Following the exhibition of the controversial Olympia, ManetÆs status grew among young avant-garde artists and writers. In the late 1860s he became the center of an informal group that met regularly at the CafΘ Guerbois on the Rue des Batignolles to discuss art. Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Pissarro, and CΘzanne were among the artists that gathered there on Thursday nights. Edgar Degas also joined their debates. These artists, who would later be called Impressionists, were also known as the Batignolles Group. Years later, Monet explained the importance of those meetings: "They kept our wits sharpened, they encouraged us with stories of enthusiasm that for weeks and weeks kept us up, until the final shaping of the idea was accomplished. From them we emerged with a firmer will, with our thoughts clearer and more distinct."
No:2
Paul Gauguin
Breton Landscape, Dog and Children, 1889
oil on canvas
36 ╜ x 29 in
Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo
Gauguin exhibited with the Impressionists in the last five of their exhibitions. Following his participation in the eighth show, Gauguin made his first trip to Pont-Aven at Brittany. He returned in 1888 and 1889, where he began experimenting with his cloisonnΘ style (broad flat planes of color outlined with dark, firm lines). While Breton Landscape retains characteristics derived from Impressionism, Gauguin is moving toward the primitivism that will mark his Tahitian paintings. By 1895, Gauguin left Europe for good, living out his life in the tropics. While Gauguin learned much from the Impressionists, he spoke to the Moderns: "Art is an abstraction: extract it from nature, dreaming before her."
No:3
Edgar Degas
Woman with Chrysanthemums, 1865
oil on canvas
29 x 36 ╜ in
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Edgar Hilaire Degas was the oldest son of a wealthy banker. His mother died when he was fourteen. DegasÆ father took an avid interest in the arts and cultivated his sonÆs taste at an early age, taking him to the Louvre and bringing him into contact with the finest art collections in France. Degas soon showed his own skill at drawing, and by 1853 had decided to become an artist. His father supported his decision, and he entered the studio of Louis Lamothe, a disciple of Ingres. Degas met Ingres himself in 1855, where the master told him, "Draw lines...a lot of lines, whether theyÆre from memory or from Nature." Degas took his advice to heart, and for the rest of his career considered himself first and foremost a draftsman. Between 1854 and 1859, Degas made several extended trips to Italy to study Italian painting and copy from the Italian masters. When he returned, his first major works were portraits and historical paintings. However, by the time Degas painted Woman with Chrysanthemums, he was clearly beginning to break away from conventional portraiture. Indeed, the woman, who would traditionally be the center of the picture, has been pushed to the side, her face partially obscured. The decentralized composition that marks his later works, particularly his ballet scenes, is hinted at here.
No:4
Camille Pissarro
A Corner of the Meadow at Eragny, 1902
oil on canvas
23 ╜ x 32 in
The Tate Gallery, London
Pissarro lived in abject poverty most of his adult life, and had difficulty supporting his family, which included his wife and seven children. In fact it wasnÆt until 1892, when Durand-Ruel organized a successful retrospective of his works that Pissarro finally achieved financial stability. He was 62. Pissarro and his wife bought a large house at Eragny, where Pissarro continued to paint prolifically, despite a chronic eye infection that left him partially blind. The last decade of PissarroÆs life was perhaps his most creative, and it was during this time that he created many of his greatest masterpieces. Pissarro, the elder statesman of the Impressionist movement, died in 1903.
No:5
Edouard Manet
The Monet Family in the Garden, 1874
oil on canvas
24 x 39 ╝ in
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Although Manet had pathed the way for the challenges the Impressionists made to the Academy of Fine Arts and the Salon, he believed that only success within the Salon was credible. He therefore declined to show his works in the first exhibit of the Impressionists, or in any of the seven that followed. Much of ManetÆs work at the time, however, reveals the influence of techniques developed by those who identified themselves as Impressionists--particularly Monet, Renoir, and Morisot. This open-air scene, completed the same year as the first exhibition took place, is clearly Impressionist in subject and technique.
No:6
Claude Monet
The Bodmer Oak, Fontainebleau Forest, 1865
oil on canvas
37 7/8 x 50 7/8 in
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
In 1862, MonetÆs aunt bought out his conscription to the military and his family decided to support his ambition to be a painter if he would enroll in a serious studio. It was in the studio of Gleyre that Monet became friends with Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frederic Bazille. Although Gleyre was relatively liberal in his instruction and critique of his studentsÆ work, Monet chafed at GleyreÆs traditional view that figures and nature should be idealized. MonetÆs passion for painting in the open air continued, and he organized numerous expeditions with his friends to paint in the forest of Fontainebleau. MonetÆs formal education ended in 1864, when Gleyre closed his studio.
