The phrase "Russian Impressionism" only a year ago cut the ear of the average citizen of our vast country. Every educated person knows about the light, bright and impetuous French impressionism, can distinguish Monet from Manet and recognize Van Gogh's sunflowers from all still lifes. Someone heard something about the American branch of the development of this direction of painting - more urban compared to the French landscapes of Hassam and portraits of Chase. But researchers argue about the existence of Russian impressionism to this day.
Konstantin Korovin
The history of Russian impressionism began with the painting "Portrait of a chorus girl" by Konstantin Korovin, as well as with misunderstanding and condemnation of the public. When I first saw this work, I. E. Repin did not immediately believe that the work was done by a Russian painter: “Spaniard! I see. Boldly, juicy writes. Wonderful. But it's just painting for painting's sake. Spaniard, however, with temperament ... ". Konstantin Alekseevich himself began to paint his canvases in an impressionistic manner as early as his student years, being unfamiliar with the paintings of Cezanne, Monet and Renoir, long before his trip to France. Only thanks to Polenov's experienced eye did Korovin learn that he was using the technique of the French of that time, which he came to intuitively. At the same time, the Russian artist is betrayed by the subjects that he uses for his paintings - the recognized masterpiece "Northern Idyll", written in 1892 and stored in the Tretyakov Gallery, shows us Korovin's love for Russian traditions and folklore. This love was instilled in the artist by the "Mammoth Circle" - a community of creative intelligentsia, which included Repin, Polenov, Vasnetsov, Vrubel and many other friends of the famous philanthropist Savva Mamontov. In Abramtsevo, where Mamontov's estate was located and where members of the art circle gathered, Korovin was fortunate enough to meet and work with Valentin Serov. Thanks to this acquaintance, the work of the already accomplished artist Serov acquired the features of light, bright and impetuous impressionism, which we see in one of his early works - “Open Window. Lilac".
Portrait of a chorus girl, 1883
Northern idyll, 1886
Bird cherry, 1912
Gurzuf 2, 1915
Pier in Gurzuf, 1914
Paris, 1933
Valentin Serov
Serov's painting is permeated with a feature inherent only in Russian impressionism - his paintings reflect not only the impression of what the artist saw, but also the state of his soul at the moment. For example, in the painting "St. Mark's Square in Venice", painted in Italy, where Serov went to in 1887 due to a serious illness, cold gray tones predominate, which gives us an idea of the artist's condition. But, despite the rather gloomy palette, the picture is a reference impressionistic work, since on it Serov managed to capture the real world in its mobility and variability, to convey his fleeting impressions. In a letter to his bride from Venice, Serov wrote: “In this century, everything is written that is difficult, nothing encouraging. I want, I want what is gratifying, and I will write only what is gratifying.”
Open window. Lilac, 1886
St. Mark's Square in Venice, 1887
Girl with peaches (Portrait of V. S. Mamontova)
Coronation. Confirmation of Nicholas II in the Assumption Cathedral, 1896
Girl illuminated by the sun, 1888
Bathing a horse, 1905
Alexander Gerasimov
One of the students of Korovin and Serov, who adopted their expressive brushstroke, bright palette and etude style of writing, was Alexander Mikhailovich Gerasimov. The heyday of the artist's work came at the time of the revolution, which could not but be reflected in the plots of his paintings. Despite the fact that Gerasimov gave his brush to the service of the party and became famous for his outstanding portraits of Lenin and Stalin, he continued to work on impressionistic landscapes that were close to his soul. The work of Alexander Mikhailovich “After the Rain” reveals to us the artist as a master of conveying air and light in the picture, which Gerasimov owes to the influence of his eminent mentors.
Painters at Stalin's dacha, 1951
Stalin and Voroshilov in the Kremlin, 1950s
After the rain. Wet Terrace, 1935
Still life. Field bouquet, 1952
Igor Grabar
In a conversation about late Russian impressionism, one cannot but turn to the work of the great artist Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar, who adopted many of the techniques of French painters of the second half of the 19th century thanks to his numerous trips to Europe. Using the techniques of the classical impressionists, Grabar depicts absolutely Russian landscape motifs and everyday scenes in his paintings. While Monet paints the blooming gardens of Giverny, and Degas paints beautiful ballerinas, Grabar depicts the harsh Russian winter and village life with the same pastel colors. Most of all, Grabar liked to depict frost on his canvases and dedicated a whole collection of works to him, consisting of more than a hundred small multi-colored sketches created at different times of the day and in different weather. The difficulty of working on such drawings was that the paint hardened in the cold, so I had to work quickly. But this is precisely what allowed the artist to recreate “that very moment” and convey his impression of it, which is the main idea of classical impressionism. Often Igor Emmanuilovich's style of painting is called scientific impressionism, because he attached great importance to light and air on canvases and created many studies on color reproduction. Moreover, it is to him that we owe the chronological arrangement of paintings in the Tretyakov Gallery, of which he was director in 1920-1925.
