prezi.com/y0qgb8npo95d/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/vincent-van-gogh-life-and-work www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/news-and-press/news/virtual-sunflower-360-gallery prezi.com/phvtkgow9ly7/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share Click this link to access a revision ppt on Impressionism SynopsisImpressionism can be considered the first distinctly modern movement in painting. Developing in Paris in the 1860s, its influence spread throughout Europe and eventually the United States. Its originators were artists who rejected the official, government-sanctioned exhibitions, or salons, and were consequently shunned by powerful academic art institutions. In turning away from the fine finish and detail to which most artists of their day aspired, the Impressionists aimed to capture the momentary, sensory effect of a scene - the impression objects made on the eye in a fleeting instant. To achieve this effect, many Impressionist artists moved from the studio to the streets and countryside, painting en plein air. Key Ideas
In 1863, at the official yearly art salon, the all-important event of the French art world, a large number of artists were not allowed to participate, leading to public outcry. The same year, the Salon des Refusés ("Salon of the Refused") was formed in response to allow the exhibition of works by artists who had previously been refused entrance to the official salon. Some of the exhibitors were Paul Cézanne, Camille Pissarro, James Whistler, and the early iconoclast Édouard Manet. Although promoted by authorities and sanctioned by Emperor Napoleon III, the 1863 exhibition caused a scandal, due largely to the unconventional themes and styles of works such as Manet's Le déjeuner sur l'herbe (1863), which featured clothed men and naked women enjoying an afternoon picnic (the women were not classical depictions of a nude, but rather women that took off their clothes). Édouard Manet and the Painting Revolution Édouard Manet was among the first and most important innovators to emerge in the public exhibition scene in Paris. Although he grew up in admiration of the Old Masters, he began to incorporate an innovative, looser painting style and brighter palette in the early 1860s. He also started to focus on images of everyday life, such as scenes in cafes, boudoirs, and out in the street. His anti-academic style and quintessentially modern subject matter soon attracted the attention of artists on the fringes and influenced a new type of painting that would diverge from the standards of the official salon. Similar to Le déjeuner sur l'herbe, his other works such as Olympia (1863) gave the emerging group ideas to depict that were not previously considered art-worthy. French Cafes and Diversity One of the popular venues for the individuals that were to become the Impressionist to meet and discuss painting and art were Parisian cafes. In particular, Cafe Guerbois in Montmartre was frequented by Manet starting 1866. Renoir, Bazille, Sisley, Monet, Degas, Cezanne and Pissarro would come, while Caillebotte and Bazille had studios nearby and would often join the gatherings. Other personalities joined the creative group including writers, critics, and the photographer Nadar, and most notably the writer Emile Zola that both added to the ethos of the group, and later championed their work in print. Part of the interesting dynamics of the group was the variety of personalities, economic circumstances, and political views. Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro had lower and working class backgrounds while Morisot, Caillebotte, and Degas were from haute bourgeoisie roots. Mary Cassatt was American (and a woman) and Alfred Sisley was Anglo-French. This diversity of personalities may be the reason so much success arose from all these individual, and group, efforts. The Impressionist Exhibitions Though not yet united by any particular style, the fledgling group shared a general sense of antipathy toward overbearing academic standards of fine art, and decided to come together in the group themselves Société Anonyme des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs, etc.("Artists, Painters, Sculptors, Engravers, Inc."). In general, all the painters had very limitted success financially and had few works accepted in the salon exhibitions in Paris. So they held an alternative exhibition in 1874 in the studio of photographer Felix Nadar. It was not until the third exhibition in 1877 that they began to call themselves the Impressionists. While their first exhibition received limited public attention and most of the eight exhibition they held actually cost money rather than earned money for the cooperative of artists, their later shows attracted vast audiences, with attendance records well in to the thousands. Despite some attention, most members of the group sold very few works in all the years the exhibitions took place, and some of the artists were incredibly poor through many of these years. The Term "Impressionism"The movement gained its name after the hostile French critic