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Slide packets are available through the Teacher Resource Center (TRC). Each packet contains slides and an explanatory booklet. The following is the complete text from Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Art. To order this packet (complete with slides) or select from our catalogue click here.
Impressionism
A new approach to art, impressionism developed in France during the late 19th century. The impressionist artists were motivated by a desire to make art reflect contemporary realities in culture and society. Although they lacked a single unifying style, the impressionists shared some important ideas, among them an approach to color and light informed by current scientific thought rather than the conventions of academic painting.
In the 1860s the artists Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley (1839-1899), and Jean-Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870) united in their discontent with the French Academy, the national art school in Paris, and its Salon. These artists did not call themselves impressionists, but rather the Société Anonyme des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, et Graveurs (Society of Artists, Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers). Eventually joined by Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, Berthe Morisot, and Armand Guillaumin (1841-1927), the society met regularly, often to discuss theories of color and plein-air painting. Rebelling against conventional opinion, they aimed to hold their own public exhibitions, promote sales, and publish an art journal.
The term impressionism was coined in 1874 at the society's first exhibition when an art critic condemned Claude Monet's Impression: Sunrise for the sketchy, hazy appearance presented by an immediate impression of the subject. Abandoning academic traditions, Monet and his colleagues emphasized painting directly from nature, eliminating the black outlines and shadows that do not exist outside academic painting. Complementary colors were juxtaposed, to be mixed optically by the viewer's eye. Compositions were cropped, reflecting the newly popular arts of photography and Japanese prints.
Eight impressionist exhibitions were held. Membership fluctuated, often including other artists such as Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas. After the final exhibition in 1886, the impressionists disbanded to pursue more diverse ideas.
Post-impressionism
Like the term impressionism, post-impressionism denotes not a single style, but a variety of movements that developed between 1880 and 1905 as artists sought new subjects and new forms of representation to deepen the meaning of their work, while retaining such basic values of impressionism as concern for contemporary life.
Many of the impressionist artists participated in these movements. A student of Pissarro, Paul Gauguin had exhibited with the impressionists in 1879. In the 1880s Gauguin moved from impressionism to a style that emphasized flat planes of color and the integration of imagery from different cultures. Meanwhile, Georges Seurat (1859-1891) expanded upon the impressionist juxtaposition of complementary colors by constructing his images entirely of uniform dots of pure color. Cézanne, a founding member of the impressionists, created a new concept of space in his painting. Like some other post-impressionists, Vincent van Gogh had never exhibited with the impressionists, but was attracted by their exuberant colors and shared their taste for Japanese prints. He also painted outdoors, but moved toward a more expressive style of painting that came to be called expressionism.
The innovative styles indicative of impressionism and post-impressionism are the foundations of modern art. Twentieth-century artists such as Henri Matisse (1869-1954) have further explored the use of pure color, while Cézanne's spatial ideas were developed and transformed by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque (1882-1963) in their invention of cubism. The intellectual innovations of the impressionist and post-impressionist artists allowed modern art to begin the new century with a revolutionized attitude toward reality.
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Slides
1 . Edouard Manet, Portrait of Berthe Morisot, c. 1869-76.
2 . Berthe Morisot, The Artist's Sister, Mme. Pontillon, Seated on the Grass ("Reading"), 1873.
3 . Hilaire-Germaine-Edgar Degas, Race Horses, c. 1873-75.
4 . Hilaire-Germaine-Edgar Degas, Frieze of Dancers, c. 1883.
5 . Mary Cassatt, After the Bath, c. 1901.
6 . Camille Pissarro, Le Fond de L'Hermitage, Pontoise (The Backwoods of L'Hermitage, Pontoise), 1879.
7 . Claude Oscar Monet, Le Capeline Rouge--Madame Monet (The Red Hood--Madame Monet), c. 1870.
8 . Claude Oscar Monet, Water Lilies, c. 1919-20.
9 . Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Mademoiselle Romaine Lacaux, 1864.
10 . James-Jacques-Joseph Tissot, Seaside, 1878.
11 . Paul Cézanne, Mount Sainte-Victoire, c. 1894-1900.
12 . Paul Cézanne, The Pigeon Tower at Bellevue, c. 1894-96.
13 . Vincent van Gogh, The Road Menders at Saint-Rémy (also known as Large Plane Trees), 1889.
14 . Paul Gauguin, Woman in the Waves (Ondine), 1889.
15 . Paul Gauguin, L'Appel (The Call), 1902.
16 . Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Monsieur Boileau at the Café, 1893.
17 . Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, May Belfort, 1895.
18 . Frederick Childe Hassam, Fifth Avenue, c. 1919.
19 . Maurice Prendergast, On the Beach, No. 3, c. 1915.
Vivian Kung and Patricia Richmond
Teacher Resource Center
Department of Education and Public Programs
© 1997 The Cleveland Museum of Art
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