Birch alley, 1940
Winter landscape, 1954
Hoarfrost, 1905
Pears on a blue tablecloth, 1915
Corner of the estate (Ray of the sun), 1901
Yuri Pimenov
Completely non-classical, but still, impressionism developed in the Soviet era, a prominent representative of which is Yuri Ivanovich Pimenov, who came to the image of a “fleeting impression in pastel colors” after working in the style of expressionism. One of the most famous works of Pimenov is the painting "New Moscow" of the 1930s - light, warm, as if painted with Renoir's airy strokes. But at the same time, the plot of this work is completely incompatible with one of the main ideas of impressionism - the rejection of the use of social and political themes. "New Moscow" Pimenov just perfectly reflects the social changes in the life of the city, which have always inspired the artist. “Pimenov loves Moscow, its new, its people. The painter generously gives this feeling to the viewer,” wrote artist and researcher Igor Dolgopolov in 1973. And indeed, looking at the paintings of Yuri Ivanovich, we are imbued with love for Soviet life, new quarters, lyrical housewarming and urbanism, captured in the technique of impressionism.
Pimenov's work proves once again that everything "Russian", brought from other countries, has its own special and unique path of development. So French impressionism in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union absorbed the features of the Russian worldview, national character and way of life. Impressionism, as a way of conveying only the perception of reality in its pure form, remained alien to Russian art, because every painting by Russian artists is filled with meaning, awareness, the state of the changeable Russian soul, and not just a fleeting impression. Therefore, next weekend, when the Museum of Russian Impressionism will re-present the main exposition to Muscovites and guests of the capital, everyone will find something for themselves among the sensual portraits of Serov, Pimenov's urbanism and landscapes atypical for Kustodiev.
New Moscow
Lyrical housewarming, 1965
Dressing room of the Bolshoi Theatre, 1972
Early morning in Moscow, 1961
Paris. Rue Saint-Dominique. 1958
Stewardess, 1964
Perhaps, for most people, the names of Korovin, Serov, Gerasimov and Pimenov are still not associated with a certain style of art, but the Museum of Russian Impressionism, which opened in May 2016 in Moscow, nevertheless collected the works of these artists under one roof.
Details Category: A variety of styles and trends in art and their features Posted on 01/04/2015 14:11 Views: 10587Impressionism is a trend in art that arose in the second half of the 19th century. His main goal was to convey fleeting, changeable impressions.
The emergence of impressionism is associated with science: with the latest discoveries of optics and color theory.
This direction affected almost all types of art, but it manifested itself most clearly in painting, where the transfer of color and light was the basis of the work of impressionist artists.
Term meaning
Impressionism(fr. Impressionnisme) from impression - impression). This style of painting appeared in France in the late 1860s. He was represented by Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley, Jean Frederic Bazille. But the term itself appeared in 1874, when Monet's painting “Impression. Rising Sun (1872). In the title of the painting, Monet meant that he conveys only his fleeting impression of the landscape.
C. Monet “Impression. Sunrise" (1872). Marmottan Monet Museum, Paris
Later, the term "impressionism" in painting began to be understood more broadly: a careful study of nature in terms of color and lighting. The goal of the Impressionists was to depict instantaneous, as it were, “random” situations and movements. To do this, they used various techniques: complex angles, asymmetry, fragmentation of compositions. The picture of the Impressionist artists becomes, as it were, a frozen moment of a constantly changing world.
The artistic method of the Impressionists
The most popular genres of the Impressionists are landscapes and scenes from urban life. They were always written "in the open air", i.e. directly from nature, in nature, without sketches and preliminary sketches. The Impressionists noticed and were able to convey colors and shades on canvas, usually invisible to the naked eye and an inattentive viewer. For example, rendering blue in shadows or pink at sunset. They decomposed complex tones into their constituent pure colors of the spectrum. From this, their painting turned out to be light and quivering. Impressionist painters applied paint in separate strokes, in a free and even careless manner, so their paintings are best viewed from a distance - it is with this look that the effect of a lively flickering of colors is created.
The Impressionists abandoned the contour, replacing it with small separate and contrasting strokes.
K. Pissarro, A. Sisley and C. Monet preferred landscapes and urban scenes. O. Renoir liked to depict people in the bosom of nature or in the interior. French Impressionism did not raise philosophical and social issues. They did not turn to biblical, literary, mythological, historical subjects that were inherent in official academism. Instead, on the picturesque canvases appeared the image of everyday life and modernity; the image of people in motion, while relaxing or having fun. Their main subjects are flirting, dancing, people in cafes and theaters, boat trips, beaches and gardens.
The Impressionists tried to catch a fleeting impression, the smallest changes in each subject, depending on the lighting and time of day. In this regard, Monet's cycles of paintings "Haystacks", "Rouen Cathedral" and "London's Parliament" can be considered the highest achievement.
C. Monet "Cathedral in Rouen in the sun" (1894). Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France
"Rouen Cathedral" is a series of 30 paintings by Claude Monet, which represent views of the cathedral depending on the time of day, year and lighting. This cycle was written by the artist in the 1890s. The cathedral allowed him to show the relationship between the constant, solid structure of the building and the changing, easily playful light that changes our perception. Monet concentrates on individual fragments of the Gothic cathedral and chooses the portal, the tower of St. Martin and the tower of Albane. He is only interested in the play of light on stone.
C. Monet "Rouen Cathedral, West Portal, Foggy Weather" (1892). Musee d'Orsay, Paris
C. Monet “Rouen Cathedral, portal and tower, morning effect; white harmony" (1892-1893). Musee d'Orsay, Paris
C. Monet "Rouen Cathedral, portal and tower in the sun, harmony of blue and gold" (1892-1893). Musee d'Orsay, Paris
Following France, impressionist artists appeared in England and the USA (James Whistler), in Germany (Max Lieberman, Lovis Corinth), in Spain (Joaquin Sorolla), in Russia (Konstantin Korovin, Valentin Serov, Igor Grabar).