Louis Leroy, reviewing the first major Impressionist exhibition of 1874, seized on the title of Claude Monet's painting Impression, Sunrise (1873), and accused the group of painting nothing but impressions. The Impressionists embraced the moniker, though they also referred to themselves as the "Independents," referring to the subversive principles of the Société des Artistes Indépendants and the group's efforts to detach itself from academic artistic conventions. Although the styles practiced by the Impressionists varied considerably (and in fact not all of the artists would accept Leroy's title), they were bound together by a common interest in the representation of visual perception, based in fleeting optical impressions, and the focus on ephemeral moments of modern life. Concepts and Styles Claude Monet and Plein Air PaintingClaude Monet is perhaps the most celebrated of the Impressionists. He was renowned for his mastery of natural light and painted at many different times of day in an attempt to capture changing conditions. He tended to paint simple impressions or subtle hints of his subjects, using very soft brushstrokes and unmixed colors to create a natural vibrating effect, as if nature itself were alive on the canvas. He did not wait for paint to dry before applying successive layers; this "wet on wet" technique produced softer edges and blurred boundaries that merely suggested a three-dimensional plane, rather than depicting it realistically. Monet's technique of painting outdoors, known as plein air painting, was practiced widely among the Impressionists. Inherited from the landscape painters of the Barbizon School, this approach led to innovations in the representation of sunlight and the passage of time, which were two central motifs of Impressionist painting. While Monet is largely associated with the tradition of plein air, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, and Alfred Sisley, among others, also painted outside in order to create their lucid portrayals of the transience of the natural world. Impressionist Figures by Degas and Renoir Other Impressionists, like Edgar Degas, were less interested in painting outdoors and rejected the idea that painting should be a spontaneous act. Considered a highly skilled draftsman and portraitist, Degas preferred indoor scenes of modern life: people sitting in cafes, musicians in an orchestra pit, ballet dancers performing mundane tasks at rehearsal. He also tended to delineate his forms with greater clarity than Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, using harder lines and thicker brushstrokes. Similarly, other artists such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Berthe Morisot, and Mary Cassatt focused on the figure and the internal psychology of the individual. Renoir, known for his use of vibrant, saturated colors, depicted the daily activities of individuals from his neighborhood of Montmartre, and, in particular, portrayed the social pastimes of Parisian society. While Renoir, like Morisot and Cassatt, also painted outdoors, he emphasized the emotional attributes of his subjects, using light and loose brushwork to highlight the human form. The Women of Impressionism Whereas the male Impressionists painted figures mainly within the public context of the city, Morisot focused on the female figure and the private lives of women in late-nineteenth-century society. The first woman to exhibit with the Impressionists, she created rich compositions that highlighted the internal, highly personal sphere of feminine society, often emphasizing the maternal bond between mother and child in paintings such as The Cradle (1872). Together with Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzales, and Marie Bracquemond, she was considered one of the three central female figures of the movement. Cassatt, an American painter who moved to Paris in 1866 and began exhibiting with the Impressionists in 1879, depicted the private sphere of the home, but also represented the woman in the public spaces of the newly modernized city, as in her painting At the Opera (1879). Her work features a number of innovations, including the reduction of three-dimensional space and the application of bright, even garish colors in her paintings, both of which heralded later developments in modern art. Impressionist Cityscapes Since the movement was deeply embedded within Parisian society, Impressionism was also greatly influenced by Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann's renovation of the city in the 1860s. Haussmann's urban project, also referred to as "Haussmannization," sought to modernize the city and largely centered in the construction of wide boulevards, which became the literal hub of public social activity. This reconstruction of the city also led to the rise of the flaneur: an idler or lounger who roamed the public spaces of the city in order to be seen, while remaining detached from the crowd. In many Impressionist paintings, the detachment of the flaneur is closely associated with modernity and the estrangement of the individual within the metropolis. These