Monet and the Impressionists Learning Objective: T o explore what Impressionism is and where and when it began. NEXT www.planbee.com
Have you heard the term ‘Impressionism’ before? Do you know anything about it? BACK NEXT www.planbee.com
Fashions and trends come and go in art, just like clothing fashions change over time. When a new style of art is developed by a group of artists, it is known as a movement. Impressionism is an art movement that began in France in the mid-19th century. Over the next few lessons, we will be exploring Impressionism through one of the most famous Impressionist artists, Claude Monet. Claude Monet, 1898 BACK NEXT www.planbee.com
Monet was born in Paris on 14th November 1840. At this time, Paris was the art capital of Europe. Nowhere has as many places to study art as France. However, art schools had strict rules about what should and shouldn’t be painted. Academic art (the art taught by the academies) favoured traditional subjects, such as historical or religious scenes, portraits of wealthy people and royalty, landscapes and still life. These paintings were very technical and were almost never based on what the artist saw but rather what the artist imagined. Let’s have a look at some examples of French Academic art... BACK NEXT www.planbee.com
‘T ristan and Isolde’ by Hugues Merle, 1870 T ristan and Isolde is a medieval story about the love between a knight and a princess. What do you think of this painting? What words would you use to describe it? BACK NEXT www.planbee.com
“The Death of Caesar” by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1867 Julius Caesar was a Roman emperor who was murdered. What do you think of this painting? What words would you use to describe it? BACK NEXT www.planbee.com
“Song of the Angels” by Adolphe-William Bouguereau, 1881 This painting shows three angels singing to baby Jesus and his mother, Mary. What do you think of this painting? What words would you use to describe it? BACK NEXT www.planbee.com
The art establishment at the time controlled what was taught but also what was exhibited. The Salon was the major art exhibit but you could only have your painting displayed if a panel of judges agreed that it was good enough. Anything that was a different style was not accepted. However, artists like Monet were starting to paint in a Have a look at the different way. They wanted to painting on the next start painting scenes showing slide. How is this snapshots of what everyday painting different in style to the life was like. They wanted to Academic paintings capture a real moment we have just seen? instead of painting historical or romanticised scenes. BACK NEXT www.planbee.com
“Boulevard des Capucines” by Claude Monet, 1873 BACK NEXT www.planbee.com
Impressionists like Monet wanted to paint aspects of the modern world. They wanted to capture fleeting moments in their paintings. T o do this, they painted in a way that was quick, using dabs of paint instead of the fine brushstrokes of the Academics. They didn’t paint scenes from history or imagined landscapes. They painted what they saw when they saw it. Light was very important to “Field of T ulips in Holland” Claude Monet, 1886 Impressionists. They spent a lot of time exploring how light itself affected the landscape. In many Impressionist paintings, the atmosphere created by the light itself was more important than what the painting was actually showing. Their aim was to capture this light. BACK NEXT www.planbee.com
There were lots of reasons for this change in artistic style. One of the major factors was the invention of paints in tubes. In the past, artists had had to mix pigments themselves to create paints, which made painting out of doors very difficult. The invention of paint tubes meant that artists could easily paint outside and paint what they saw instead of having to rely on memory and painting inside a studio. The Impressionists loved to paint out of doors. Outside, they could observe the sunlight and its effect on the scene. BACK NEXT www.planbee.com
The nineteenth century was a time of great change. The Industrial Revolution was taking place and life in cities was booming like never before. The Impressionists liked to record these changes and paint pictures of modern life. The art establishment at the time thought cities, factories, trains and indeed ordinary people were not appropriate subjects for fine art. “T rain in the Snow” Claude Monet, 1875 What do you think the art establishment would have thought of this painting? Why? BACK NEXT www.planbee.com
Another influence on the Impressionists was the invention of photography. Photos could now capture a fleeting moment in time and show aspects of everyday life that artists had never recorded before. The Impressionists wanted to mimic this in their artwork. This photo shows a cafe in Paris. It was taken sometime before 1900. What can you see? BACK NEXT www.planbee.com
None of the judges would let any of the Impressionists show their work at the Salon so they decided to hold their own exhibition instead. It was at their first exhibition in 1874 that the Impressionist movement was given its name. Many critics and members of the public scorned the exhibition. One critic, Louis Leroy, said of Monet’s painting ‘Impression, Sunrise’ that “a preliminary drawing for a wallpaper pattern is more finished than this seascape.” “Impression, Sunrise” Claude Monet, 1872 Leroy entitled his article ‘The Exhibition of the Impressionists’. It was meant as an insult but Monet and his friends rather liked it so they started calling themselves the Impressionists! BACK NEXT www.planbee.com
Despite not being accepted to begin with, the Impressionists became very popular and produced some of the most famous and beloved paintings in the world. Have you heard of any of these other famous Impressionist artists? Edgar Degas Pierre-Auguste Renoir Camille Pissarro Alfred Sisley Paul Cézanne Berthe Morisot BACK NEXT www.planbee.com
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