About the work of some impressionist artists
Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Claude Monet, photograph 1899
French painter, one of the founders of impressionism. Born in Paris. He was fond of drawing since childhood, at the age of 15 he proved to be a talented cartoonist. Eugene Boudin, a French artist, a forerunner of impressionism, introduced him to landscape painting. Monet later entered the university at the Faculty of Arts, but became disillusioned and left him, enrolling in the painting studio of Charles Gleyre. In the studio, he met the artists Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Frédéric Bazille. They were practically peers, held similar views on art, and soon formed the backbone of the Impressionist group.
Monet's fame was brought by the portrait of Camille Donsier, written in 1866 ("Camille, or a portrait of a lady in a green dress"). Camilla in 1870 became the artist's wife.
C. Monet "Camilla" ("The Lady in Green") (1866). Kunsthalle, Bremen
C. Monet "Walk: Camille Monet with her son Jean (Woman with an umbrella)" (1875). National Gallery of Art, Washington
In 1912, doctors diagnosed K. Monet with a double cataract, he had to undergo two operations. Having lost the lens in his left eye, Monet regained his sight, but began to see ultraviolet light as blue or purple, which is why his paintings acquired new colors. For example, when painting the famous "Water Lilies", Monet saw lilies bluish in the ultraviolet range, for other people they were just white.
C. Monet "Water Lilies"
The artist died on December 5, 1926 in Giverny and was buried in the local church cemetery.
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
C. Pissarro "Self-portrait" (1873)
French painter, one of the first and most consistent representatives of impressionism.
Born on the island of St. Thomas (West Indies), in a bourgeois family of a Sephardic Jew and a native of the Dominican Republic. Until the age of 12 he lived in the West Indies, at the age of 25 he moved to Paris with his whole family. Here he studied at the School of Fine Arts and at the Academy of Suisse. His teachers were Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet and Charles-Francois Daubigny. He began with rural landscapes and views of Paris. Pissarro had a strong influence on the Impressionists, independently developing many of the principles that formed the basis of their style of painting. He was friends with the artists Degas, Cezanne and Gauguin. Pizarro was the only participant in all 8 Impressionist exhibitions.
He died in 1903 in Paris. He was buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery.
Already in his early works, the artist paid special attention to the depiction of illuminated objects in the air. Light and air have since become the leading theme in the work of Pissarro.
C. Pissarro “Boulevard Montmartre. Afternoon, sunny" (1897)
in 1890, Pizarro became interested in the technique of pointillism (separate application of strokes). But after a while he returned to his usual manner.
In the last years of his life, Camille Pissarro's eyesight deteriorated noticeably. But he continued to work and created a series of views of Paris, filled with artistic emotions.
K. Pissarro "Street in Rouen"
The unusual angle of some of his paintings is explained by the fact that the artist painted them from hotel rooms. This series was one of the highest achievements of Impressionism in the transfer of light and atmospheric effects.
Pissarro also painted in watercolor and created a series of etchings and lithographs.
Here are some of his interesting statements about the art of impressionism: "The Impressionists are on the right track, their art is healthy, it is based on sensations and it is honest."
“Happy is he who can see beauty in ordinary things, where others see nothing!”
C. Pissarro "The First Frost" (1873)
Russian impressionism
Russian impressionism developed from the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. It was influenced by the work of the French Impressionists. But Russian impressionism has a pronounced national specificity and in many respects does not coincide with the textbook ideas about classical French impressionism. Objectivity and materiality predominate in the painting of the Russian Impressionists. It has a greater load of meaning and less dynamization. Russian impressionism is closer than French impressionism to realism. The French Impressionists emphasized the impression of what they saw, while the Russians also added a reflection of the artist's inner state. The work was to be completed in one session.
Some incompleteness of Russian Impressionism creates the "awe of life" that was characteristic of them.
Impressionism includes the work of Russian artists: A. Arkhipov, I. Grabar, K. Korovin, F. Malyavin, N. Meshcherin, A. Murashko, V. Serov, A. Rylov and others.
V. Serov "Girl with peaches" (1887)
This picture is considered the standard of Russian impressionism in the portrait.
Valentin Serov "Girl with Peaches" (1887). Canvas, oil. 91×85 cm State Tretyakov Gallery
The picture was painted in the estate of Savva Ivanovich Mamontov in Abramtsevo, which he acquired from the daughter of the writer Sergei Aksakov in 1870. The portrait depicts 12-year-old Vera Mamontova. The girl is drawn sitting at the table; she is wearing a pink blouse with a dark blue bow; on the table is a knife, peaches and leaves.
“All I wanted was freshness, that special freshness that you always feel in nature and you don’t see in pictures. I wrote for more than a month and exhausted her, poor thing, to death, I really wanted to preserve the freshness of painting with complete completeness - that's how the old masters ”(V. Serov).
Impressionism in other art forms
In literature
In literature, impressionism as a separate trend did not take shape, but its features were reflected in naturalism and symbolism .
Edmond and Jules Goncourt. Photo
Principles naturalism can be traced in the novels of the Goncourt brothers and George Eliot. But Emile Zola was the first to use the term "naturalism" to refer to his own work. The writers Guy de Maupassant, Alphonse Daudet, Huysmans and Paul Alexis were grouped around Zola. After the publication of the collection Medan Evenings (1880) with frank stories about the disasters of the Franco-Prussian war (including Maupassant's story Dumpling), the name of the Medan group was assigned to them.