No:7
Edgar Degas
At the CafΘ, Drinking Absinthe, 1875-76
oil on canvas
36 ╝ x 26 ╛ in
MusΘe dÆOrsay, Paris
In the early 1860s, Degas became friends with Edouard Manet and the art critic Edmond Duranty, who persuaded him to forego historical painting and paint contemporary subjects instead. Discussions at the CafΘ Guerbois undoubtedly reinforced this notion. However, while the younger members were more concerned with painting landscapes and the bourgeoisie enjoying themselves in the open air, Degas dispassionately depicted the sordid side of modern life and the alienation of the individual within society. At the CafΘ, Drinking Absinthe illustrates one such moment. It was shown at the second exhibition of the Impressionists.
No:8
Camille Pissarro
The Road, Louveciennes, 1870
oil on canvas
23 5/8 x 28 3/4 in
MusΘe dÆOrsay, Paris
When the Franco-Prussian war began in 1870, Pissarro left for London. While there, he finally married his mistress, Julie Vellay, who had been his motherÆs maid and borne him two children already. He also met Durand-Ruel whose support was crucial to most of the Impressionists, Pissarro included. Monet was also in London, and together the two discovered the works of Constable and Turner, English landscape artists who had engaged many of the same artistic challenges that the Impressionists were considering. When Pissarro returned to Louveciennes following the war, he found that the Germans had destroyed nearly all of the 1,500 paintings he had left behind. His house had been used as a butcher shop and his paintings had served as garden mats. The Road, Louveciennes was one of the few paintings that survive from this period.
No:9
Camille Pissarro
Pontoise, 1873
oil on canvas
21 ╛ x 25 ╜ in
Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland
As a young man, Pissarro came to Paris to learn to paint just as the International Exposition of 1855 was being held. It was there that he saw the landscapes of Corot, which so impressed him that he sought out the master and began to paint in his style. Indeed, when PissarroÆs works were accepted to the Salons of 1864 and 1865, he listed himself as a pupil of Corot. Like Corot, he painted the villages and countryside outside of Paris, with their winding roads and houses along the hills. However, in subsequent years his style became more realistic as did his colors. 1870 was a year of transformation for Pissarro, as his technique became more aligned with MonetÆs and less like CorotÆs. Monet, like Pissarro had come to London to escape the war in France. Although the future Impressionists had not defined their aesthetics, a distinctive style was beginning to emerge as they painted side by side. After the war, Pissarro moved to Pontoise. In 1872, Cezanne joined him and learned Impressionist technique through PissarroÆs example.
No:10
Edouard Manet
DΘjeuner sur lÆHerbe, 1863
(Luncheon on the Grass)
oil on canvas
84 x 106 in
MusΘe dÆOrsay, Paris
When the Salon des RefusΘs opened in 1863, DΘjeuner sur lÆHerbe served as a focal point for the criticsÆ censure and the publicÆs ridicule. Not only was the nude woman among clothed men considered scandalous, but ManetÆs technique was pronounced atrocious. Prevailing standards required paintings to illustrate a historical, mythological, or religious theme or to express an ideal. Figures were modeled in somber colors and the paintingÆs surface was highly finished, leaving no trace of brushwork. On the other hand, DΘjeuner tells no story, provides no moral, and is painted with bright contrasts and vivid colors. Although the critics scorned this painting, it inspired artists like Claude Monet and his peers, who admired its boldness, its defiance of convention, and the possibilities it evoked. It presaged the end of the "notable subject" and idealized depiction, and intimated a future in which subjects would be painted for their pictorial value, as they appeared to the artist.
No:11
Edouard Manet
The House at Reuil, 1882
oil on canvas
36 ╝ x 28 ╛
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
After the Salon of 1882, Manet was decorated with the Legion of Honor--a long awaited official recognition. That summer, Manet retired to Reuil, suffering from locomotor ataxia. Partially paralyzed, in great pain, and confined to his bed by autumn, Manet nonetheless continued to paint and make pastel sketches. He died in 1883.
No:12
Berthe Morisot
SummerÆs Day, 1880
oil on canvas
18 x 29 ╛ in
National Gallery, London
When Edgar Degas solicited Berthe MorisotÆs participation in the SociΘtΘ Anonyme exhibition, her work had been accepted at the Salon more consistently than that of all her Impressionist colleagues except Pissarro. Despite that success and against the advice of Edouard Manet, Morisot chose to join the group in their challenge to the SalonÆs tyrannical control over the fine arts. Of the thirty artists who exhibited, Morisot was the only woman. Critics immediately identified her as one of the principals in the exhibition--a status she retained in all of the subsequent exhibitions, except the fourth, which she did not join because she was expecting a child.
