Click the above file to download another ppt for your essay on the Christian cross over with Iron Age influence
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Below are some videos to help revise Impressionism. The first 3 are dramas but the last one is a very strong documentary.
prezi.com/gsngyqiidhwi/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy . Click this link to access my online PREZI
BRONZE AGE Knowledge of metalworking gradually spread from Europe to Ireland during the 2nd millenium BC ( 2000 years Before Christ).The Bronze Age was called so after the metal Bronze which was a mixture of copper and tin. Copper was a soft metal which was easy to shape and mould and it was discovered that if a small amount of tin was added to copper that a much stronger metal was formed. This new metal was called Bronze. During the Bronze Age this new metal was used to make functional objects such as cooking pots, axes and shields. Gold was the preferred metal to make jewellery and decorative ornaments from. Unlike modern times, gold was commonly found in Ireland during the Bronze Age. Gold Discs Gold Discs , also called sun Discs were among the very first metal objects made in Ireland. A piece of gold was hammered flat until it became a thin sheet – like gold foil. Then the circular disc shape was cut out using a sharp tool. The decoration was made using a technique called Repoussé. This was where the design was hammered in from behind so that it stood up in relief in the front. In the Gold Disc from teldavnet the cruciform design was hammered in from behind. The edges of the disc were decorated with concentric circles which were made using the repoussé technique. It is believed that these Gold Discs were worn – in the hair or attached to clothes. There are two holes in the centre of the discs ( like a button) where gold wire would have been threaded through to tie the discs to the clothes or the hair. Gold Disc, Teldavnet, Co Monaghan. In this Gold Disc you can see just how thin the gold has become from being hammered- its like gold foil. You can also see the two holes in the centre which were used to fasten the gold disc using gold wire. Pair of gold discs, Tedavnet, Co. Monaghan. Early Bronze Age, 2200 – 2000 bc. Discovered in the roots of an old tree, this pair of discs is the largest and most sophisticated of the Early Bronze Age discs known from Ireland. A complex arrangement of raised lines, rows of dots and zig-zags has produced a central cross surrounded by concentric patterns similar to other discs but much more elaborate in composition and, technically, far superior. The combination of the techniques of repoussé, punching and polishing, together with the slight doming of the surfaces, highlights and gives a depth and texture to the discs not seen on other pieces. 1872:34, 35. D. 11.3 and 11.5 cm; Wt. 22.5 and 22.8 g.Armstrong 1920, 84; Cahill 1983, 100objects.ieLunula Blessington Lunula, Co WIcklow ; The British MuseumLunula were worn around the neck. They are cresent shaped and are called after the cresent moon – lunula. They were made by hammering gold flat into a sheet and cutting out the cresent shape using a sharp tool. They were decorated with a technique called “Incision”- this involved cutting or incising into the surface using a sharp tool. Typically the designs that were incised into a Lunula were chevrons (zig- zags) and Lozenges ( diamond shapes). Lunula were among the first gold objects to be made in Ireland and they date to the Early Bronze Age. Chevrons and Lozenges incised into the Blessington Lunula.Torcs Torcs are twisted bands of gold which were made in various sizes to be worn around the neck, arms,around the waist like a belt or even small ones to be worn as earrings. Torcs date from the middle Bronze Age. They use much more gold than the earlier Bronze Age objects such as the Gold Discs or Lunula and are a much heavier piece of jewellery. . A gold bar or band was twisted to form a rope like pattern. Often the gold bar was beaten thin at the edges to form a flange before being twisted. This is called flange twisting. It produces a much more delicate twisted edge than without flanging. Two gold torcs, Tara, Co. Meath. Middle Bronze Age, 1200 – 1000 bc. Found at the Rath of the Synods, Tara, Co. Meath, in 1810, these magnificent torcs which, between them, contain over a kilogram of gold, are the finest of their class from Ireland. They are of exceptionally large size and are further elaborated by the addition of extensions to the terminals, a feature which is not recorded elsewhere. Torcs of this type are made from bars of square or rectangular section, the angles of which have been hammered up to produce flanges. The even twisting of such a long bar requires considerable expertise and understanding of the working properties of the metal. W192, W173. D. 43.0 and 37.3 cm; Wt. 852.0 and 385.1 g. Armstrong 1920 159; Eogan 1967, 132–3, 139, 164; Cahill 1983, no. 9. 100 Objects.ie Gold Ribbon Torc . Found near Belfast. 3rd Century BC. National Museum of Ireland. In this Torc you can see that the edges of the gold band were beaten very thin before being twisted. This produces a very delicate appearance like a ribbon giving the name Ribbon Torc . Photo by Reena Ahluwalia. Flanged Gold Earrings, Castlerea, Co Roscommon Dress Fasteners Dress Fasteners of all sizes were made during the middle Bronze Age. This Fastener below is very large and heavy weighing over one kilo. It probably was used only for ceremonial purposes. It is decorated with engraved concentric circles. Gold Dress Fastner from Clones, Co Monaghan . Photo by Reena AhluwaliaGorget A Gorget is a type of gold collar to be worn around the neck. Gorgets were made during the Late Bronze Age and they display the range of artistry metalworking techniques that were developed during the Bronze Age. A Gorget is made in three sections. A collar and two Terminal Discs. The collar is decorated with rope pattern designs using the teacnique of Repoussé which involved hammering in the design from behind so that it stood out in relief. The terminal discs show a range of designs and techniques. In the centre a conical shaped boss stands out very prominently from the surface. Covering the surface of each disc is an elaborate design of rings of dots made in Repoussé and rings of incised concentric circles. [3:21] Gorget,, Gleninsheen, Co. Clare. Late Bronze Age, 800-700 bc. Found in a rock cleft in 1932 at Gleninsheen, Co. Clare, this collar is an exceptional example of the highly developed goldsmithing skills displayed by Irish craftsmen in the Late Bronze Age. While conforming closely to the pattern of ornamentation prescribed for such collars, the smith, by varying the detail of the motifs, has achieved a tour de force. In particular, the frontal terminal discs are of superb craftsmanship. The layout and execution of the designs incorporating concentric circles, rope patterns and conical and round bosses, have been expertly achieved. Gleeson 1934, 138–9; Cahill 1983, no. 21. 100 Objects.ie Detail of Gorget. This is a close up view of one of the Terminal Discs. You can see in the very centre there is a large cone shaped Boss. Decorating the surface of the Terminal Disc are rings of raised dots made using the Repoussé technique and also rings of concentric circles which have been engraved into the surface. This article was written by Deirdre Morgan except where credited otherwise.
Click the above link to download my powerpoint on the Stone Age.