Emile Zola
The naturalistic principle in literature has often been criticized for its lack of artistry. For example, I. S. Turgenev wrote about one of Zola's novels that "there is a lot of digging in chamber pots." Gustave Flaubert was also critical of naturalism.
Zola maintained friendly relations with many impressionist painters.
Symbolists used symbols, understatement, hints, mystery, mystery. The main mood captured by the symbolists was pessimism, reaching to despair. Everything “natural” seemed to be only “appearance”, which had no independent artistic value.
Thus, impressionism in literature was expressed by the author's private impression, the rejection of an objective picture of reality, the image of every moment. In fact, this led to the absence of plot and history, the replacement of thought with perception, and reason with instinct.
G. Courbet "Portrait of P. Verlaine" (circa 1866)
A striking example of poetic impressionism is Paul Verlaine's collection Romances Without Words (1874). In Russia, the influence of impressionism was experienced by Konstantin Balmont and Innokenty Annensky.
V. Serov "Portrait of K. Balmont" (1905)
Innokenty Annensky. Photo
These sentiments also affected dramaturgy. In the plays there is a passive perception of the world, an analysis of moods, mental states. Dialogues concentrate fleeting disparate impressions. These features are characteristic of the work of Arthur Schnitzler.
In music
Musical impressionism developed in France in the last quarter of the 19th century. - the beginning of the XX century. He expressed himself most clearly in the works of Eric Satie, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
Eric Satie
Musical impressionism is close to impressionism in French painting. They have not only common roots, but also cause-and-effect relationships. Impressionist composers sought and found not only analogies, but also expressive means in the works of Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne, Puvis de Chavannes and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Of course, the means of painting and the means of musical art can be connected with each other only with the help of special, subtle associative parallels that exist only in the mind. If you look at the vague image of Paris "in the autumn rain" and the same sounds, "muffled by the noise of falling drops", then here you can only talk about the property of the artistic image, but not the real image.
Claude Debussy
Debussy writes "Clouds", "Prints" (the most figurative of which, a watercolor sound sketch - "Gardens in the rain"), "Images", "Reflections on the water", which evoke direct associations with the famous painting by Claude Monet "Impression: Sunrise ". According to Mallarmé, the Impressionist composers learned to “hear the light”, to convey in sounds the movement of water, the vibration of leaves, the breath of wind and the refraction of sunlight in the evening air.
Maurice Ravel
M. Ravel has direct connections between painting and music in his sound-pictorial "The Game of Water", the cycle of pieces "Reflections", the piano collection "Rustle of the Night".
The Impressionists created works of refined art and at the same time clear in expressive means, emotionally restrained, conflict-free and strict in style.
In sculpture
O. Rodin "The Kiss"
Impressionism in sculpture was expressed in the free plasticity of soft forms, which creates a complex play of light on the surface of the material and a feeling of incompleteness. In the poses of the sculptural characters, the moment of movement and development is captured.
O. Rodin. Photograph 1891
This direction includes the sculptural works of O. Rodin (France), Medardo Rosso (Italy), P.P. Trubetskoy (Russia).
V. Serov "Portrait of Paolo Trubetskoy"
Pavel (Paolo) Trubetskoy(1866-1938) - sculptor and artist, worked in Italy, USA, England, Russia and France. Born in Italy. The illegitimate son of a Russian emigrant, Prince Pyotr Petrovich Trubetskoy.
Since childhood, I have been sculpting and painting on my own. He had no education. In the initial period of his work, he created portrait busts, works of small plastic arts, and participated in competitions for the creation of large sculptures.
P. Trubetskoy "Monument to Alexander III", St. Petersburg
The first exhibition of Paolo Trubetskoy's works took place in the USA in 1886. In 1899 the sculptor came to Russia. He takes part in the competition for the creation of a monument to Alexander III and, unexpectedly for everyone, receives the first prize. This monument caused and continues to cause conflicting assessments. It is hard to imagine a more static and heavy monument. And only a positive assessment of the imperial family allowed the monument to take the appropriate place - they found similarities with the original in the sculptural image.
Critics believed that Trubetskoy worked in the spirit of "obsolete impressionism".
Trubetskoy’s image of the brilliant Russian writer turned out to be more “impressionistic”: there is clearly movement here - in the folds of the shirt, the flowing beard, the turn of the head, there is even a feeling that the sculptor managed to catch the tension of L. Tolstoy’s thought.
P. Trubetskoy "Bust of Leo Tolstoy" (bronze). State Tretyakov Gallery
European art of the late 19th century was enriched by the emergence of modernist art. Later, its influence extended to music and literature. It was called "impressionism" because it was based on the subtlest impressions of the artist, images and moods.
Origins and history of occurrence
Several young artists formed a group in the second half of the 19th century. They had a common goal and coincided interests. The main thing for this company was to work in nature, without the walls of the workshop and various restraining factors. In their paintings, they sought to convey all the sensuality, the impression of the play of light and shadow. Landscapes and portraits reflected the unity of the soul with the Universe, with the surrounding world. Their paintings are true poetry of colors.