themes of urbanity are depicted in the work of Gustave Caillebotte, a later proponent of the Impressionist movement, who focused on panoramic views of the city and the psychology of its citizens. Although more realistic in style than other Impressionists, Caillebotte's images such as Paris, Rainy Day (1877) depict the artist's reaction to the changing nature of modern society, showing a flaneur in his characteristic black coat and top hat, strolling through the open space of the boulevard while gazing at passersby. Other Impressionists depicted the fleeting impressions and movements of the metropolis in cityscapes such as Monet's Boulevard des Capucines (1873) and Pissarro's The Boulevard Montmarte, Afternoon (1897). Similarly, these works emphasize the geometrical arrangement of public space through the careful delineation of buildings, trees, and streets. By applying crude brushstrokes and impressionistic streaks of color, they evoke the rapid tempo of modern life as a central facet of late-nineteenth-century urban society. Later Developments Although the Impressionists proved to be a diverse group, they came together regularly to discuss their work and exhibit. The group collaborated on eight exhibitions between 1874 and 1886 while slowly beginning to unravel. Many felt they had mastered the early, experimental styles that had won them attention and wanted to move on to explore other avenues. Others, anxious about the continued commercial failure of their work, changed course. The Triumph of Impressionism The ultimate acceptance and glory of the Impressionist movement is largely the achievement of Paul Durand-Ruel, a French art dealer that lived in London. Monet met Durand-Ruel in 1971 and the gallerist purchased Impressionist works and exhibited them in London for many years. Sales were meager, but starting in the late 1880s, he started showing Impressionsist works in the United States with growing success. In the next few years, having exhibited in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago Durand-Ruel was able to entice an audience of American buyers that bought more Impressionist works than were ever sold in France. Prices for Impressionst works skyrocketed (as much as 10 times), to the point that Monet became a millionaire. Moreover, Impressionism almost became academic to the point that a whole group of American painters descended on Monet's residence in Giverny to learn from the leader of the group. The Inspiration for Future Modernists Meanwhile, the lessons of the style were taken up by a new generation. If Manet bridged the gap between Realism and Impressionism, then Paul Cézanne was the artist who bridged the gap between Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Cézanne learned much from Impressionist technique, but he evolved a more deliberate style of paint handling, and, toward the end of his life, a closer attention to the structure of the forms that his broad, repetitive brushstrokes depicted. As he once put it, he wished to "redo [Nicolas] Poussin after nature and make Impressionism something solid and durable like the Old Masters." Cézanne wished to break down objects into their basic geometric constituents and depict their essential building blocks. This experiment would ultimately prove highly influential for the development of Cubism by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Later still, many modern artists looked to Impressionism. For example, although the movement is not generally considered to have had a powerful impact on Abstract Expressionism, one can trace important similarities in its artists' works. Philip Guston was once described as a latter-day "American Impressionist," and the surface qualities, suggestions of light, and "all-over" treatment of form in Jackson Pollock's work, all point to the work of Claude Monet. Below is a sample answer for the Hugh Lane Gallery. Example of Art gallery Essay - This got an A. It's about the Hughe Lane Galleryin Dublin and two works of Art. I recently visited the Hugh Lane Dublin City Gallery on a class trip. I had visited the gallery once before but on this occasion I had a better knowledge of art and the techniques used in its appreciation. So I had a better awareness and understanding of the gallery structure. The gallery is located in Charlemont house in north Dublin. This is a fitting setting as the building is of neo-classical design and many of the works on display date from this period. The gallery display modern and contemporary art, with substantial collection of impressionism. Charlemont house was designed for Lord Charlemont by the architect Sir. William Chambers. The building did not become the Hugh Lane Gallery until 1933, when the Hugh Lane collection was relocated to the house. Hugh Lanewas a philanthropist who spent much of his life collecting fine examples of art. Having no previous knowledge of art he chose pieces based on the opinions of his friends, eventually forming his own eye for art. Lane would raise the money for the art by asking the wealthy for donation and getting deals from artists who would offer him a lower