No:13
Paul Gauguin
Tropical Landscape at Martinique, 1887
oil on canvas
35 5/16 x 45 1/4 in
Wegbereiter der Moderne
Gauguin was a wealthy stockbroker and an avid collector of Impressionist art when he met Pissarro in 1874. He was also a talented amateur painter. Under PissarroÆs influence, he adopted Impressionist technique and subject matter and began to show his works at the Impressionist exhibitions. In 1882, he gave up his lucrative career as a stockbroker to pursue his art. Although for the rest of his life he struggled just to make a living, Gauguin is now considered to have been one of the most visionary artists of the Modern era.
No:14
Georges Seurat
Une Baignade, AsniΦres, 1884
oil on canvas
78 3/4 x 118 1/8 in
National Gallery, London
Georges Seurat was the innovator of the Neo-Impressionistic technique of pointillism, which proposed to create a more luminous sense of color by juxtaposing uniform dots of pure pigment. The light reflected from the points was supposed to fuse in the eye, thus creating a mixture of colors in light, rather than in pigment. Seurat derived this technique in part from the scientific theories of ╔ugene Chevreul and Ogden Rood. However, the juxtaposition of pure pigments was practiced by the Impressionists as well, although in brushstrokes rather than points, and intuitively rather than in accordance with a theory.
No:15
Claude Monet
La GrenouillΦre, 1869
oil on canvas
29 3/8 x 39 1/4 in
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Many art historians and critics consider this painting (along with RenoirÆs depictions of the same scene) to mark the birth of Impressionism, for in the attempt to emulate the reflection of the scene and the sunlight on the rippled surface of the river they began to use a short, rapidly applied brushstroke. This "comma"-like brushstroke was adopted by nearly all the Impressionists at one time or another, and is one of the few definitive characteristics of Impressionist technique. In these pictures Monet and Renoir also juxtaposed small strokes of pure pigments to evoke the glimmer of light broken into its constituent colors.
No:16
Mary Cassatt
Mother About to Wash Sleepy Child, 1880
oil on canvas
39 ╜ x 25 ╜ in
Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art
Mary Cassatt was the daughter of a wealthy Philadelphia banker and his wife. She spent her childhood in Paris but as an adolescent returned to Philadelphia with her family. Between 1861 and 1865, Cassatt enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. However, she was disappointed with her education there and returned to Europe, determined to learn to paint from the masters. By 1874, Cassatt settled in Paris, where she became familiar with the paintings of the Impressionists through Durand-Ruel and began collecting their works. Degas highly regarded her submission to the Salon in 1874 and invited her to show her works with the Impressionists at the fourth exhibition. Cassatt claimed, "the first sight of DegasÆ pictures was the turning point in my artistic life." Cassatt and Degas became intimate friends and perhaps lovers. She often modeled for him and sided with him in his disputes with the other Impressionists over who should be included in the exhibitions. Like Morisot, Cassatt primarily painted scenes of domesticity, particularly mothers and children. In 1904, she was awarded the Legion of Honor. CassattÆs eyesight started to fail in 1900 and in 1914 she quit painting. She died in 1926.
No:17
Camille Pissarro
Woman and Child at the Well, 1882
oil on canvas
32 x 26 ╝ in
The Art Institute of Chicago
While many of his Impressionist colleagues were preoccupied with the reflection of light on water, Pissarro focused on the land. Having made his home in villages such as Pontoise and Louveciennes, Pissarro went to work depicting the both the landscapes and the peasants who worked the land. While his works of the 1860s and 1870s concentrated more on the scenery, in the 1880s he turned his attention more to the people. PissarroÆs paintings of peasants were neither sentimental nor harshly naturalistic, as evidenced in Woman and Child at the Well. Pissarro showed a series of peasant pictures at the seventh Impressionist exhibition.
No:18
Auguste Renoir
The Seine at AsniΦres, 1879
(known as The Skiff)
oil on canvas
28 x 36 in
National Gallery, London
The Seine at AsniΦres shows Renoir at the peak of his Impressionist phase. The reflection of the sky and the landscape in the water, the short brushstrokes, and the figures subordinated to the play of light are characteristically Impressionist. The stark contrast of the orange of the boat and the blue of the water heightens the vividness of each color, a fact set forth by ╔ugene Chevreul as the law of "simultaneous contrast." The Impressionists were clearly influenced by his theories, published in 1839, and both Monet and Pissarro had read his Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colours, and Their Application to the Arts, at least in part.
No:19
Georges Seurat
The Rainbow (Study for Une Baignade, AsniΦres), 1883-84
oil on wood
6 1/4 x 9 3/8 in
Berggruen Collection, on loan to National Gallery, London
The Rainbow is a study for Une Baignade, AsniΦres, one of fourteen that Seurat made for the picture. His evident concern with the effects of light and atmosphere in the scene are characteristically Impressionist. However, by the time he painted the final version, Seurat had clearly discarded Impressionist style. Seurat was the leader of a new generation of avant garde painters, and Pissarro and van Gogh were among those influenced by his example. Unfortunately, he died at age 31, leaving but a glimpse of his potential genius.