Pre-Christian Ireland- Stone age Neolithic Age 3700-2000 B.C. Around 3700 B.C. the hunter gatherers and fishermen were replaced with people from central Europe, who travelled to Ireland through England or Scotland. What we know about these farmers comes from their stone graves called megalithic tombs. They placed importance on life after death by building imposing resting placed for the dead rather than for the living. These people were organised farmers with complex social groups. They brought livestock with them, they cleared forests and the whole island had regular contact with land overseas. The people who made Newgrange were intelligent and organised, farmers and had a good knowledge of astronomy. They set a lot of importance on ritual symbolism. They used the river to transport materials, therefore had good knowledge of engineering. They lived in wattle and daub huts. Megalithic (large stone) Burial Monuments
Ardara, Co. Donegal 170 in total around Ireland Between 3 and 7 standing stones supporting 1 or 2 capstones Single slabs rested against back to form the chamber.
Has a rectangular or circular burial chamber, with a corbelled roof. The chamber would serves as the tomb and the court would hold the rituals
Newgrange Located in the Boyne Valley Co. Meath Constructed around 3000-2000
The passage is 21m long, it is lines and roofed with large stones and slopes gently upwards. There is one main chamber and 3 niches, with stone basins Roof of chamber is corbelled, layers of flattish stone in circles, each layer moving further inwards than the one below, until closed by single stone at the top. Stones tilted downwards to stop water entering the chamber Once there stood 32 standing stones (monoliths) now there are only 12, believed to be used for astronomical observations. Now believed not to be contemporary with the mound. 97 kerbstones form the perimeter of the mound and a wall of white quartz stone stands on top.
Used for ceremonies and rituals Burial chamber lights upon the 21st of December, which also helped it function as a calendar to the people. Number of cremated remains found is relatively small compare to the size of the community and the length of time for which the mounds were used. This suggests that only important members of the community were buried there or that they were ritual or sacrificial burials. Some believe tat the designs on the stones relate to the movements of sun, moon and planets, which would have been a way to keep track of the seasons and important community events
The Stone Age people obviously from there amazing commitment had a very deep belief in the meaning and function of these tombs, as they were not even used for their own benefit of shelter. It also suggests that the society was well established and they had time to make wondrously huge tombs. Construction probably began with the layout of the passages as their orientation to the sun was an essential part of the purpose. The line kerb would have been laid out early on as it was the retaining structure for the body of the mound.
Entrance stone Carved with pointed flint stone and hammer, the channels on this are 4cm wide. On the far left there are lozenges, and as we move right we can see a triple spiral, then two double spirals surrounded by waves, curves and zig zags. Kerbstone 52 Situated opposite the entrance stone. Highly decorated but less harmoniously than the entrance stone. Consists of 3 sections. Diamonds on the bottom left, spirals on the top left and group of concentric circles with dots and rectangles Above the entrance to the passage there is a roof box, the lintel above this is decorated with radiating triangle carvings. vimeo.com/100156306 Above is a link to the documentary. At the end of this lesson is the powerpoint on Vincent Van Gogh Below is a link to Khan Academy. Included are short videos and info on paintings www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-garde-france/post-impressionism/a/van-gogh-self-portrait-with-bandaged-ear A lesson from Vincent What would you think of someone who said, “I would like to have a cat provided it barked”? The common desire to achieve or create great things provided it’s something that can be easily willed or wished is precisely equivalent. The principles of behavior that lead to great accomplishments are no less rigid than the biological principles that determine the characteristics of cats. Consider, for example, the life of Vincent Willem van Gogh. He is generally considered to be one of history’s greatest artists and had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. His artistic accomplishments are not an accident, not a result of some easily magic trick or secret, but a consequence of his nature to work persistently on his art every day. He revered “the doing” in art. He wrote about his hard work many times to his brother Theo. In a letter he sent Theo in 1885 he stated that one can only improve by working on your art, and many people are more remarkably clever and talented than him, but what use is it if they do not work at it. He did not begin painting until his late twenties, completing many of his best-known works during the last two years of his life. In the first years of his career, van Gogh displayed no natural talent. David Sweetman’s biography “Van Gogh: His Life and His Art” gives a detailed description of his intention to be an artist and his insatiable capacity for hard work to become one. He turned himself into an artist by acting like an artist and going through the motions by turning out mostly bad innumerable rough sketches, day and night. In Van Gogh’s own words he said, “In spite of everything I shall rise again and take up my pencil and draw and draw.” He received mild encouragementfrom his cousin, Anton Mauve, who supplied him with his first set of watercolors. Mauve was a successful artist and gave Vincent some basic instructions in painting. Their relationship was short-lived, however, as Vincent was incapable of receiving criticism of his art from Mauve. Mauve even went to Vincent’s father and told him it would be better for Vincent to stop attempting to be an artist and find another occupation that better suited his talent. It was then that Vincent unveiled what art critics label as his first “masterpiece,” The Potato Eaters. He turned himself into an artist by acting like an artist and going through the motions by turning out mostly bad innumerable rough sketches, day and night. LESSON #1 STOP WAITING AND TAKE ACTION The lesson about creative thinking I learned from Van Gogh is action. Just do it. Stop waiting and start working toward what you want. What we think, or what we know, or what we believe something is, in the end, of no consequence. The only consequence is what we actually do. In Van Gogh’s own words “Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in the face like some imbecile. You don’t know how paralyzing that is, that stare of a blank canvas is, which says to the painter, “You can’t do a thing.” The canvas has an idiotic stare and mesmerizes some painters so much that they turn into idiots themselves. Many painters are afraid in front of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the real, passionate painter who dares and who has broken the spell of ‘you can’t’ once and for all by getting to work and painting.” It was very difficult at times, but he believed nobody can do as he wishes in the beginning when you start but everything will be all right in the end. Each day he made every effort to improve because he knew making beautiful paintings meant painstaking work, disappointment and perseverance. In the end, Van Gogh produced 2000 works of art between 1880 and 1890 (1100 paintings and 900 sketches). That’s 4 works of art a week for a decade, and he didn’t start making art until his mid twenties. LESSON #2 COMMIT AND GO THROUGH THE MOTIONS Van Gogh taught me to commit myself to a desire and go through the motions of working toward accomplishing it. His advice was if you do nothing, you are nothing. You must keep working and keep working come what may. Even when your final goal is not clear, the goal will become clearer and will emerge slowly but surely, much as the rough drawing turns into a sketch, and the sketch into a painting through the serious work done on it and through the elaboration of the original vague idea and through the consolidation of your fleeting and passing thoughts on it as you work. Think of the first airplane. On December 8, 1903, Samuel Pierpont Langley, a leading government-funded scientist, launched with much fanfare his flying machine on the Potomac. It plummeted into the river. Nine days later, Orville and Wilbur got the first plane off the ground. Why did these bicycle mechanics succeed when a famous scientist failed? It was because Langley did the mental work and hired other people to build and execute his intellectual design for him. LESSON #3 DO YOUR OWN WORK The Wright brothers did their own work. When they were working and producing creative ideas and products they were replenishing neurotransmitters which are linked to genes that are being turned on and turned off in response to what the brain is doing, which in turn is responding to challenges. When they constantly worked on their idea and learned through trial and error, they were energizing their brains by increasing the number of contacts between neurons. The more times they act, the longer they worked the more active their brains became and the more creative they became. Their creative brains made them aware of the range of many potentials for each