Take a quick tour of this famous style –

Impressionism Gallery and discussion #1
Impressionism Gallery and discussion #2

Claude Monet 1840-1926

• Painted the work that created the term Impressionism
  • Impression, Sunrise 
• Loose brushstrokes
• Dabs of broken color
• Controlled compositions
• Painted the same subject numerous times
• Different time of day
• Different season

Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1841-1919

• Painted People
• The middle class enjoying life, pleasure, and entertainments
  • Weekend outings
  • A day at the races
  • Boating
  • Enjoying a garden
  • Dancing
• Popular Work – Dance at the Moulin de la Galette

Edgar Degas 1834-1917

• Called the linear Impressionist
• Frequently depicted scenes from the ballet
• Influenced by photography
  • Spontaneous moment
  • Severely cropped subject matter
• Popular Work – The Dancing Class

Berthe Morisot 1841-95

• The only woman to exhibit in the first Impressionist exhibit
• Considered the most radical of the Impressionists
• Very loose brushwork
• Popular Work — The Cradle

Mary Cassatt 1844-1925
An American expatriate

• Very influenced by Japanese prints
• Called a madwoman because of her style
• Known for her depiction of women and babies
• Popular Works

James Abbott McNeill Whistler 1834-1903
Also an American expatriate

• Lived in London
• Visited Paris
• Did not use the broken color, or light effects
• Popular work — Arrangement in Black and Gray: The Artist’s Mother

John Singer Sargent 1826-1925
Another American expatriate

• France, England, back to America
• Known for his portraits — including Theodore Roosevelt
• Popular Work — Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose

Post-Impressionistic Painters

George Seurat 1859-91

• An intellectual and scientific approach to art
• Defined shapes and boundaries
• Balanced compositions
• Pointillism
• Popular Work — A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte

Paul Cézanne 1839-1906

• Considered the Father of Modern Art by some
• More order and structure in his paintings compared to Impressionism
• Created objects by a series of small planes each with a specific color
• Washed his brush between each stroke to make each stroke distinct
• Pre-cursor to Cubism
• Popular work – Still Life with Peppermint Bottle

Vincent van Gogh 1853-90

Dutch, but lived in France

• Used color not to depict light, but rather to convey emotion
• Sometimes applied his paints with a palette knife, or squeezed directly from the tube on the canvas
• Supported by his brother, an art gallery owner
• Suffered from mental illness — emotional swings
• Never knew economic success
• Popular Work — Starry Night

Paul Gauguin 1848-1903
French — but moved to Tahiti

• Heightened color
• Flat forms
• Heavy Outlines
• Distortion of shapes and colors for symbolic purposes
• Popular Work — Manao Tupapau (Spirit of the Dead Watching)

[Continue on to learn more about Early Photography]