No:20
Alfred Sisley
The Road to Versailles, 1875
oil on canvas
19 x 15 in
MusΘe dÆOrsay, Paris
While Monet devoted his attention to the affects of light playing on the water, Sisley was more interested in how light was diffused in the sky and its clouds. He claimed, "I always begin with the sky. It cannot be relegated to a mere backdrop. On the contrary, it contributes not only through the depth given by its planes (for the sky has planes just as the earth has), it also gives movement by its form, by its arrangement in harmony with the effect or composition of a picture."
No:21
Alfred Sisley
The Path to the Old Ferry at By, 1880
oil on canvas
20 x 26 in
The Tate Gallery, London
Although Sisley was no great innovator, he was an accomplished painter who remained true to the principles of Impressionism when the others were engaging new concerns and expanding their particular oeuvres. Sisley never strayed from his devotion to open-air painting. In fact, he painted landscapes almost exclusively, never deviating into the figure painting and portraits that came to occupy Renoir and Pissarro. While he lacked the grand genius of Monet or the versatility of Renoir, Sisley had his areas of expertise: he was a master at depicting the reflection of light on snow with its various colored tints and he was acclaimed for his ability to create depth through his skies. In The Path to the Old Ferry at By he shows he was also adept at recreating the effects of light and shadows reflected in the river--a patently Impressionist subject.
No:22
Camille Pissarro
Chestnut Trees at Louveciennes, ca. 1872
oil on canvas
16 ╝ x 21 ╝ in
MusΘe dÆOrsay, Paris
Pissarro was nearly a decade older than the principal Impressionists, having been born in 1831 in St. Thomas of the Virgin Islands. His father was a Spanish-Jewish storekeeper and his mother was a Creole woman. Pissarro was sent to school in Paris when he was twelve, and when he returned he spent more time sketching than he did working. When his family opposed his pursuit of a career in art, he ran away to Venezuela in 1852. Upon his return in 1855, his parents decided to support his art education in Paris. Although Pissarro started at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, he soon left for the less restrictive atmosphere of Academy Suisse. Following Corot, he painted landscapes. In 1859 he had his first painting accepted at the Salon. Although his works were rejected in 1861 and 1863 (he participated in the Salon of the Rejected that year), his paintings were accepted every other year, through 1869. By that time he had met Monet and CΘzanne at the Academy Suisse, and was one of the Batignolles group that met at the CafΘ Guerbois. His paintings were more structured than those of Monet and Renoir, but used the same juxtaposition of pure colors in small, comma-like strokes. Chestnut Trees at Louveciennes is representative of PissarroÆs early Impressionist style and is an admirable study of structure and shadow. Unfortunately, few examples of his work before 1870 remain, as they were destroyed in the Franco-Prussian war.
No:23
Edouard Manet
Olympia, 1863
oil on canvas
51 ╜ x 74 ╛ in
MusΘe dÆOrsay, Paris
ManetÆs infamy continued when his painting Olympia was exhibited at the Salon of 1865. In it, a nude prostitute reclines, a black womanservant delivers her a bouquet of flowers, and a black cat lies at her feet. Olympia gazes out at the viewer unabashed. While the public in general was shocked by the subject, critics also objected to the pale clear tones used to paint the nude, the lack of modeling, and the addition of the cat for purely pictorial purposes. In fact, Olympia created such an uproar that guards had to be posted by it to protect it from being defaced. It is a pivotal painting in the history of Impressionism and firmly established Manet as the leader of the avant-garde artists who would later be known as the Impressionists.
No:24
Alfred Sisley
The Flood at Port-Marly, 1876
oil on canvas
25 5/8 x 31 7/8 in
MusΘe dÆOrsay, Paris
Throughout the 1870s, Sisley lived and worked in the riverside villages of Louveciennes, Port Marly, and Bougival. In 1876, he painted three canvases of the floods at Port-Marly, works now regarded as his greatest masterpieces. In this version, Sisley shows himself a master of the Impressionist technique, rendering the effects of light on the water in small subtle strokes and depicting the sky in all its depth. Like the other Impressionists, especially Renoir, Sisley utilized a variety of brushstrokes within a single painting.
No:25
Claude Monet
Woman with Umbrella, Turned Left, 1886
oil on canvas
51 5/8 x 34 5/8 in
MusΘe dÆOrsay, Paris
Claude MonetÆs artistic proclivities were evident at an early age. At sixteen, he was making caricatures of the people of his hometown, Le Havre, and earning 20 francs a picture. Although he was to become the quintessential Impressionist, the market value of such works was absurdly low for much of his life, and he often had difficulty supporting his family. As an old man reflecting back on his youthful caricatures, he remarked with some irony, "If I had continued, I would be a millionaire."