adjustment they built into their design. Their personal observations of the many alternative potentials led them to constantly change and modify their ideas that created the airplane.When they constantly worked on their idea and learned through trial and error, they were energizing their brains by increasing the number of contacts between neurons. I like to metaphorically compare working toward a desired goal such the goals of Van Gogh and the Wright brothers to weight lifting. If you want to build muscles you lift weights. If the weight is heavy enough it’s going to damage the muscles. That damage creates a chemical cascade and reaches into the nuclei of your muscle cells, and turns on genes that make proteins and build up muscle fibers. Those genes are only turned on in response to some environmental challenge. That’s why you’ve got to keep lifting heavier and heavier weights. The phrase, “No pain no gain,” is literally true in this case. Interaction with the environment turns on certain genes which otherwise wouldn’t be turned on; in fact, they will be turned off if certain challenges aren’t being faced. LESSON #4 DON’T WAIT FOR PERFECT MOMENTS Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful. We are what we repeatedly do. START NOW To get a feel for how powerful the simple act of just starting something creative and working on it is, try the following thought experiment. THOUGHT EXPERIMENT Take out a sheet of paper and at least ten items, money, credit cards, keys, coins, etc. Your task is to create an assemblage that metaphorically represents you. Here are the guidelines: 1. In your mind, imagine an assemblage that metaphorically represents you. Do not think about the materials you have in hand. Instead think about the shape you would like your assemblage to have. What are the rhythms you want? The texture? Where would you want it to be active? Passive? Where do things overlap and where are they isolated? Think in general and overall pictures, and leave out the details. Do not think about great art; just think about who you are and what how you can represent yourself metaphorically. 2. Now form a more specific idea of the final assemblage. As you look at the paper, imagine the specific assemblage you want to create. Make sure you’ve formed this image before you move to the next step. 3. Place the items on the paper. Since the composing stage is already done, it’s time to bring your creation into physical existence. How closely did it come to your conception? Become a critic for the assemblage. Look at it for its own sake, independent of the fact that you have created it. Take the items off and go through the same procedures. Make the assemblage again. 4. By conceptualizing and using materials you had on hand, you created an artistic assemblage from nothing. 5. If you performed this exercise every day with different objects for five to ten straight days you will find yourself becoming an artist who specializes in rearranging unrelated objects into art. It is the activity that turns on the synaptic transmissions in your brain that turn on the genes that are linked to what you are doing, which is responding to an environmental challenge (i.e., the making of an assemblage).
prezi.com/e19yehfrxpuy/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy See the link for access to my presentation. Synopsis Always remembered as an Impressionist, Edgar Degas was a member of the seminal group of Paris artists who began to exhibit together in the 1870s. He shared many of their novel techniques, was intrigued by the challenge of capturing effects of light and attracted to scenes of urban leisure. But Degas's academic training, and his own personal predilection toward Realism, set him apart from his peers, and he rejected the label 'Impressionist' preferring to describe himself as an 'Independent.' His inherited wealth gave him the comfort to find his own way, and later it also enabled him to withdraw from the Paris art world and sell pictures at his discretion. He was intrigued by the human figure, and in his many images of women - dancers, singers, and laundresses - he strove to capture the body in unusual positions. While critics of Impressionists focused their attacks on their formal innovations, it was Degas's lower-class subjects that brought him the most disapproval. Key Ideas Degas rejected the typical subjects that were made popular by the academies, such as scenes from history and myth, and instead he explored modern life. Like the Realists and Impressionists, he often painted images of middle class leisure in the city. Degas' academic training encouraged a strong classical tendency in his art, which conflicted with the approach of the Impressionists. While he valued line as a means to describe contours and to lend solid compositional structure to a picture, they favored color, and more concentration on surface texture. As well, he preferred to work from sketches and memory in the traditional academic manner, while they were more interested in painting outdoors (en plein air). Degas' enduring interest in the human figure was shaped by his academic training, but he approached it in innovative ways. He captured strange postures from unusual angles under artificial light. He rejected the academic ideal of the mythical or historical subject, and instead sought his figures in modern situations, such as at the ballet. Like many of the Impressionists, Degas was significantly influenced by Japanese prints, which suggested novel approaches to composition. The prints had bold linear designs and a sense of flatness that was very different from the traditional Western picture with its perspective view of the world. Biography Childhood Edgar Degas was the eldest of five children of Célestine Musson de Gas, an American by birth, and Auguste de Gas, a banker. Edgar later changed his surname to the less aristocratic sounding 'Degas' in 1870. Born into a wealthy Franco-Italian family, he was encouraged from an early age to pursue the arts, though not as a long-term career. Following his graduation in 1853 with a baccalaureate in literature, the eighteen-year-old Degas registered at the Louvre as a copyist, which he claimed later in life is the foundation for any true artist. After a brief period at law school, in 1855 he was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied drawing under the academic artist Louis Lamothe, a former pupil of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. That same year, the Exposition Universelle took place, and Degas was enthralled by Gustave Courbet's Pavilion of Realism. It was also at the Exposition that Degas first met Ingres, a painter several years his senior, whose personal guidance was valuable. Early Period and Training In 1865, when Degas was aged 22, he traveled to Naples, Italy, to visit his aunt, the Baroness Bellini and her family. This three-year trip was an important moment in his development, and resulted in the Realist portrait The Bellini Family (1859). He spent countless hours combing the museums and galleries of Italy, carefully studying Renaissance works by Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian, among others. In 1864, while copying a picture by Velázquez at the Louvre, he met Édouard Manet, who by chance was copying the same painting. His friendship with Manet was instrumental in the development of Impressionism. The following year, Degas exhibited at the Paris Salon, the first of six consecutive showings, showing works such as Édouard Manet and Mme. Manet and The Orchestra of the Opera (both 1868-69), paintings that subtly blurred the lines between straight portraiture and genre painting. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Edgar Degas Biography Continues LegacyAlthough Degas suffered criticism during his lifetime, by the time of his death his reputation was secure as one of the leaders of late 19th century French art. His distinct difference from the Impressionists, his greater tendency toward Realism, had also come to be appreciated. His standing has only increased since his death, though since the 1970s he was been the focus of a lot of scholarly attention and criticism, primarily focused around his images of women, which have been seen as misogynistic. prezi.com/d9vv60lten4w/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
