Impressionism to Post- Impressionism

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

• 1841-1919• One of the best

loved Impressionist, largely due to subject matter – children, pretty women and flowers

Renoir, Le Moulin de la Galette•Energetic dancing by the middle class in Paris•Dappling of light and shade•Artfully blurred figures in the picture•Casual and unposed natural placement of figures•Suggested space goes beyond the boundaries of the painting•People go about their business, don’t pose•Influence of candid photography in the casualness of groupings and the cut off figures at the edges

Le Moulin de la Galette, 1876

Girl With a Watering Can, 1876

Camille Pissaro

• 1830 –1903• Big Proponet of Plein Air painting• Mentor to Cezanne• Only Painter to show in ALL Impressionist

exhibitions (8 in total)

The Stage Coach at Louveciennes 1870

Edgar Degas

• 1834-1917• Master of drawing the

Human Figure in Motion

• Known for use of pastels

• Ballet Dancers and Horses

L'absinthe 1876 (larger version, 140 Kb); Oil on canvas, 92 x 68 cm (36 1/4 x 26 3/4 in); Musee d'Orsay, Paris

Degas, Ballet Rehearsal•Enjoyed depicting ballet movements•Composition inspired by Japanese prints: center of painting empty, spiral staircase at left cut off, ballerina being dressed at right cut off•Strong diagonals unify composition•Light feathery brushstrokes define dresses•Effect of light from window on the floor and on shapes•Faces in darkness or cut off

The Star [Dancer on Stage]) 1878

The Rehearsal, 1873-78

Girl Drying Herself1885

James Abbot McNeil Whistler• 1834-1903• American (New

England), moved to Russia at age 9 then back to CT (Pomfret) then to Paris then to England

• Friend of Rossetti (pre-Raphaelites) and Oscar Wilde

Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother 1871

Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl

1862

He achieved international notoriety when Symphony No. 1, The White Girl was rejected at both the Royal Academy and the Salon, but was a major attraction at the famous Salon des Refusés in 1863.

1875

Whistler, Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket•Reaches to the limit of abstraction•Fireworks in London over the Thames River•Clouds of black and dark blue represent the smoke of the rockets•Left: large tree looms in darkness•Art critic called the painting “a pot of paint in the public’s face.” Whistler sued for libel•Signed the painting with a Japanese anagram•Color effects decorate the painting

In 1877 the critic John Ruskin denounced Whistler's Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket (1875; Detroit Institute of Arts), accusing him of "flinging a pot of paint in the public's face", and Whistler sued him for libel the following year. He won the action, but the awarding of only a farthing's damages with no costs was in effect a justification for Ruskin. Potential patrons were repelled by the negative publicity surrounding the case, and the expense of the trial led to Whistler's bankruptcy in 1879. His house was sold and he proceeded to Italy with a commission from the Fine Arts Society to make twelve etchings of Venice. He spent a year in Venice (1879-80), concentrating on the etchings-- among the masterpieces of 19th-century graphic art-- that helped to restore his fortunes when he returned to London. After returning to England in 1880 he painted a wide variety of subjects, continued with his interest in the graphic arts, and promulgated his aesthetic theories in print and in the Ten O'Clock lecture (1885); his polemical The Gentle Art of Making Enemies was published in 1890. In 1886 he was elected president of the Society of British Artists, but despite some successes his revolutionary ideas ran afoul of the conservative members, and he was voted out of office within two years.

Mary Cassatt• 1844-1926• Friend of Degas, showed

with Impressioinists in 1879, 1880, 1881 and 1886

• Born American but lived in Paris most of her adult life

• Contributed to the Interest of American Impressionism

La Toilette c. 1891

Cassatt, The Bath•Not like other Impressionists, not a landscape or still life painter•Figures are never actors, nor do they appear to be models posing•Mother and child theme her specialty•Has a tenderness foreign to Impressionism•Figures seen from unusual angles as in Japanese prints•Flatness of background forms•Solidity of main figures•Japanese decorative details in background

The Boating Party 1893-94

Little Girl in a Blue Armchair 1878

Mother and Child (The Oval Mirror) 1901

Auguste Rodin

• 1840 –1917• Stunning Strength and realism• Confronts distress and moral weakness as well

as noble themes• Emphasis on Hands and feet in his works• A turn away from the smooth neo-classical

styling common in sculpture

The Gates of Hell 1880-1917

The Burghers of Calais 1884-86

Post-Impressionism

Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge• Zigzag composition• Pitiless representation of figures• Gauguin’s influence in the large areas of flat color• Joyless, oppressive; people out to have a good time, but

achieve none• Self-portrait as a short bearded man in background with his

very tall cousin• Off-key colors• Tilted perspective of Japanese prints• People tend to be aging, flabby, cynical