No:26
Berthe Morisot
Girl on a Divan, ca. 1885
oil on canvas
24 x 19 ╛ in
The Tate Gallery, London
Like many young women of their class, Berthe and Edma Morisot took drawing and painting lessons. However, when Joseph Guichard recognized that his pupils had the potential to become painters rather than simply accomplished young ladies, he warned their mother that such an eventuality would be a "catastrophe" within their social sphere (since a woman with a career would be unmarriageable). Under the tutelage of the landscape artist Camille Corot, the Morisots did become proficient enough to have two landscapes each accepted to the 1864 Salon. Despite such success, Edma gave up painting when she married in 1869. Berthe Morisot went on to become one of the central figures of Impressionism. Although she too married (in 1874, to Eugene Manet) and had a daughter, her successful balance of family life and a career was exceptional in that era.
No:27
Paul CΘzanne
The House of the Hanged Man, 1873
oil on canvas
21 5/8 x 26 3/16 in
MusΘe dÆOrsay, Paris
Of the Impressionists, CΘzanneÆs closest friend was Pissarro, whom he had met at the Academie Suisse. CΘzanne regarded Pissarro, who was nine years older, as something of a father figure and in 1872 moved near Pontoise, where Pissarro lived. The two went on frequent excursions to paint the countryside. It was Pissarro who influenced CΘzanne to lighten his palette and to use the loose brushwork and juxtaposition of small strokes of pure color that characterized Impressionist works. The House of the Hanged Man is perhaps the most representative painting of CΘzanneÆs Impressionist phase. It was shown at the first exhibit of the Impressionists and, although heavily criticized, was one of the few works that sold.
No:28
Claude Monet
Arrival of Normandy Train, Gare St-Lazare, 1877
oil on canvas
23 ╜ x 31 ╜ in
The Art Institute of Chicago
Monet found a new patron in 1876--Ernest HoschedΘ, a director of a department store who had inherited wealth. With the money he earned from HoschedΘ's commissions, Monet painted a series of scenes at Gare Saint-Lazare, now considered some of his finest works. However, these were poorly received at the Impressionist Exhibit of 1877 and Monet was once again in dire financial straits. Camille was pregnant and ill. By 1878 HoschedΘ had gone bankrupt. Another son, Michel, was born in March 1878 and Monet was desperate. He turned to Manet, who helped him find a house in VΘtheuil. Soon after, the HoschedΘ family, numbering eight, moved in with them. Camille died of cancer in 1879.
No:29
Claude Monet
On the Seine at Bennecourt, 1868
oil on canvas
32 x 39 ╜ in
The Art Institute of Chicago
In 1865, Monet experienced his first professional success, when two of his seascapes were accepted to the Salon. Critics praised these works and both were purchased at respectable prices. One was even pictured on the souvenir album of the exhibition. In the Salon of 1866, he was again received favorably with a life-sized picture of his mistress Camille Doncieux, which he had completed in a mere four days. However, the years that followed were full of hardship, as Monet abjured the carefully wrought detail and pretentious composition of academic painting to focus on the effects of light and atmosphere on his subjects. On the Seine at Bennecourt is one of the earliest examples of an Impressionist landscape. Minute detail is sacrificed for broad strokes, rapidly applied, that suggest the impression of a moment. The sky and the scene from the opposite bank are only slightly distorted as they are reflected on the calm surface of the river. The reflection of light on water will preoccupy Monet throughout most of his life.
No:30
Auguste Renoir
Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881
oil on canvas
51 x 68 in
The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.
RenoirÆs open air scenes usually contain people. One of his great gifts was his ability to individualize such figures, yet integrate them into the image of a moment without losing the impression of immediacy. Luncheon of the Boating Party suggests the gaiety of the afternoon, the brightness of the light filtering through the awning, and something of the personality of each figure. It was painted at the Alphonse Fournaise restaurant, on the river island Chatou. RenoirÆs future wife, Aline Charigot, modeled for the woman holding the puppy. Renoir showed Luncheon of the Boating Party at the seventh exhibition of the Impressionists.
No:31
Paul CΘzanne
Apples and Oranges, 1895-1900
oil on canvas
28 ╛ x 36 ╝ in
CΘzanne painted over 200 still lifes in his career, at a time when the Salon accorded still lifes less prestige than landscapes, portraits, or even genre scenes. Still lifes allowed CΘzanne to explore the problems of perspective and composition in a controlled setting. In Apples and Oranges, for example, CΘzanne creates a dual perspective, so that the top of the table appears to be tilted down, displaying the plate of fruit as if from above, yet the dish and jug are seen on a horizontal plane. These distortions are offset by the unity created by the fruits and folds of fabric in the painting. While CΘzanneÆs approach is distinctively Modern, such consideration of the purely pictorial effects of perspective and composition was facilitated by the ImpressionistsÆ rejection of traditional pictorial unities.