Click the above link to access my powerpoint on Renoir. Famed for his sensual nudes and charming scenes of pretty women, Auguste Renoir was a far more complex and thoughtful painter than generally assumed. He was a founding member of the Impressionist movement, nevertheless he ceased to exhibit with the group after 1877. From the 1880s until well into the twentieth century, he developed a monumental, classically inspired style that influenced such avant-garde giants as Pablo Picasso . Renoir began his artistic career as a porcelain painter; however, his ambitions to become a professional artist prompted him to seek other instruction. He began copying paintings at the Louvre in 1860 and eventually entered the studio of the academic artist Charles Gleyre, where he met Claude Monet, Frédéric Bazille, and Alfred Sisley. The four friends soon began painting in the forest of Fontainebleau, although Renoir always remained dedicated to figure painting and portraits. His early female nudes were heavily influenced by the earthy palette and buxom figure types of Realist painter Gustave Courbet. In the summer of 1869, Renoir painted for two months alongside Monet at La Grenouillère, a boating and bathing establishment outside Paris .Their sketchlike technique of broad, loose brushstrokes and their brightened palette attempted to capture the effects of the sun streaming through the trees on the rippling water. This painting campaign catalyzed the development of the Impressionist aesthetic. After several of his paintings were rejected by the Salon in the early 1870s, Renoir decided to join Monet in establishing an independent artist’s society. The Impressionists, as they were called, sought to capture modern life and Renoir’s works from this period focused on everyday people, streets, and surroundings. His most iconic painting from this period, Dance at the Moulin de la Galette , explores dappled light as it flutters over young Montmartre revelers flirting, drinking, and dancing .Renoir’s penchant for portraiture attracted the attention of a range of patrons with avant-garde sensibilities. From the politically radical pastry cook Eugène Murer to the wealthy society lady Madame Georges Charpentier, Renoir painted all of his patrons with affectionate charm. One of the most splendid and ambitious portraits Renoir ever realized, the painting of Marguerite Charpentier with her children blends a modern informality and intimacy with the compositional rigor of an old master portrait. The painting also prominently displays the Charpentiers’ advanced taste for Japanese arts. Portraiture sustained Renoir financially, especially after the Charpentier painting was exhibited at the 1879 Salon to great success. Renoir, in fact, met one of his best patrons, the banker Paul Bérard, at Mme Charpentier’s home. They became very close—Renoir painted all of his children and visited the Bérards’ country house in Wargemont regularly, where he explored other genres such as seascapes and luxuriant still lifes With his newfound financial freedom, Renoir began to explore other artistic directions. His doubts about the spontaneity and impermanence of the Impressionist aesthetic led him to refuse to participate in the fourth Impressionist exhibition in 1878. Instead, Renoir decided to look back to the old masters for an art of structure, craft, and permanence. His first painting in this vein, Luncheon of the Boating Party (Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., 1637), exhibits a new solidity and clarity in the depiction of the figures and their placement within space, especially when compared to the Moulin de la Galette. Renoir left for Italy in 1881 to continue his self-education in the “grandeur and simplicity of the ancient painters.” He returned enamored of Raphael and Pompeii and his figures consequently became more crisply drawn and sculptural in character Reclining Nude is an excellent example of his painting style in the mid-1880s. The marble or porcelain-like figure is sharply defined against an impressionistically brushed landscape. The spatial relationship between the nude and the amorphous background is deliberately unclear. While the back view of the nude quotes the coldly linear odalisques of Ingres, the bushy vegetation and coastal view recall the landscapes Renoir painted on the English Channel island of Guernsey, which he visited in 1883 This series of sculptural nudes in a vague landscape culminated in Renoir’s Large Bathers now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1963-116-13). By the late 1880s and early 1890s, Renoir had shifted his investigation of the old masters from linear classicism to the coloristic traditions of Titian and Rubens as well as the unabashedly sensual beauty of eighteenth-century French art. Young Girl Bathing exhibits this softened touch. The figure’s amplitude, the way her hair blends into the lush landscape, her demure glance away from the viewer, and the caressing brushstrokes allude simultaneously to the nudes of Rubens and Fragonard . Renoir’s most important series of the decade came from an invitation by the French government to execute a painting for the Musée du Luxembourg, a new museum devoted to the work of living artists. Renoir made five versions of Two Young Girls at the Piano for the Minister of Fine Arts to choose from; the version in the Metropolitan’s Robert Lehman Collection is one of the finest The subject of girls at a piano recalls eighteenth-century French genre scenes, especially those of Fragonard. Renoir had painted the subject several times before, most notably in a major portrait commission In the early twentieth century, despite old age and declining health, Renoir persisted in artistic experimentation. He took up sculpture, hiring a young assistant and collaborator, Richard Guino, to create models after his designs. He continued to paint portraits and his Tilla Durieux is arguably the finest of his late portraits. The pyramidal composition, lavish costume, and textiles framing the sitter derive from Titian’s portraits, attesting to Renoir’s continued admiration of Renaissance art . The warm, red tonalities and expansive sense of monumentality, however, are features of his late style. During this period, Renoir lived mostly in the south of France near the Mediterranean coast. His physical deterioration was the impetus for this change of climate, but Renoir was also drawn to an arcadian ideal of Mediterranean classicism in his art. This artistic preoccupation is nowhere more apparent then in his twentieth-century bathers. The Rubenesque nudes he had been painting reached a level of unprecedented exaggeration in the twentieth century, culminating in the massive Bathers at the Musée d’Orsay (RF2795). Mary Cassatt infamously described these pictures as of “enormously fat red women with very small heads.” Nevertheless, their over-the-top vision of edenic plenitude was admired by Picasso , Henri Matisse , and Aristide Maillol. Renoir was celebrated in the early twentieth century as one of the greatest modern French painters, not just for his work as an Impressionist but also for the uncompromising aesthetic of his late works. Cindy Kang Institute of Fine Arts, New York University 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. Click this link to access my presentation on Manet. prezi.com/4xrhnd_zkq-p/edouard-manet-art-for-a-democratic-age/ BBC have a brill documentary called Manet: the man who invented Modern Art. It can be streamed from sites which I cannot post to this webpage prezi.com/lutaxqcbhqu_/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy Click the above link to access the ppt Georges Seurat is chiefly remembered as the pioneer of the Neo-Impressionist technique commonly known as Divisionism, or Pointillism, an approach associated with a softly flickering surface of small dots or strokes of color. His innovations derived from new quasi-scientific theories about color and expression, yet the graceful beauty of his work is explained by the influence of very different sources. Initially, he believed that great modern art would show contemporary life in ways similar to classical art, except that it would use technologically informed techniques. Later he grew more interested in Gothic art and popular posters, and the influence of these on his work make it some of the first modern art to make use of such unconventional sources for expression. His success quickly propelled him to the forefront of the Parisian avant-garde. His triumph was short-lived, as after barely a decade of mature work he died at the age of only 31. But his innovations would be highly influential, shaping the work of artists as diverse as Vincent Van Gogh and the Italian Futurists, while pictures like Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte (1884) have since become widely popular icons. Key Ideas Seurat was inspired by a desire to abandon Impressionism's preoccupation with the fleeting moment, and instead to render what he regarded as the essential and unchanging in life. Nevertheless, he borrowed many of his approaches from Impressionism, from his love of modern subject matter and scenes of urban leisure, to his desire to avoid depicting only the 'local', or apparent, color of depicted objects, and instead to try to capture all the colors that interacted to produce their appearance. Seurat was fascinated by a range of scientific ideas about color, form and expression. He believed that lines tending in certain directions, and colors of a particular warmth or coolness, could have particular expressive effects. He also pursued the discovery that contrasting or complementary colors can optically mix to yield far more vivid tones that can be achieved by mixing paint alone. He called the technique he developed 'chromo-luminism', though it is better known as Divisionism (after the method of separating local color into separate dots), or Pointillism (after the tiny strokes of paint that were crucial to achieve the flickering effects of his surfaces). Although radical in his techniques, Seurat's initial instincts were conservative and classical when it came to style. He saw himself in the tradition of great Salon painters, and thought of the figures in his major pictures almost as if they were figures in monumental classical reliefs, though the subject matter - the different urban leisure pursuits of the bourgeois and the working class - was fully modern, and typically Impressionist. In Seurat's later work he left behind the calm, stately classicism of early pictures like Bathers at Asnières, and pioneered a more dynamic and stylized approach that was influenced by sources such as caricatures and popular posters. These brought a powerful new expressiveness to his work, and, much later, led him to be acclaimed by the Surrealists as an eccentric and a maverick. edit.