In 1874 there was an exhibition of this group of artists. Landscape by Claude Monet “Impression. Sunrise” caught the eye of the critic, who in his review for the first time called these creators Impressionists (from the French impression - “impression”).
The prerequisites for the birth of the impressionism style, the paintings of whose representatives will soon find incredible success, were the works of the Renaissance. The work of the Spaniards Velazquez, El Greco, the English Turner, Constable unconditionally influenced the French, who were the founders of impressionism.
Pissarro, Manet, Degas, Sisley, Cezanne, Monet, Renoir and others became prominent representatives of the style in France.
The philosophy of impressionism in painting
The artists who painted in this style did not set themselves the task of drawing public attention to troubles. In their works, one cannot find plots on the topic of the day, one cannot receive moralizing or notice human contradictions.
Paintings in the style of impressionism are aimed at conveying a momentary mood, developing color schemes of a mysterious nature. In the works there is only a place for a positive beginning, gloom bypassed the Impressionists.
In fact, the Impressionists did not bother to think through the plot and details. The main factor was not what to draw, but how to depict and convey your mood.
Painting technique
There is a colossal difference between the academic style of drawing and the technique of the Impressionists. They simply abandoned many methods, some were changed beyond recognition. Here are the innovations they made:
- Abandoned contour. It was replaced with strokes - small and contrasting.
- We stopped using palettes for We selected colors that complement each other and do not require merging to obtain a certain effect. For example, yellow is purple.
- Stop painting in black.
- Completely abandoned work in the workshops. They wrote exclusively on nature, so that it would be easier to capture a moment, an image, a feeling.
- Only paints with good opacity were used.
- Don't wait for the next layer to dry. Fresh smears were applied immediately.
- They created cycles of works to follow the changes in light and shadow. For example, "Haystacks" by Claude Monet.
Of course, not all artists performed exactly the features of the impressionism style. Paintings by Edouard Manet, for example, never participated in joint exhibitions, and he himself positioned himself as a separate artist. Edgar Degas worked only in workshops, but this did not harm the quality of his works.
Representatives of French Impressionism
The first exhibition of Impressionist works is dated 1874. After 12 years, their last exposition took place. The first work in this style can be called “Breakfast on the Grass” by E. Manet. This picture was presented in the Salon of the Rejected. It was met with hostility, because it was very different from the academic canons. That is why Manet becomes a figure around which a circle of followers of this stylistic direction gathers.
Unfortunately, contemporaries did not appreciate such a style as impressionism. Paintings and artists existed in disagreement with official art.
Gradually, Claude Monet comes to the fore in the team of painters, who later becomes their leader and the main ideologist of impressionism.
Claude Monet (1840-1926)
The work of this artist can be described as a hymn to impressionism. It was he who was the first to refuse to use black in his paintings, arguing that even shadows and night have other tones.
The world in Monet's paintings is vague outlines, voluminous strokes, looking at which you can feel the whole spectrum of the play of the colors of day and night, the seasons, the harmony of the sublunar world. Only a moment that was snatched from the flow of life, in the understanding of Monet, is impressionism. His paintings seem to have no materiality, they are all saturated with rays of light and air currents.
Claude Monet created amazing works: "Station Saint-Lazare", "Rouen Cathedral", the cycle "Charing Cross Bridge" and many others.
Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
Renoir's creations give the impression of extraordinary lightness, airiness, ethereality. The plot was born as if by accident, but it is known that the artist carefully thought through all the stages of his work and worked from morning to night.
A distinctive feature of the work of O. Renoir is the use of glazing, which is possible only when writing Impressionism in the artist's works is manifested in every stroke. He perceives a person as a particle of nature itself, which is why there are so many paintings with nudes.
Renoir's favorite pastime was the image of a woman in all her attractive and attractive beauty. Portraits occupy a special place in the creative life of the artist. “Umbrellas”, “Girl with a Fan”, “Breakfast of the Rowers” are just a small part of the amazing collection of paintings by Auguste Renoir.
Georges Seurat (1859-1891)
Seurat associated the process of creating paintings with the scientific substantiation of color theory. The light-air environment was drawn on the basis of the dependence of the main and additional tones.
Despite the fact that J. Seurat is a representative of the final stage of Impressionism, and his technique is in many respects different from the founders, he in the same way creates an illusory representation of the objective form with the help of strokes, which can be viewed and seen only at a distance.
Masterpieces of creativity can be called the painting "Sunday", "Cancan", "Models".
Representatives of Russian impressionism
Russian impressionism arose almost spontaneously, mixing many phenomena and methods. However, the basis, like the French, was a full-scale vision of the process.
In Russian impressionism, although the features of French were preserved, the features of the national nature and state of mind made significant changes. For example, the vision of snow or northern landscapes was expressed using an unusual technique.
In Russia, few artists worked in the style of impressionism, their paintings attract the eye to this day.
The impressionistic period can be distinguished in the work of Valentin Serov. His "Girl with Peaches" is the clearest example and standard of this style in Russia.
The paintings conquer with their freshness and consonance of pure colors. The main theme of this artist's work is the image of a person in nature. "Northern Idyll", "In the Boat", "Fyodor Chaliapin" are bright milestones in the activity of K. Korovin.
Impressionism in modern times
Currently, this direction in art has received a new life. In this style, several artists paint their paintings. Modern impressionism exists in Russia (André Cohn), in France (Laurent Parcelier), in America (Diana Leonard).