No:32
Claude Monet
Walking Near Argenteuil, 1873
oil on canvas
MusΘe Marmottan, Paris
Monet had just married Camille Doncieux when France declared war on Prussia in 1870. Monet fled to London, where he continued painting landscapes. While there, he met Paul Durand-Ruel, an art dealer who was to become one of the ImpressionistsÆ most steadfast supports. Monet returned to France in 1871 and rented a house in Argenteuil, off the river Seine, where he painted prolifically for the next two years. Durand-Ruel continued to buy paintings from him and Monet continued to develop his technique. However, by 1874, Durand-Ruel could no longer afford to buy pictures and Monet was forced to consider other options--a decision that led him to begin organizing an exhibition independent of the Salon.
No:33
Edgar Degas
Two Ballet Girls, ca.1879
pastel on paper
17 3/4 x 25 1/2 in
Shelburne Museum, Shelburne Vermont
Degas came into contact with the Impressionists at CafΘ Guerbois, where he rivaled his friend Manet as the center of attention. Degas had a quick wit and a broad education in the arts, which he brought to bear upon the discussions at the CafΘ, often providing a counterpoint to the views of the others. Thus, while Monet and Pissarro argued for the necessity of submitting to nature and reproducing their impressions of nature in the open air, Degas, who worked in the studio, maintained that "a painting is an artificial work and requires as much cunning as the perpetration of a crime." Although Degas differed from his counterparts in his methods and many of his aims, he shared their concern for conveying contemporary life in all its immediacy. He also shared their rejection of the SalonÆs control over the arts and contributed to all of the group shows except one--always insisting that he was not an Impressionist, but rather an Independent. Degas was often at the center of debates over who should be included in the exhibitions and had a large part in organizing the fourth, fifth, and sixth shows.
No:34
Vincent van Gogh
The Bridge at AsniΦres, 1887
oil on canvas
20 ╜ x 25 ╝ in
Collection E. G. Bⁿhrle Foundation, Zurich
In 1886, van Gogh paid an unexpected visit to his brother Theo in Paris. Theo van Gogh was an art dealer, who had shown works by Pissarro, Gauguin, Monet, and Degas. He introduced Vincent to Camille Pissarro, who encouraged him to use brighter colors and smaller, more controlled brush strokes. For a period of about two years, van Gogh painted in an Impressionist style and selected typically Impressionist subjects. Bridge at AsniΦres is perhaps his most Impressionistic work. In it, he undertakes the representation of light broken and refracted by the surface of the river. Yet even in this painting, van GoghÆs concern with solid forms and strong outlines can be seen--interests that placed him outside of Impressionism.
No:35
Vincent van Gogh
Seascape, 1888
oil on canvas
20 x 25 ╝ in
At sixteen, van Gogh began working for his uncle, who was an art dealer. After six successful years in the art trade, van Gogh experienced several years of personal turmoil, beginning with a rejected proposal of marriage. His religious fervor led him to become an evangelist, but he failed in his studies for the ministry. He then went to work as a lay preacher but was dismissed soon after, in 1880. Disillusioned and considered a failure by his family, van Gogh finally began his career as an artist. In the next ten years, he would develop into one of the greatest painters of the Modern age. His brief involvement in Impressionism led him to the brighter colors which would become more vivid and less representational in his mature works. Van GoghÆs period of greatest creativity occurred from 1888 until his suicide in 1890. In 1888 he moved to Arles, where he painted the cafΘs, fields, people, and commonplace objects that he encountered there. In late October, Gauguin came to stay with him at Theo van GoghÆs request. The visit lasted for a difficult two months, ending with a fight, following which van Gogh cut off part of his ear. Gauguin helped him to a hospital and left. For the following two years, van Gogh had recurring bouts of madness and was in and out of the hospital at St. Remy. Despite his torment and delusions of persecution, van Gogh completed 450 works before ending his life.
No:36
Claude Monet
Spring at Giverny, 1896
oil on canvas
22 ╝ x 26 ╛ in
Eugene Boudin, an older artist living in Le Havre, introduced the young Monet to painting landscapes outdoors. At the time, landscape paintings were not considered serious art, and such paintings were generally only sketched out of doors, then completed in the studio. Although Monet embarked on a formal art education in Paris in 1859, he remained passionate about painting in the open air. In 1862, he met Johan Barthold Jongkind, a landscape painter from the Barbizon school, who reaffirmed MonetÆs commitment to open air (en plein air) painting and refined his technique. Monet continued to paint out of doors nearly all his life.