Synopsis Paul Cézanne was the preeminent French artist of the Post-Impressionist era, widely appreciated toward the end of his life for insisting that painting stay in touch with its material, if not virtually sculptural origins. Also known as the "Master of Aix" after his ancestral home in the South of France, Cézanne is credited with paving the way for the emergence of twenthieth-century modernism, both visually and conceptually. In retrospect, his work constitutes the most powerful and essential link between the ephemeral aspects of Impressionism and the more materialist, artistic movements of Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism, and even complete abstraction. Key IdeasCézanne ultimately came to regard color, line, and "form" as constituting one and the same thing, or inseparable aspects for describing how the human eye actually experiences nature. Unsatisfied with the Impressionist dictum that painting is primarily a reflection of visual perception, Cézanne sought to make of his artistic practice a new kind of analytical discipline. In his hands, the canvas itself takes on the role of a screen where an artist's visual sensations are registered as he gazes intensely, and often repeatedly, at a given subject. Cézanne applied his pigments to the canvas in a series of discrete, methodical brushstrokes as though he were "constructing" a picture rather than "painting" it. Thus, his work remains true to an underlying architectural ideal: every portion of the canvas should contribute to its overall structural integrity. In Cézanne's mature pictures, even a simple apple might display a distinctly sculptural dimension. It is as if each item of still life, landscape, or portrait had been examined not from one but several or more angles, its material properties then recombined by the artist as no mere copy, but as what Cézanne called "a harmony parallel to nature." It was this aspect of Cézanne's analytical, time-based practice that led the future Cubists to regard him as their true mentor. Biography Childhood Paul Cézanne was born on January 19, 1839 in Aix-en-Provence in the South of France. His father was a wealthy lawyer and banker who strongly encouraged Paul to follow in his footsteps. Cézanne's eventual rejection of his authoritative father's aspirations led to a long, problematic relationship between the two, although, notably, the artist remained financially dependent on his family until his father's death in 1886. Early Training Cézanne was largely a self-taught artist. In 1859, he attended evening drawing classes in his native town of Aix. After moving to Paris in 1861, Cézanne twice attempted to enter the École des Beaux-Arts, but was turned down by the jury. Instead of acquiring professional training, Cézanne made frequent visits to the Musée de Louvre, where he copied works by Titian, Rubens, and Michelangelo. He also regularly visited the Académie Suisse, a studio where young art students could draw from the live model for a very modest monthly membership fee. While at the Académie, Cézanne met fellow painters Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, and Auguste Renoir, who were at that time also struggling artists, but who would soon comprise the founding members of the nascent Impressionist movement. The early oils of Cézanne were executed in a rather somber palette. The paint was often applied in thick layers of impasto, adding a sense of heaviness to already solemn compositions. Cézanne's early painting indicated a focus on color in favor of well-delineated silhouettes and perspectives preferred by the French Academy and the jury of the annual Salon. While in Paris, Cézanne continuously submitted his works for exhibition at the Salon. All of his submissions, however, were refused. The artist also travelled regularly back to Aix to secure funding from his disapproving father. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Paul Cézanne Biography Continues LegacyWhen looking at Cézanne's late work, it is impossible to miss the emergence of a unique artistic approach. The rules of the Academy completely abandoned, and the aesthetics of Impressionism having been successfully employed but not copied, Cézanne offered a new way of comprehending the world through art. With his reputation evolving steadily in the late years of his life, an increasing number of young artists fell under the influence of his innovative vision. Among them was the young Pablo Picasso, who would soon steer the Western tradition of painting into yet another new and utterly unprecedented direction. It was Cézanne who taught the new generation of artists to liberate form from color in their art, thus creating a new and subjective pictorial reality, not merely a slavish imitation. The influence of Cézanne continued well into the 1930s and 1940s, when a new artistic manner was coming to fruition - that of Abstract Expressionism.