Andre Kohn is the most prominent representative of the new impressionism. His oil paintings are striking in their simplicity. The artist sees beauty in ordinary things. The Creator interprets many objects through the prism of movement.
The watercolor works of Laurent Parcelier are known all over the world. His series of works "Strange World" was released in the form of postcards. Gorgeous, vibrant and sensual, they are breathtaking.
As in the 19th century, plein air painting remains for artists at the moment. Thanks to her, impressionism will live forever. artists continue to inspire, impress and inspire.
“A new world was born when the Impressionists painted it”
Henri Kahnweiler
19th century. France. The unthinkable happened in painting. A group of young artists decided to shake the 500-year-old tradition. Instead of a clear drawing, they used a wide “sloppy” brushstroke.
And they completely abandoned the usual images. Depicting everyone. And ladies of easy virtue, and gentlemen of dubious reputation.
The public was not ready for Impressionist painting. They were ridiculed and scolded. And most importantly, they did not buy anything from them.
But the resistance was broken. And part of the Impressionists lived to see their triumph. True, they were already over 40. Like Claude Monet or Auguste Renoir. Some waited for recognition only at the end of their lives, like Camille Pissarro. Someone did not live up to it, like Alfred Sisley.
What revolutionary did each of them? Why did the public not accept them for so long? Here are 7 of the most famous French Impressionists. Who knows the whole world.
1. Edouard Manet (1832 - 1883)
Edward Mane. Self portrait with palette. 1878 Private collectionManet was older than most of the Impressionists. He was their main inspiration for change.
Manet himself did not claim to be the leader of the revolutionaries. He was a man of the world. Dreamed of official awards.
But he waited a very long time for recognition. The public wanted to see the Greek goddesses. Or still lifes at worst. To look beautiful in the dining room. Manet wanted to paint modern life. For example, courtesans.
The result was "Breakfast on the Grass". Two dandies are resting in the company of ladies of easy virtue. One of them, as if nothing had happened, sits next to dressed men.
Edward Mane. Breakfast on the grass. 1863, Paris Compare his "Breakfast on the Grass" with Thomas Couture's "Romans in the Decline". Couture's painting made a splash. The artist instantly became famous.
"Breakfast on the Grass" was accused of vulgarity. Pregnant women in all seriousness were not recommended to look at her.
Thomas Couture. Romans in decline. 1847 Musée d'Orsay, Paris. artchive.ru In Couture's painting, we see all the attributes of academicism (traditional painting of the 16th-19th centuries). Columns and statues. Apollonian people. Traditional muted colors. The mannerism of postures and gestures. A plot from a distant life of a completely different people.
“Breakfast on the Grass” by Manet is a different format. Before him, no one portrayed courtesans like that easily. Close to respectable citizens. Although many men of that time spent their leisure time in this way. Real life of real people.
Once I wrote a respectable lady. Ugly. He couldn't flatter her with a brush. The lady was disappointed. She left him in tears.
Edward Mane. Angelina. 1860 Musée d'Orsay, Paris. wikimedia.commons.org So he continued to experiment. For example, with color. He did not try to depict the so-called natural color. If he saw gray-brown water as bright blue, then he depicted it as bright blue.
This, of course, annoyed the public. After all, even the Mediterranean Sea cannot boast such a blue as the water at Manet, they quipped.
Edward Mane. Argenteuil. 1874 Museum of Fine Arts, Tournai, Belgium. wikipedia.org But the fact remains. Manet fundamentally changed the purpose of painting. The picture became the embodiment of the artist's individuality. Who writes as he pleases. Forget about patterns and traditions.
All innovations did not forgive him for a long time. Recognition waited only at the end of life. When he no longer needed it. He was agonizingly dying from an incurable disease.
2. Claude Monet (1840 - 1926)
Claude Monet. Self-portrait in a beret. 1886 Private collection Claude Monet can be called a Christopher Impressionist. Since he was faithful to this direction all his long life.
He painted not objects and people, but a single color construction of highlights and spots. Separate strokes. Air trembling.
Claude Monet. Paddling pool. 1869 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Metmuseum.org Monet painted not only nature. He was also good at urban landscapes. One of the most famous - .
There is a lot of photography in this painting. For example, motion is conveyed using a blurry image.
Pay attention, distant trees and figures seem to be in a haze.
Claude Monet. Boulevard des Capucines in Paris. 1873 (Gallery of European and American Art of the 19th-20th centuries), Moscow Before us is a stopped moment of the bustling life of Paris. No staging. Nobody is posing. People are depicted as a collection of strokes. Such plotlessness and the “freeze frame” effect is the main feature of Impressionism.
By the mid-1980s, artists had become disillusioned with Impressionism. Aesthetics is, of course, good. But the plotlessness of many oppressed.
Only Monet continued to persist. Hypertrophy of impressionism. What developed into a series of paintings.
He depicted the same landscape dozens of times. At different times of the day. At different times of the year. To show how much temperature and light can change the same view beyond recognition.
Thus, countless haystacks appeared.
Paintings by Claude Monet at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Left: Haystacks at sunset at Giverny, 1891 Right: Haystack (snow effect), 1891
Please note that the shadows in these paintings are colored. And not gray or black, as was customary before the Impressionists. This is another feature of theirs.
Monet managed to enjoy success and material well-being. After 40, he already forgot about poverty. He got a house and a beautiful garden. And he did it for his pleasure for many years to come.