Vincent Van Gogh 1853 - 1890

• q Tactile surface of painting• q Brushstrokes conveying emotion and inner

reality• q Not an imitation of nature• q Forerunner of expressionism• q Major emphasis on texture, line and color• q Colors were vivid, bright and strong• q Deeply impressed by Millet and Social art

• Missionary zeal

Post-Impressionism

Van Gogh, The Starry Night• Painted from his room at the hospital at St-Rémy• Mountains of the Lapillus could be seen from his window• Steepness of the mountains is exaggerated• Deep forces of the universe playing out on the canvas• Visionary sense of power• Discordant colors• Thick, swirling paint strokes• Unconventional perspective• Strong waves splashing from left to right• Sky movement echoed in mountains and trees• Two verticals interrupt flow: cypress tree and church steeple• A religious message?

Paul Gauguin (1848 – 1903)•q Emphasizes the use of bright, non-naturalistic colors

•q Emphasizes the use of flat planes of color

•q Rejected notions of Western naturalism

•q Often employs symbolic or primitive subjects

•q Interested in the primitive man, a removal from the norms and mores of society

•q Rejected notions of Western naturalism

•q Uses nature as a starting point from to abstract figures and symbols

•q Stressed linear patterns and color harmonies

•q Tried to include a profound sense of mystery

BOTH strength and intensity over the slick and superficial

Post-Impressionism

Gauguin, The Vision after the Sermon• After hearing an impassioned sermon on the Biblical account of Jacob

wrestling with the angel, the pious rural people envision the struggle• Tree trunk separates the real from the vision• Red heat of sermon matches red coloring• Color used as an emotional response not as a physical description• Rejection of perspective• Priest at lower right is a self-portrait• Heavily enclosed forms• Renounced Impressionism• Many sharply drawn black outlines• Broad areas of color, relatively flatly applied, containing some subtly

that gives it a rich glow

1888

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?1897

Post Impressionism

Seurat, La Grande Jatte• Analyzed color relationships in a pictorial space• Small brush strokes of complementary color: reds and greens, violets

and yellows, blues and oranges• Pointillist technique• Result is sort of a mosaic like quality with a geometric structure• Accent on the loneliness of modern life, figures together yet in

isolation• Most are faceless• Conventional perspective used• Reduced intensity of color to give effect of distance• Interest in geometric shapes• An Egyptian stillness: figures are posed to run but become frozen

statues

Paul Cezanne (1839 – 1906)

• The “Father of Modern Art” – an artist’s artist

• Obsessed with form over content

• Development of planes to comprise the surface

• Forunner of Cubism

Post Impressionism

Cezanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire• Broad splashes of color in suggestive

rather than descriptive passages• Areas of the canvas left unpainted• No human figures• Not a countryside of Impressionism,

lacking in human contact• Aim is to create a unity within the

picture in which each element has a clearly defined role and a relationship to the elements around it

• Solidity achieved through massing of shapes

• Grand and monumental form of the mountain

• Worked in color patches

1902-06

1889

Cezanne, The Basket of Apples

•Each form round and solid

•Sought to represent each shape as if it were a geometric principle

•Geometric forms determine shapes of apples, bottle, biscuits

•Studied forms in volumes and solids

•Breaking down of objects into its basic shapes

The Symbolists

Rousseau, The Sleeping Gypsy• Displays the characteristics of primitive artists: flat surfaces, minute

detail, stiff and frontally posed figures and arbitrary proportions• Influence of Japanese prints and Persian manuscripts• Frame inscription: “The feline, though ferocious, is loathe to leap

upon its prey, who, overcome by fatigue, lies in a deep sleep”• Vase for drinking water in the desert• Play of light on the lion• Lion is not ferocious, but curious, a cat with its tail up• Where is gypsy’s left hand?• Hair of gypsy forms a pattern with the dress• Cut out moon and landscape• What is the lion doing in the desert?• Is the lion the gypsy’s dream?

1897

The Symbolists

Munch, The Scream• Lengthy brushstrokes• Linear pattern of diagonal movement• Straight and curving patterns• Exaggerated perspective• Figure twists like a worm• Unnerving impression on viewer• Scream echoed in the composition• Sexless emasculating figure• Final painting on a series about love• Represents a closing scene in a battle between the mind and sex, out of

which sex comes through triumphant

1893