price or even donate the work for free. Hugh Lane demanded that these works be made freely available to the public and this was upheld in his will as they were transfered into state ownership. I noticed that the layout of the building is well designed to display works of art as the house is designed with as series of networking rooms. This means that each room leads on to the other as was originally intended for socialising. Although this wasn't part of the original house, it still would of been important to Sir Hugh Lane to be able to entertain in the house.Today is means that the progression from room to room flows naturally and allows an orders and chronological hanging of the work while allowing the viewer to focus on the paintings in a single room. Each painting is also given its own space to focus on, with no more than two to a wall. In addition smaller painting are often hung adjacent to larger painting to put emphasis on size and scale. Paintings are usually hung with the centre of the picture being around eye level as this allows the best view of the painting. Tags are never placed near the entrance of the room, rather than the doorway so as not to detract from the paintings themselves. The information given is usually; the title, the artist, medium, the date painted, birth and death of artist along with a brief history of the artist life and work. To surmise, all of the above techniques mean that the work is presented in a very clear and informative manner which effectively engages the viewer. Modern technology has allowed for an even more comprehensive background of the artist, such as the interactive video screens in the Francis Bacon studio. There is also a movie room where there is an interview with Francis Bacon shown on screen which is viewed before entering the studio. The gallery also has a book ship with an extensive range of subjects allowing patrons to learn more about the artwork after their visit. In old galleries the walls are painted in rich victorian colours, in keeping with the period of the displayed. A number of skylights are in place to provide natural lights along with spotlights angles at the wall (to prevent glare). The newer galleries, such as the Francis Bacon studio, are generally all white with no frames on the paintings, allowing the viewer to focus on the work itself. Large skylight provide a great amount of natural light, along with artificial adjustable spots on sliding mounts.The gallery also has certain artifacts which are highlighted so as to draw out their characteristics. For example, the Harry Clarke room is devoted entirely to displays of stained glass. The room is almost completely dark with black walls and very soft, low lighting. Each piece of stained glass is placed in front of its own light source, slotted into the wall. This draws out all of the unique colours of the glass and completely focuses the viewer's attention on the work. The Francis Bacon Studio is one of the only three preserved studios in the world. To do this every detail of Bacon's studio in London was recorded, the disassembled and reassembled in the Hugh Lane Gallery. The studio gives a fantastic insight into Bacon's work and the creative processes behind it. It is located in a newer parts of the gallery, designed with the sole purpose of highlighting Bacon's work. The studio is seen before Bacon's paintings, allowing the viewer to better appreciate the work. While visiting the gallery there were two paintings on display that I found particularly appealing. Both were impressionist works, painted by Claude Monet. The first "Lavacourt under snow" is a landscape painting depicting a few small picturesque houses in the countryside covered by snow. The painting is very tranquil with small quick brushstrokes, capturing the fading light and pale pinks of the sky.The painting was hung in its original frame in the style of the late 19th Century. The second painting is called "Waterloo Bridge", by Monet. Monet spent a considerable amount of time in London. While there, he made many paintings of the Thames, enjoying the way the fog influenced the light and its effect on the water. The painting shows waterloo bridge from an obscured angle with part of the bridge cut off and out of frame. The painting shows the bridge in the early hours of the morning with a heavy mist present. The pale pinks and reds of the rising sun can be seen distorted in the water. London city can be seen in the background, obscured and slightly out of focus. Monet is renowned for his brilliant renditions of light at the different times of day. In addition his penchant for capturing a scene of natural beauty in a man made and industrial environment is clearly evident and particularly effective when viewed in person. I thoroughly enjoyed my art gallery visit as I was able to fully see the skill and artistry that is used in a gallery to highlight and focus the works of art on display. In addition seeing many of the paintings I have studied in person mean that I now have a better understanding and appreciation of them.
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