2009 Q.17 - Art appreciation - Sample Answer2009 paper 17. A visit to an exhibition is best judged by the quality of art work on display and by the gallery space itself.. - Discuss this statement with reference to any named exhibition you have visited. and - Discuss two specific works from this exhibition in detail. Use sketches to illustrate your answer. 2009 Q17 Marking scheme A Name of Gallery/Exhibition. 10 B Discussion of statement with reference to visited exhibition . 10 C Detailed discussion of work 1. 10 D Detailed discussion of work 2. 10 E Sketches 10 Total : 50 ______________________________________________________ Sample Answer: The gallery I have visited and will discuss in my answer is the National Gallery of Ireland. The national gallery is just off Nassau street in the grounds of Leinster Lawn in Co.Dublin I had visited this gallery once before but on my most recent visit 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 and art work on display there, in particular the work of Irish artist Jack B.Yeats work displayed in the Yeats room which I will discuss in detail later. The paintings in the National gallery of Ireland belong to all the Irish public, everyone’s welcome to visit the gallery and entry is free. I noticed that the structure and layout of the building is well designed to display all of the different works of art, as the gallery flows from room to room so that each room leads on to next. This gallery is very well laid out and on arrival visitors receive a booklet with the floor plan so that they know the layout of the gallery and can find their way around easily, this is helpful as the gallery is very large and spacious and you could easily get lost. All of the exhibition rooms in this gallery were named on the plan and the centuries that the paintings came from. Each wing is colour coded & the gallery has 4 wings. We had a guide who showed us around the gallery and explained the different rooms & paintings to us. The galleries paintings are all arranged by themes eg: still life / landscapes etc. The overall atmosphere in this gallery is very calm and peaceful and the rooms are very large and spacious with lots of room for visitors to walk around and enjoy the Art work on display. . I agree with the statement above that ‘a visit to an art exhibition is best judged by the quality of art work on display’ and one exhibition on display in particular caught my attention and I feel this is the reason I really enjoyed my visit to this gallery. Before I visited the national gallery I thought it was only for wealthy artistic people but after my visit my opinion has changed. I now know that an art gallery is a place where works of art are cared for and displayed for everyone to visit & enjoy. We visited the ‘Yeats room’ featuring the art work of the famous Irish painter Jack B Yeats. This room is different from the rest of the gallery. The lighting is low and it is like that to protect & preserve the paintings done in watercolor and oil. There is also a glass barrier to protect the paintings. The low lighting makes the room very peaceful & creates a special atmosphere. And strong light may damage the paintings. Because the oil paint is applied very thickly your natural reaction is to want to touch it (the texture) and the paint was applied with large brushes & palette knives. Yeats loved to paint scenes from the west of Ireland. His paintings in the gallery are arranged from his early simple life drawings to his heavily applied knife paintings. The paintings are hung at eye level with info underneath it about each painting. My two favourite paintings on exhibit in the national gallery of Ireland in te ‘Yeats room’ by Yeats are ‘The liffey swim’ & ‘Grief’. The liffey swim – the subject matter of this painting is a sporting event in Dublin. We see a crowd cheering on swimmers as they swim up the liffey. We feel that we are actually looking at the race from where the crowd was standing. We can see a boy in a green hat trying to work his way into the crowd to sell papers. Yeats paints himself into the painting (something the does quite often) along with his wife Cotty. They are in the foreground, she wears a fancy hat and he wears a grey hat with a black band. Grief – this painting is very emotional. The subject matter (what the painting is about) is about war. It is a painting about the civil war in Ireland. In the centre there is a man on a horse with his arms raised. He seems to be angry. To the left of him I can see soldiers carrying rifles. A person in green leaves the scene. In the foreground Yeats shows the victims of war, a mother trying to comfort her dying baby, there is an old man on his knees with his hands in his face. He is either praying or just in despair. The gable of a house can be seen in the background with an explosion going off to the left. In the distance I can see a background of the sun rising which maybe is a symbol of hope. From his traditional period, ‘The Liffey Swim’ captures the excitement of this annual event in Dublin, but sporting events were always of interest to him.He painted with loose brush strokes in his later works and emotion became a stronger feature in his work. He felt that the paintings could speak for themselves, he said ‘It doesn’t matter who I am or what I am, people may think what they will of my pictures’. Another of Yeats most common images involved horses, and though he was never a horseman himself, he had a great affection for them. ‘For the Road’ expresses the understanding between horse and rider and the light of hope and optimism at the end of the tunnel. He died in March 1957 and has gained widespread international recognition as Irelands most renowned painter. In conclusion I really enjoyed my visit to the national gallery of Ireland & the Yeats room and I hope to return very soon to view all of the fantastic paintings from history. READ THE QUESTIONS Below is another strong documentary on Caravaggio. Above the curator of the London Beyond Caravaggio talks about the work. This is an essential watch
Excellent info and description of Caravaggios work. The setting is the National Gallery in London and the different setting allows you to see the work displayed differently.
IMPRESSIONISM Impressionism is a 19th Century Art movement which started with a group of artists from Paris. During the 1860’s these artists entered their paintings for exhibition in the Salon but their work was rejected. Instead of the Salon they were reduced to exhibiting their paintings in the “ Salon de Refusés” where rejected works could be shown. In 1874 the group organised the first of their own exhibitions. This received much negative criticism from Art critcs who wrote in the newspapers about the exhibition. The name “ Impressionists” was given to the group by the Art Critic Louis Leroy after the painting “Impression; Sunrise” by the artist Claude Monet. The group kept this title of “Impressionist” for all of their eight exhibitions together. Their last exhibition together was held in 1886. Impressionist painting is characterised by; visible brushstrokes, a concern for light and using everyday scenes as the subject matter. Many of the Impressionist paintings were painted outdoors “Plein Air” where the artist has to work quickly to capture the scene before the light changed. Painting Techniques Visible Brushstrokes ; broad strokes of paint quickly capture the essence of the subject, rather than its details. Thick Paint: unlike artists that went before them, Impressionist paintings do not make use of the transparency of thin paint films (glazes)of oil paint,. The impressionist painting surface is typically ‘opaque” ( not transparent) .The paint is often applied “impasto” ( paint applied so thickly – it stands out from the surface) Optical Mixing; Colours are applied side-by-side with as little mixing as possible, creating blends. The “optical mixing” of colours occurs in the eye of the viewer not on the artist palatte. Absence of Black ; Dark tones are produced by the mixing colours of colours rather than using black paint. Wet on Wet; Impressionist did not wait for one layer of paint to dry before painting another layer on top- this technique produces softer edges and the intermingling of colour. Influences on Impressionism Photography; The Impressionists were influenced by the new Artform – Photography. They were interested in capturing the “ snapshot” effect where a momement could be frozen in time and fleeting light could be captured. Photography showed the Impressionists for the first time that parts of a picture could be out of focus and that the composition could be cropped or cut -off . Also the impressionists learned from photography how to use studio lights to effect change in light on their subject. Japanese Prints. Paris in the 19th Century was full of new goods that were being imported from the far east – among them were prints Japan. The prints showed a differerent approach to compostion – instead of centering the subject in the middle of the painting – Japanese prints often placed the subject off-centre, in a more dramatic composition than in the European tradition. Japanese Prints often showed everyday imgages of ordinary people as their subject matter; this had an