19th Century Art: Impressionism, Post Impressionism, Early Expressionism and Symbolism Impressionism 1860 to 1886 Born in France First artistic revolution since the renaissance Rejected renaissance perspective, balanced composition, idealized figures and chiaroscuro Instead – immediate visual sensations through colour and light Main goal was to present an impression or initial sensory perceptions recorded by an artist in a brief glimpse They discovered that colour is not a permanent characteristic of an object, but changes constantly according to the effects of light, reflection or weather on the objects surface To portray light they created short choppy brushstroke What looked like dabs of paint far away, up close the eye fused separated steaks together ex. Blue and yellow = green Even shadows were painted with colour The movement started by Monet, Bazille, Renior and Sisley Open air painting, subject matter slice of contemporary life Rejected by art critics at first for lack of refinement Artists established right to experiment and personal style Edouard Manet Father of modern art Portrayed modern life candidly Sketchy brushwork , unfinished, flat and hard Manet , “Le Dejenuner sur l’herbe” (the luncheon on the grass) 1863 Offended art goers on moral and aesthetic grounds Naked woman was not idealized to look like a god or goddess Her gaze was contemporary direct gaze Manet, “A Bar at the Folies-Bergere” 1882 Cabaret bar and bar maid Sensory impressions rendered through colour Claude Monet Obsessed with working outdoors – painted regardless of weather condition Small dabs of paint corresponding to immediate visual observations “optical mixing” – vibrant colours side by side, blended at a distance Added complementary colour to the hue of object casting shadow Monet, “Impression Sunrise” 1872 Monet “Rouen Cathedral, West Façade, Sunlight” 1894 (Right) “Rouen Cathedral Sunset” 1892-94 Monet “Water lilies” 1919-26 1880s changed brushstrokes sweeps of colour Hundreds of water lily paintings eliminated outlines and contours until form and line almost disappeared No central focus or perspective Pierre-Auguste Renior Painted flowers, women, children, sunny outdoor scenes Short brushstrokes of distinct colour No outline, form suggested by highlights Cut off figures edge canvas imply scene expanded beyond the frame and engaged the viewer Un posed figures Renior “Le moulin de la Galette” 1876 Renior “Luncheon of the Boating Party” 1880–1881 Pierre-Auguste Renior “The Theater Box” 1874 Edouard Degas Painted contemporary subject matter café scenes, especially ballerinas however he had no interest in landscape painting and no concern for the effects of changing atmosphere and light Preference for linear drawing and composition and 3d depth firm contours, artificial light set him apart from other impressionists Shared interest in unplanned or spontaneous scenes Speciality was the human figure in moment of arrested motion – ballerinas Unconventional poses catch dancers off guard Reflect the influence of Japanese prints figures informally off-centre or edge frame Degas “Prima Ballerina “ 1876 Viewed from above, off centre composition and steeply titled floor characteristic Degas “Singer with a Glove” 1878 (left) Pastels - Draw and colour At same time Developed highly Original style First to exhibit pastel as finished works rather than sketches Only painter to produce large body work in them Degas “Ballet Dancers on the Stage” 1883 (right) Outline figures Filling in patches pure colour Bright colours, free strokes Degas “The Glass of Absinthe” 1876 (left) Overloading of figures to one side balanced by diagonal zigzag of empty tables drawing reader into the picture Realistic quality of a snapshot Degas “The Little 14 Year old Dancer” 1879-81 (right) Degas sculpted this figure in wax when his eyesight was failing and he had to create by touch Cast in bronze after his death Mart Cassatt Trademark images were portraits of mothers with children Inspired by Japanese prints, Cassatt adopted in oil, pastels and prints their brightly coloured flat images and sharp designs Figures dominate surrounded by expressive space Impressionist palette of vivid hues, pale tints and golden light and shadows tinged with colour Modern icons of maternity Mary Cassatt “Young Mother Sewing”1893 Mary Cassatt “Tea” 1880 Berthe Morisot Domestic scenes and women and children No outlines just touches of colour to indicate form and volume, free vigorous brush strokes Personal visual experience Berthe Morisot “Summer day", 1879 Berthe Morisot ”Woman at her Toilette ” 1875 Camille Pissaro Outdoors scenes with bright colours and patchy brushstrokes Know for rural landscapes and Parisian street scenes "Landscape at Pontoise", 1874 - oil on canvas, 61-81 cm (left) Le Boulevard Montmartre, effet de nuit (The Boulevard Montmartre at Night)", 1897 (right) Post Impressionism France – 1880-1905 Post impressionist wanted art to be more substantial not just capturing passing moment Two camps – Seurat and Cézanne – formal design Gaugin, van Gogh and Lautrec emotions and sensations Georges Seurat Quasiscientific method known as pointillism Confetti sized dots of pure colour over whole canvas Complementary colours (opposite) side by side would mix in the viewers eye with greater luminosity Grainy scintillating effect to canvas