Read about the most iconic painting by the master in the article
3. Auguste Renoir (1841 - 1919)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Self-portrait. 1875 Sterling and Francine Clark Institute of Art, Massachusetts, USA. Pinterest Impressionism is the most positive painting. And the most positive among the Impressionists was Renoir.
You will not find drama in his paintings. He didn't even use black paint. Only the joy of being. Even the most banal Renoir looks beautiful.
Unlike Monet, Renoir painted people more often. Landscapes for him were less significant. In his paintings, his friends and acquaintances relax and enjoy life.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Rowers breakfast. 1880-1881 Phillips Collection, Washington, USA. wikimedia.commons.org You will not find in Renoir and thoughtfulness. He was very glad to join the Impressionists. Which polls refused plots.
As he himself said, finally he has the opportunity to write flowers and call them simply “Flowers”. And don't make up any stories about them.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Woman with an umbrella in the garden. 1875 Thyssen-Bormenis Museum, Madrid. arteuam.com Renoir felt best in the company of women. He asked his maids to sing and joke. The more stupid and naive the song was, the better for him. A man's chatter tired him. No wonder Renoir is known for his nudes.
The model in the painting “Nude in Sunlight” seems to appear against a colorful abstract background. Because for Renoir there is nothing secondary. The eye of the model or the area of the background are equivalent.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Nude in the sunlight. 1876 Musée d'Orsay, Paris. wikimedia.commons.org Renoir lived a long life. And never put down the brush and palette. Even when his hands were completely shackled by rheumatism, he tied the brush to his arm with a rope. And he painted.
Like Monet, he waited for recognition after 40 years. And I saw my paintings in the Louvre, next to the works of famous masters.
Read about one of the most charming portraits of Renoir in the article
4. Edgar Degas (1834 - 1917)
Edgar Degas. Self-portrait. 1863 Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, Portugal. cultured.com Degas was not a classical impressionist. He did not like to work in the open air (open air). You will not find a deliberately brightened palette with him.
On the contrary, he loved a clear line. He has plenty of black. And he worked exclusively in the studio.
But still he is always put on a par with other great impressionists. Because he was an impressionist of gesture.
Unexpected angles. Asymmetry in the arrangement of objects. Characters caught off guard. All these are the main attributes of his paintings.
He stopped the moment of life, not allowing him to come to his senses. Look at least at his “Opera Orchestra”.
Edgar Degas. Opera Orchestra. 1870 Musée d'Orsay, Paris. commons.wikimedia.org In the foreground is the back of a chair. The musician has his back to us. And in the background, the ballerinas on the stage did not fit into the “frame”. Their heads are mercilessly “cut off” by the edge of the picture.
Therefore, the dancers so beloved by him are far from always depicted in beautiful poses. Sometimes they just stretch.
But such improvisation is imaginary. Of course, Degas carefully thought out the composition. This is just a freeze frame effect, not a real freeze frame.
Edgar Degas. Two ballet dancers. 1879 Shelburne Museum, Wermouth, USA Edgar Degas loved to paint women. But the disease or the characteristics of the body did not allow him to have physical contact with them. He never married. No one has ever seen him with a woman.
The absence of real plots in his personal life added a subtle and intense eroticism to his images.
Edgar Degas. Ballet star. 1876-1878 Musee d'Orsay, Paris. wikimedia.comons.org Please note that in the picture “Ballet Star” only the ballerina herself is drawn. Her backstage colleagues are barely distinguishable. Just a few legs.
This does not mean that Degas did not finish the picture. Such is the reception. Keep only the most important things in focus. Make the rest disappear, illegible.
Read about other paintings by the master in the article.
5. Berthe Morisot (1841 - 1895)
Edward Mane. Portrait of Berthe Morisot. 1873 Marmottan Monet Museum, Paris. Bertha Morisot is rarely put in the first row with the great Impressionists. I'm sure it's not deserved. Just in her you will find all the main features and techniques of impressionism. And if you like impressionism, you will love her work with all your heart.
Morisot worked quickly and impetuously. Transferring your impression to the canvas. The figures seem to be about to dissolve into space.
Berthe Morisot. Summer. 1880 Fabre Museum, Montpellier, France. Like Degas, she often did not complete some details. And even body parts of the model. We cannot distinguish the hands of the girl in the painting “Summer”.
Morisot's path to self-expression was difficult. Not only was she engaged in “sloppy” painting. She was still a woman. In those days, a woman was supposed to dream of getting married. After that, any hobbies were forgotten.
Therefore, Berta refused marriage for a long time. Until she found a man who respectfully treated her occupation. Eugene Manet was the brother of the painter Edouard Manet. He dutifully longed for his wife's easel and paints.
Berthe Morisot. Eugene Manet with his daughter in Bougival. 1881 Marmottan Monet Museum, Paris. But it was still in the 19th century. No, Morisot did not wear trousers. But she could not afford complete freedom of movement.
She couldn't go to the park to work alone. Unaccompanied by someone close. I couldn't sit alone in a cafe. Therefore, her paintings are people from the family circle. Husband, daughter, relatives.
Berthe Morisot. A woman with a child in a garden in Bougival. 1881 National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. Morisot did not wait for recognition. She died at the age of 54 from pneumonia. Not selling almost any of his work during his lifetime. In the certificate of her death in the column "occupation" was a dash. It was unthinkable for a woman to be called an artist. Even if she really was.