influence of the choice of subject matter by the impressionists. Hiroshige,Travellers surprised by sudden rainArt History by Deirdre MorganME Click the link to access my powerpoint. http://prezi.com/4xrhnd_zkq-p/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy Known as one of the most controversial artists in his time, Édouard Manet has risen above his detractors to prove his genuine talent that is worthy of emulation. With several paintings that have inspired young artists during that era, he revealed how innovation is not always welcomed by the society, but it is one's gateway to the future. Discover the man who have lived through numerous criticisms to bring himself at the pinnacle of is success. Personal BackgroundBorn on January 23, 1832, in the bustling city of Paris, Édouard Manet was blessed to be a part of a well-off family. His parents were both highly recognized in their hometown, as his father was a reputable judge while his mother was of royal ancestry. Early in his life, Manet knew that his ultimate desire was to become an artist, and he found support from his uncle to pursue this field. Along with his uncle, the two visited the Louvre where he found greater inspiration to improve on his artistic skills. In 1845, he decided to sign up for a drawing course, as he was encouraged by his uncle. It was during that time when he met a fellow art enthusiast, Antonin Proust, who soon became one of his dearest friends. Although Manet developed a passion for the arts, his father had other plans for his future. In fact, he was forced to sail to Rio de Janeiro, so he could gain a membership to the Navy. However, he failed the examinations, much to his father's disappointment. Yet, his failure also paved the way for his father to rethink his aspirations for the young Manet, and he soon gave in to his son's ambition to become an artist. Hence, Manet was given that special opportunity to take up art education under the supervision of Thomas Couture. To further broaden his knowledge and artistic skills, Manet travelled to several parts of the world including Italy, the Netherlands and Germany. His adventures during his trips have impacted his concept of various art forms and styles. In addition, he found inspiration from several artists including Caravaggio, Francisco Goya, Titian, and Diego Velazquez. Initial AccomplishmentsWith ample experience and confidence in himself, Manet decided to open his very first art studio. His early works were inspired by Gustave Courbet, who was a realist artist. Most of Manet's artworks during the mid 1850s depicted contemporary themes and everyday life situations including bullfights, people in pavement cafes, singers, and Gypsies. His brush strokes were also rather loose, and the details were quite simplified and lacked much transitional tones. However, he progressed from these themes and created artworks that were more of historical and religious in nature. For instance, he painted various images of the suffering Christ, and two of these were displayed in two prestigious art museums in the United States. Two of his other canvases also hang at the Salon, which was a major accomplishment among artists during this period. One of his paintings that was featured at the Salon was an image of his parents, although this received little praises from art critics His other work called The Spanish Singer gained better recognition from artists and art enthusiasts who frequented the Salon. Thus, this painting was given a more distinct place in the Salon, so it could be seen by more people. According to critics, Manet's paintings had strange and less precise appearance, when compared side by side with other paintings featured at the Salon. However, it was his unique style that caused intrigue, excitement and fascination among young artists who began to see his artworks in a whole new light. Challenges and CriticismsIn Paris, one prestigious way for artists to introduce themselves to the public is by having their artworks displayed at the Salons. This was not an easy task, though, since Salon juries were so strict and meticulous in screening submitted artworks that were to be exhibited. Fortunately, Manet gained the approval of juries when he submitted The Spanish Singer, his painting that earned him an honorable mention from the Salon. However, Manet came across numerous critics during the 1860s. When the Salon des Refuses was formed, he decided to display his paintings that shocked several people. Primarily, it was the artist's odd choice of subjects that bewildered critics such as the appearance of nude or barely-dressed women in his paintings. They were not impressed by Manet's style, despite his originality and uniqueness. This has led to more attacks and negativity toward the artist's artworks. In 1864, Manet submitted more of his works to the Salon, yet these were all harshly criticized by fellow artists and intellectuals. His painting entitled Incident at a Bullfight was viewed by critics as a piece of artwork full of errors in terms of perspective while The Dead Christ and the Angels left others unimpressed due to lack of decorum. He was attacked for making Christ's body resemble a dead coal miner's body instead of someone ethereal and spiritual, which was what the actual Christ was like. The lack of spirituality and realistic tones in the painting failed to meet the approval of most critics. The same comments were cast upon his other artworks, particularly those that depicted modern scenes. Olympia, one of his most controversial paintings, disappointed most art critics not only because of the theme but Manet's way of presenting the subject. The image of a nude woman in that painting did not seem acceptable or decent enough to the eyes and perception of these critics. While "Olympia" was the subject of caricatures in the popular press, it was championed by the French avant-garde community, and the painting's significance was appreciated by artists such as Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and later Gauguin, and Van Gogh. Unique StylesManet's paintings were influenced by the Impressionist, yet he was uninterested in becoming involved with exhibitions during this era in art. He was more keen on displaying his works at the Salon, so he could avoid any notions that he was a representative of the impressionist style of painting. Although Manet was also fond of using lighter colors, his paintings often had a hint of black, which was not typical in most paintings during his time. Final Years of His LifeHis last work was called A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, which was displayed at the Salon, in 1882. Prior to that year, he received a special award from the French Government, which was the Légion d'honneur. It was one of the highest form of recognition that he has received throughout his life.
Click the following link to access my Prezi prezi.com/e19yehfrxpuy/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy Key Characteristics of the style
Intro: Explain the term and movement Impressionism. Life of the artist – formative years and progression. Response to the work and the reason for change Paintings: Subject matter, painterly qualities, method and inspiration. Colour theory –optical mixing. Period in the artist career
prezi.com/vaefm0zqgpt-/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy <<<<here's a link to my powerpoint from today. Click the following link to view videos on the Khan Academy site. It is very useful www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-garde-france/impressionism/v/monet-the-argenteuil-bridge-1874 "For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value." SynopsisClaude Monet was among the leaders of the French Impressionist movement of the 1870s and 1880s. His 1873 painting Impression, Sunrise gave the style its name, and as an inspirational talent and a personality, he was crucial in bringing its adherents together. Inspired in the 1860s by the Realists' interest in painting in the open air, Monet would later bring the technique to one of its most famous pinnacles with his so-called series paintings, in which his observations of the same subject, viewed at various times of the day, were captured in numerous sequences of paintings. Masterful as a colorist and as a painter of light and atmosphere, his later work often achieved a remarkable degree of abstraction, and this has recommended him to subsequent generations of abstract painters. Key IdeasMonet's early work is indebted to the Realists' interests in depicting contemporary subject matter, without idealization, and in painting outdoors in order to capture the fleeting qualities of nature. Inspired in part by Edouard Manet, Monet gradually began to develop a distinctive style of his own in the late 1860s. He departed from the clear depiction of forms and linear perspective, which were prescribed by the established art of the time, and he experimented with loose handling, bold color, and strikingly unconventional compositions. The emphasis in his pictures shifted from figures to the qualities of light and the atmosphere in the scene, and, as he matured, he became ever more attentive to light and color. In his later years, Monet also became increasingly sensitive to