No:37
Auguste Renoir
Le Moulin de la Galette, 1875
The Pancake Mill
oil on canvas
51 ╜ x 69 in
MusΘe dÆOrsay, Paris
RenoirÆs true Impressionist period lasted from around 1872 to 1883, although he painted some groundbreaking works in 1868 at La GrenouillΦre with Monet. One of his most famous Impressionist works is Le Moulin de la Galette, a picture of an open-air dance hall where working class women and men met on Sunday afternoons. Renoir was above all a painter of le joie de vivre, as evident in this scene. It is luminous and joyful, a magnificent study of light and shadow. In it, RenoirÆs brushstrokes are broader than usual and blend into one another. Most of the painting was finished on the spot.
No:38
Claude Monet
Boat at Giverny, 1887
oil on canvas
38 5/8 x 51 5/8 in
MusΘe dÆOrsay, Paris
MonetÆs fortunes finally turned when Durand-Ruel reopened his gallery in 1881. Durand-Ruel bought a series painted at Entretat and Monet was back on his feet. He moved to Poissy. Alice HoschedΘ left her husband and she and her children went with Monet. In 1883, they all moved to Giverny, where Monet had rented a large house with two acres in the Seine valley. He had access to the river there and was inspired by the light and atmosphere of the region. The eighties were a prosperous and gratifying decade for Monet. His family life was happy and collectors and the public had begun to understand and appreciate Impressionist painting. MonetÆs prestige grew and artists flocked to his home and studio. In 1890, Monet bought the house at Giverny and began to cultivate its magnificent garden. Three years later, Monet bought an adjacent piece of land where he created the lily pond that was the subject of nearly all of his work in the 1900s.
No:39
Edgar Degas
The Star, 1876-77
pastel on monotype
23 x 17 in
MusΘe dÆOrsay, Paris
While DegasÆs devotion to line has often been cited to distinguish him from the "true" Impressionists, in The Star, Degas uses lines not to define a form, but to suggest movement and the reflection of light--an aim the Impressionists held in common. During the period when Degas was most closely aligned with Impressionism, he claimed, "The line is not the shape; it is the way one sees the shape." Degas was also a great innovator in technique and composition. He was particularly creative in his use of pastel, which at that time was considered vastly inferior to oil painting. In this image, Degas has sketched in pastel over the top of a monotype print. The decentralized composition, (influenced by Japanese prints) contributes to the illusion of movement.
No:40
Edgar Degas
Woman in a Tub, ca. 1883
pastel on paper
27 ╜ x 27 ╜ in
The Tate Gallery, London
In the 1880s, Degas began making pastels (and sculptures) of women bathing, getting in and out of the tub, drying themselves, and combing their hair. The Salon of the time often exhibited nudes, but such works generally made a pretext of illustrating classical myth. Indeed, a large measure of the outrage over ManetÆs Olympia in 1865, was because it provided no such pretext. Degas too was censured by the critics when he exhibited a series of his nudes at the final group exhibition in 1886. Like Manet, Degas refused to idealize his figures. However, he went a step further in portraying them unconscious of observation, in indelicate, albeit realistic, poses. It is thus that Degas is considered by many to have invented the modern nude.
No:41
Auguste Renoir
Blooming Chestnut Tree, 1881
oil on canvas
28 x 35 in
National Galerie, Berlin
The group of artists that came to be known as Impressionists were wary of issuing a manifesto or even choosing a name that would define their style of painting. Having rejected the aesthetics imposed by the Salon, they were unwilling to have their individual aims and methods circumscribed by theory. Auguste Renoir was particularly resistant: "DonÆt ask me whether art should be subjective or objective. I donÆt give a damn. You construct a theory, and nature knocks it down."
No:42
Alfred Sisley
Banks of the Loing at Saint-MammΦs, 1885
oil on canvas
Private Collection
Alfred Sisley was the son of a prosperous silk importer. In 1862, having failed in the family business in London, Sisley moved to Paris, where he enrolled in GleyreÆs studio and met Monet, Renoir, and Frederick Bazille. During the years before the war, Sisley and Bazille often supported their friends Monet and Renoir, who had little means to support themselves. However, during the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, SisleyÆs father lost his business. Sisley lived the rest of his life in poverty. Even when the public began to recognize the merits of Impressionism, SisleyÆs works sold for much less than those of his friends, despite the fact that his paintings were some of the most characteristically Impressionist of those produced by the group. Sisley died of throat cancer in 1899.
No:43
Auguste Renoir
Path Winding up through Tall Grass, ca. 1874
oil on canvas
23 x 29 in
MusΘe dÆOrsay, Paris
Renoir showed great versatility in his brushwork, and his paintings of the Impressionist period often include more than one style within a single work. Renoir continued to employ the rapidly applied, comma-like brushstrokes that he and Monet had originated at La GrenouillΦre in 1869, but he also used delicate strokes, carefully blended together. For example, in Path Winding up through Tall Grass, 1873, Renoir uses distinct strokes only to convey a sense of texture and delineation in the grass and flowers of the foreground. In the background, colors and strokes merge into one another and the paint is thinly applied, creating an illusion of distance.
