel like • Shadows and tones (Eg: creases in pants etc.) just implied/suggested (not deep shadows, not fully detailed) • Outlines in areas (flattens tone/shape) • Background uses the technique called Scumbling • 2 colours (usually complimentaries – Eg: orange and blue) • Lightened (tone  grey OR tint  white) • Dry brushed together directly on the canvas • Results in a neutral, soft, patchy, textured background  painterly
A Bar at the Folies-Bergeres – Manet 1881-20 • Pre – Impressionism • Not outside, inside a bar • Foreground objects are detailed • NOT a reflection • Splotchy, patchy up close • Background, blotchy and blobby (gives impression of tonnes of people everywhere) • Strokes show movement • Typical impressionistic composition (cropping) • Spontaneous/ photographic • Still uses black • Captures boredom
Ballet Rehearsal – Edgar Degas 1876 • Impressionism • Liked to capture movement • Sketchy, pastel colours • Painterly, natural colours • Natural lighting, sunlight, splotchy, dappled, diffused, filtered • Scumbled floors and walls • Complimentaries • DID NOT use black • Asymmetrical balance – all dancers on left, empty space on right • Implies movement – diagonal lines • Structured composition • Cropping, seeing back
Oarsman at Chatou – Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1907 • Impressionism • Different from other paintings • Choppy, wispy brushstrokes • Background could be thought of as unfinished • Simultaneous contrast, mainly in shadows • NO BLACK • Many colour schemes (complimentary) • Typical impressionism composition
Waterlillies – Claude Monet 1920 • Unusual perspective • Impressionism • Pond in backyard • Painted at different angles, times of day etc • Into showing the ever changing effects of light, atmosphere, weather, times of day • Paintings of his pond at Giverny, France focus on his personal environment • Zooms in on the water and what it reflects • Hundreds of water lily paintings – No two are alike • Choppy, wispy strokes – an impression of the scene captured • Unconventional composition – high horizon line
Noon, Rouen Cathedral – Claude Monet 1894 • Outside his bedroom window • Another series of paintings • Façade of building •