Read about the paintings of the master in the article
6. Camille Pissarro (1830 - 1903)
Camille Pissarro. Self-portrait. 1873 Musée d'Orsay, Paris. wikipedia.org Camille Pissarro. Non-confrontational, reasonable. Many considered him as a teacher. Even the most temperamental colleagues did not speak badly of Pissarro.
He was a faithful follower of impressionism. In dire need, with five children and a wife, he still worked hard in the same style. And never switched to salon painting. To become more popular. It is not known where he got the strength to fully believe in himself.
In order not to die of hunger at all, Pissarro painted fans. which were readily sold. And the real recognition came to him after 60 years! When at last he was able to forget about the need.
Camille Pissarro. Stagecoach at Louveciennes. 1869 Musée d'Orsay, Paris The air in Pissarro's paintings is thick and dense. Unusual fusion of color and volume.
The artist was not afraid to paint the most changeable phenomena of nature. Which will appear for a moment and disappear. First snow, frosty sun, long shadows.
Camille Pissarro. Frost. 1873 Musée d'Orsay, Paris His most famous works are views of Paris. With wide boulevards, vain and motley crowd. At night, during the day, in different weather. Something in common with a series of paintings by Claude Monet.
Impressionist exhibition
First of all, for the third time I visited the exhibition in the wonderful Art Mall in Kiev. I already wrote about miraculous technologies for displaying expositions on this site. I will not repeat myself, I will only say that this time everything was on top, there was no disappointment :). This last exhibition featured paintings by all the leading masters of this artistic movement. If anyone does not know, just in case, I will give a list of these very impressionist masters:
- Edward Mane. Although the artist himself was constantly striving for official recognition, it was his infamous painting “Breakfast on the Grass” that became a real symbol of the Salon of the Outcasts.
- Berthe Morisot. One of the few (I'm afraid to assure you that the only) female impressionist. In 2013, the painting "After Lunch" was sold at Sotheby's for $10.9 million. This event made Morisot the most expensive female artist.
- Camille Pissarro. I love his images of Parisian boulevards. The Boulevard Montmartre series is considered one of the generally accepted symbols of Impressionism.
- Claude Monet. Probably the most famous representative of the current. In any case, it was his painting “Impression. Sunrise ”at one time gave the name to the entire artistic direction.
- Edgar Degas. Here I want to voice a slightly funny and exaggerated saying of a modern bohemian party: if there are a lot of little people, this is Bosch, if fat ballerinas are Degas :)
- Pierre Renoir. My favorite impressionist. And no more comments.
- Toulouse de Lautrec. Singer of entertainment and life of the Parisian bohemia and the “bottom”. Cabaret, brothels - his theme.
- Henri Cross. I was surprised to find that I heard this name at the exhibition for the first time!
- Paul Signac. His charming landscapes of bright pure colors gave life to a new direction of neo-impressionism - pointillism.
- Paul Cezanne. I have the main association with him: still lifes and dislike for human models, and this is connected with my favorite curious situation.
- Paul Gauguin. One of the titans of post-impressionism. Almost complete non-recognition during his lifetime and records for the sale of paintings after death.
- Vincent Van Gogh. Another star with an incredibly difficult creative and life destiny. And deafening glory after death ...
It's all titans. Their paintings (reproductions) can be viewed for hours, which I did at the Kyiv exhibition. My photos do not represent any artistic value, you can find much better examples. But still I will post a couple of fragments from the exhibition:
Museums of the Impressionists
As I said, impressionism accompanies my entire conscious life. I even on some resources, impudently assign myself the nickname impressionism, hinting not at my involvement, but at my special reverent attitude. Therefore, I was interested in: where you can see non-reproductions. what about the originals? My personal experience is quite small: as a student I visited the glorious city of St. Petersburg and Hermitage. In the Hermitage, I did not even try to embrace the immensity, but immediately found in which rooms you can look at the paintings of the Impressionists. The meeting is big! Here are just a few of my favorite pictures:
Camille Pissarro. “Boulevard Montmartre in Paris” 1897
Paul Signac "Harbor in Marseille". 1906-1907
Painting by Claude Monet “Waterloo Bridge. (Fog effect)"
Paul Gauguin. "Woman holding a fetus" 1893
August Renoir. "Girl with a Fan" 1881
August Renoir. "Portrait of the actress Jeanne Samary". 1878
But in addition to my own information, I also have the impressions of my friends. They, infected with feelings for the Impressionists no less than me, visited Paris twice. And twice the obligatory number of their program was visits to museums that have collections of paintings of this direction. The highlights of this Parisian cultural expedition are:
- Orangerie Museum- the richest collection of impressionists and post-impressionists. The most famous painting is C. Monet's "Waters". It was only from friends that I learned that this picture, it turns out, was painted by the artist right on the wall of the museum and completely occupies a separate hall of the gallery.
- Musee d'Orsay is not considered to be specialized only in the works of the Impressionists, it presents various areas of European painting and sculpture. But almost all of those masters who are included in the list that I posted above are exhibited in Orsay. What is at least one famous "Olympia" by Edouard Manet worth!
- Marmottan Monet Museum has more than 300 Impressionist paintings in its collection. Zest: the iconic painting by Claude Monet “Impression. Sunrise". Yes, yes, that's it. Friends say that seeing her live is an enchanting feeling. I really envy them...
Claude Monet. Impression. Rising Sun