Seurat “A Sunday on la Grande Jatte” 1884-86 Assigned colours emotions and shapes to elicit predictable response in viewer Warm colours (orange -red family) happiness as well as lines moving upwards Dark, cool colours (blue-green) and descending lines – sadness Middle tones balance of warm and cool lateral lines calmness Seurat “le cirque” 1891 Mood frenetic activity Acid yellow contrast muted spectators Henri de Tolouse-Lautrec Drew his subjects from contemporary life – theatre and dance halls Movement and private moments, Cropped subjects, asymmetric composition derived from Japanese prints Figures in interior night scenes Harsh lighting and dissonant colours to convey eras surface gaiety underlying melancholy. Toulouse-Lautrec “ At the Moulin Rouge” 1892 Lautrec's most original contribution was to graphic arts Made lithography and the poster respectable media for major art Posters bold visual simplicity Toulouse-Lautrec “Jane Avril at the Jardin de Paris” 1893 Toulouse-Lautrec, « Divan Japonais » 1893 Paul Cezanne New take on surface appearance Cezanne represented the underlying geometry of objects Reproduced nature as cylinder, cone and sphere Simplify objects to near abstract forms Cezanne “Mont Sainte-Victorie” 1902-4 Pyramid defined through coloured planes To create illusion depth, placed cool colours like blue which seem to recede at the rear and warm colours like red which seem to advance in front Reveal the structure of things Portray visual reality as reflected through a faceted diamond Systematic in still life Carefully arranged fruit contrasting tones against one another Greens against reds and yellows against blues Cezanne “Still Life with Apples and Oranges” 1895-1900 Cezanne “Large Bathers” 1906 Cezanne initiated a major shift in art history Liberated art from reproducing reality to its basic components Paul Gauguin Refused to reproduce surface appearances instead transforming colours and distorting colours to convey his emotional response to a scene Life is colour Portraying his dreams was essence of his non-traditional art Gaugin “Vision after the Sermon” or Jacob Wrestling with an Angel” 1888 Stylized the Breton women witnessing a supernatural vision to make them symbols of faith He painted the red ground separating the real world of the women from the imaginary women by diagonal tree painted blue Contributions flattening forms and intensifying colours arbitrarily for emotional impact Gauguin, “La Orana Maria” 1892 Portrays the annunciation radically reinterpreted Retained angels greeting to Mary and halos everything else Tahiti inspired Simplified figures, firm outlines, rhythmic patterns, symbolism drawn from primitive and far eastern sources, rich colours Vincent Van Gogh Dutch Painter Light drenched outdoor scenes of working class life Healing powers of nature Broken brushstroke and bright complementary colours Used colours to express emotion Many interpreted distorted forms and violent contrast colours as evidence of mental imbalance – shy awkward painter suffered from loneliness and emotional collapse – depressed and hyperactive, paint all day well into night candles in brim hat. Produced 800 paintings and drawings in 10 years. Van Gogh “Sunflowers” 1887 Favourite colour yellow Many versions subject Van Gogh “Self Portrait with a Straw Hat” 1887 Van Gogh “Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear” 1889 Van Gogh “The Starry Night” 1889 Emotional reaction to scene through colour Surging movement through curving brushstroke Stars and moon seem explode with energy Composition carefully balanced – upward thrust cypress echoes vertical steeple cut across the vertical lines sky and hills, stop eye traveling out picture Dark cypress offsets the bright moon in the opposite corner achieve balance Forms of objects rhythmic brushstrokes overall effect unity rather than chaos Van Gogh “Crows over Cornfield” 1890 Early Expressionism Edvard Munch Modern anguish Called his paintings his children – traumatic childhood mother and eldest sister died consumption raise by very religious father afraid of Treated at sanatorium for depression Psychological problems catalyst for his art Specialized in portraying extreme human emotion like jealously and loneliness Aimed to induce strong emotional reaction in viewers Forerunner of expressionism – a style that portrayed human emotions Munch “The Scream” 1893 intolerable fear of losing ones mind Every line painting shows agitation, no relief for the eye – high anxiety Paula Modersohn-Becker Developed a completely modern style Single figures wide eyed nude self portraits and portraits of peasants Career cut short by her death child birth Modersohn-Becker “Self Portrait” 1906 Symbolism Forerunner of surrealism fantasy Henri Rousseau Untrained hobby painter quit job as toll collector Naive Believed his fantastic childlike landscapes were realistic Foliage minutely detailed, finish meticulous smooth no brushstrokes Technical limitations were clear – figures were flat and scale, proportion and perspective skewed Rousseau “The Sleeping Gypsy” 1897 Rousseau “The Dream” 1910 Odilon Redon Bizarre creatures Hallucinatory world Colour and line Orpheus iridescent colour to evoke magical netherworld Mythological musician – disembodied head beside a fragment of his lyre Glowing flowers signature style Redon “Orpheus” 1913