the decorative qualities of color and form. He began to apply paint in smaller strokes, building it up in broad fields of color, and, in the 1880s, he began to explore the possibilities of a decorative paint surface and harmonies and contrasts of color. The effects that he achieved, particularly in the series paintings of the 1890s, represent a remarkable advance towards abstraction and towards a modern painting focused purely on surface effects. An inspiration and a leader among the Impressionists, he was crucial in attracting Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Edouard Manet and Camille Pissarro to work alongside each other in the Parisian suburb of Argenteuil in the 1870s. He was also important in establishing the exhibition society that would showcase the group's work between 1874 and 1886. ChildhoodBorn in Paris to a grocer, Claude Oscar Monet moved at the age of five to Le Havre, a seaside town in northern France. The ocean and rugged coastline of the region had a profound affect on him at an early age, and he would often run away from school to go for walks along the cliffs and beaches. As a youth, he received instruction at the College du Havre from a former pupil of the famous Neo-Classical artist Jacques-Louis David. Creative and enterprising from an early age, he drew caricatures in his spare time and sold them for 20 francs apiece. Demonstrating his early aptitude for the art world, he saved 2000 francs from his art sales. Early TrainingA pivotal experience occurred in 1856 when Monet became friends with Eugene Boudin, a landscape painter famous for his scenes of northern French coastal towns. Boudin encouraged him to paint outdoors, and this plein air technique changed Monet's concept of how art could be created: "It was as if a veil was torn from my eyes; I had understood. I grasped what painting could be." Despite being rejected for a scholarship, in 1859 Monet moved to Paris to study with help from his family. However, instead of choosing the more customary career path of a Salon painter, by enrolling at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Monet attended the Académie Suisse, where he met fellow artist Camille Pissarro. Mature PeriodObliged to serve in the military, in 1861 Monet was sent to Algiers. Like Eugene Delacroix before him, the north African environment stimulated Monet and affected his artistic and personal outlook. Coming home to Le Havre after his service, his "final education of the eye" was provided by the Dutch landscape and marine artist Johan Jongkind. Following this, Monet again left for Paris, attending the studio of Swiss artist Charles Gleyre, which included such students - and future Impressionists - as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Frederic Bazille and Alfred Sisley. In 1865, the Paris Salon accepted two of Monet's seascapes for exhibition. However, the artist was feeling confined by working in a studio, preferring his earlier experience of painting in nature, so he moved just outside Paris to the edge of the Fontainebleau forest. Using his future wife, Camille Doncieux, as his sole model, his ambitiously large Women in the Garden(1866-67) was a culmination of the ideas and themes in his earlier work. Monet was hopeful that the work would be included in the Paris Salon, but his style kept him at odds with the jurors and the picture was refused, leaving the artist devastated. The official salon at this time still valued Romanticism. (In 1921, to assuage the 50-year-old insult, Monet made the French government purchase the painting for the enormous sum of 200,000 francs.) To escape the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Monet took refuge in London, producing many scenes such as Westminster Bridge (1871). His wife and their new baby boy joined him. He visited London museums and saw the works of John Constable and J.M.W. Turner, whose romantic naturalism clearly influenced his use of light. Most importantly, he met Paul Durand-Ruel, who ran a new modern art gallery on Bond Street. Durand-Ruel became a major supporter of Monet and Pissarro, and later Renoir, Degas, and other French Impressionists. Returning to France after the war, Monet settled his family in Argenteuil, a suburb of Paris along the Seine River. Over the next six years he developed his style and documented the changes in the growing town in over 150 canvases. His presence also attracted Parisian friends including Renoir and Manet. While each influenced the other in significant ways, Monet had won Manet over to plein air painting by 1874. In a continued effort to protest the salon system, Monet and his friends organized their own exhibition in 1873, held in the vacated studio of photographer and caricaturist Felix Nadar. This became known as the first Impressionist exhibition. These artists, including Renoir, Degas, and Pissarro, were the first artists to collectively respond to the changes in their city. The modernization of Paris was evident in the wider boulevards needed to accommodate the expanding fashions of public life and growing traffic of consumerism. Not only was their subject matter new, but the way they portrayed this reality was unique as well. Intuitive feeling and the essence of spontaneity, of the moment, were impressed upon the canvas. It was through the 1873 work Impression, Sunrise that Monet inadvertently gave the movement its name, although that name was actually initially used by writers to criticize these types of works. While Monet's upbringing was rather middle class, his extravagant tastes led him to live much of his life in varying degrees of poverty and debt. His paintings were not a decent source of income and he often had to borrow money from his friends. After receiving several commissions throughout the 1870s, Monet enjoyed some financial success, but was in dire straits by the end of the decade. When his wife Camille died in 1879, there was a change in Monet's work, focusing more on the flux of experiential time and the mediating effects of atmosphere and personality on subject matter. The next two decades of Monet's life and work were characterized by constant travel. He visited Norway and Venice, and made several journeys to London and around France. Monet was less concerned with modernity in his works and more with atmosphere and environment. It was at this stage that he hit upon the type of paintings for which he is perhaps best known. His series of grainstacks, painted at different times throughout the day, received critical acclaim from opinion-makers, buyers, and the public when exhibited at Durand-Ruel's gallery in May 1891. He then turned his sights to Rouen Cathedral, making similar studies of the effects of changing mood, light, and atmosphere on its facade at different times of the day. The results were over 40 canvases of brilliant, slightly exaggerated colors that formed a visual record of accumulated perceptions. Late Years and DeathUltimately, Monet preferred to be alone with nature, creating his paintings rather than participating in theoretical or critical battles within the artistic and cultural scene of Paris. After his 1908 Venetian excursion, he settled for the remainder of his life at his estate in Giverny. The year 1911 saw the death of his second wife, Alice, followed by his son, Jean. Shattered by these deaths, the ragings of the First World War, and even a cataract forming over one of his eyes, Monet essentially ceased to paint. Finally, his friend Georges Clemenceau lifted him out of his mourning by encouraging him to create his water garden series, of which the Water Lilies (1918) is a part. The property at Giverny was Monet's primary inspiration for the last three decades of his life. He created a Japanese garden for contemplation and relaxation, making a pond filled with water lilies with an arched bridge. He conceived a continuous sequence of waterscapes situated in an oval salon as a world within the world. A new studio with a glass wall facing the garden was built for this purpose, and despite having cataracts now in both eyes, Monet was able to move a portable easel around to different places within the studio to capture the ever-changing light and perspective of his water lilies. Concentrating on the pond itself, his all-over compositions allowed the viewer to feel as if they were within the water surrounded by the foliage. He continued to work on his water paintings right up until the end of his life. LegacyMonet's extraordinarily long life and large artistic output befit the enormity of his contemporary popularity. Impressionism, for which he is a pillar, continues to be one of the most reproduced styles of art for popular consumption in the form of calendars, postcards, and posters. Additionally, his paintings command top prices at auctions. Monet's work is in every major museum worldwide and continues to be sought after. While there have been major internationally touring retrospectives of his work, even the presence of one Monet painting can anchor an entire exhibition for the audience. The impact of his experiments with changing mood and light on static surfaces can be seen in most major artistic movements of the early twentieth century. |
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