nineteenth-century art

Rococo through Impressionism

Impressionism and light


pre-class prep:  read Chu pp. 389-409 and 419-25 concentrating on issues of form/style/technique (PDF)

                            read four critics' views of Impressionism (PDF)

                read this handy primer on color theory

                read Smarthistory essay Impressionist color

                read Smarthistory essay Impressionist pictorial space

discussion questions: Those named for the questions below should come prepared to present a short (3-5 minute) response to that question.

1. (*)  In the 'Four critics' views ...' reading, how did Duret, Duranty, and Laforgue justify Impressionist innovations with regard to light and color?  Explain, using exemplary quotes from the readings, with reference to two specific works of your own choosing. Email your choices of works (artist, title, date, along with a jpeg) by noon on ****************.

2. (*)  In the 'Four critics' views ...' reading, how did Duret, Duranty, and Laforgue justify Impressionist innovations with regard to composition and the depiction of space?  Explain, using exemplary quotes from the readings, with reference to two specific works of your own choosing. Email me your choices of works (artist, title, date, along with a jpeg) by noon on *****************.

3. (*)   As systematically as possible, distinguish the use of color by the Impressionists from the use of color by the Regional Naturalists, the Romantics, and the Aestheticists. That is, what factors or goals influenced artists in each movement as they mixed color on their palettes and applied it to their canvases?  (Note that all four movements used color differently.) Use Monet's Rouen Cathedral series, Bastien-Lepage's Joan of Arc, Delacroix's Death of Sardanapalus, and Whistler's Peacock Room as your examples of the four movements/styles. 

people, terms, and concepts: plein air, alla prima, and the following color terms: hue, value, saturation (also known as chroma); primary, secondary, and tertiary colors; complementary colors; local color vs. perceived color

key points:

What did early critics object to about the Impressionist style? In other words, how did Impressionism differ from the traditional Academic naturalistic style, especially in terms of color use, brushwork, composition, and perspective?

• What is the difference between 'local color' and 'perceived color'?  Why did the Impressionists and sympathetic critics argue that the use of perceived color was actually more accurate to our visual experience than the use of exclusively local color?

• Why did the Impressionists use painterly brushwork? How does this relate to their tendency to paint en plein air and alla prima?

• Why did some Impressionists tend to design their works in unusual ways, with asymmetric compositions, odd cropping, and a lack of systematic perspective? Why did they argue that this unusual treatment of composition and space was actually more accurate to our visual experience than the spatial constructions and compositions typically found in Academic works?

• How can the Impressionist style be understood as 'modern,' that is, discarding traditional conventions of representation and creating a new style based in close observation, bolstered by new scientific understandings of light and vision and new technologies?

Renoir, The Swing, Impressionism, 1876

Monet, Impression: Sunrise, Impressionism, 1872

Monet, Rouen Cathedral, morning light, Impressionism, 1894

Morisot, Summer's Day, Impressionism, 1879

Monet, Rouen Cathedral, the portal in sun, Impressionism, 1894