No:44
Camille Pissarro
Landscape at Chaponval, 1880
oil on canvas
21 ╝ x 25 ╜ in
MusΘe dÆOrsay
Pissarro was renowned as a teacher and served as a mentor to the three painters who would transform art in the modern age--CΘzanne, Gauguin, and van Gogh. Each of these artists adopted Impressionist techniques through PissarroÆs influence. Although they used these techniques as a point of departure, Impressionism showed them new possibilities. CΘzanne, speaking of the Modernists, acknowledged their debt: "Perhaps we all come from Pissarro. As early as 1865, he eliminated black, dark browns, and ochres, this is a fact. Paint only with the three primary colors and their immediate derivatives, he told me." Clearly the great colorists, van Gogh and Gauguin, heeded the same advice. Van Gogh wrote in 1888, "What Pissarro says is true, you must either boldly exaggerate the effects of either harmony or discord which colors produce." Yet Pissarro was also open to new ideas, likewise acknowledging the influence of CΘzanne, Gauguin, and Seurat on his work. Landscape at Chaponval suggests the influence of CΘzanne, with its emphasis on geometrical forms.
No:45
Camille Pissarro
Plum Trees in Flower at Eragny, 1894
oil on canvas
24 x 29 in
Odrupgard Museum, Copenhagen
Pissarro was the only one of the Impressionists to participate in all eight of the exhibitions. At each show there was conflict over whose works should be solicited or included. Over the years, as the Impressionists continued to struggle for recognition, the dissension increased. In the first show, Pissarro had to argue at length to have CΘzanne included. Again, at the fourth, Pissarro fought for GauguinÆs inclusion. Renoir and Sisley dropped out of the fourth exhibition, submitting to the Salon instead. Monet followed suit at the fifth exhibition, citing the indiscriminate inclusion of "daubers" in the midst of what had been a kind of "church" of those faithful to the aims of Impressionism. PissarroÆs adoption of divisionist (pointillistic) technique in 1886, and his insistence that Georges Seurat be included in the eighth exhibition caused a definitive break within the group, indicated by the segregation of the "Neo-Impressionist" works (those of Seurat, Signac, and Pissarro) in a separate room. The program identified the contributors as "A Group of Independents." By 1890, Pissarro gave up the "scientific Impressionism" of the pointillists and returned to the spontaneity of his former technique.
No:46
Claude Monet
Water Lilies, 1908
oil on canvas
Monet painted the water lilies and the lily pond at Giverny hundreds of times over a 34 year period. To celebrate the Allied victory in World War I, Monet donated a series of the water lily paintings to the state, on the condition that they be displayed in a circle or oval, rather than in a line. However, Monet was unable to part with his Water Lilies, even after the Orangerie had been remodeled to accommodate them. In 1926, Monet died of lung cancer. His Water Lilies are on permanent exhibit at the Orangerie, an enduring testament to the beauty of MonetÆs last series.
No:47
Auguste Renoir
Gabrielle and Jean, 1895
oil on canvas
MusΘe de lÆOrangerie, Paris
Renoir was born in 1841, into the artisan class--his father was a tailor. He showed a talent for drawing at an early age and was apprenticed to a porcelain factory at 14, where he painted plates. Four years later, porcelain painting was mechanized, and Renoir moved on to other decorative arts--painting fans and wall hangings--in order to make a living. He also began taking classes at GleyreÆs studio in the Ecole des Beaux Arts (1862), where he met Monet, Sisley, and Frederick Bazille and joined them in open air painting excursions to the forests of Fontainbleau. By the time of the first exhibition of the Impressionists, Renoir had adopted or helped develop many of the techniques now considered characteristically Impressionistic--short comma-strokes of pure color, rapidly applied, and the concentration on light and shadow. Like his peers, he painted landscapes and scenes of bourgeois leisure. However, he also painted
portraits and interiors in a more conventional style. The delicate touch and fine brushwork that he had learned painting porcelain served him well for such scenes, and throughout his career he was acclaimed for his portraiture, particularly of women and children. In 1894, RenoirÆs second son Jean was born. Between 1895 and 1900 Renoir painted several portraits of Jean, who was often accompanied by Gabrielle, his wifeÆs cousin and JeanÆs nursemaid.
No:48
Berthe Morisot
Julie Manet with her Nurse, 1880
oil on canvas
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen
The Impressionists as a whole disavowed the mythological, historical, and religious subjects that the Academy of Fine Arts prescribed, turning instead to scenes from nature and everyday contemporary life. In doing so, they gave an unprecedented legitimacy to the only subjects bourgeois women had access to--scenes of domestic life and family outings. Berthe Morisot continued in the tradition of women artists who painted their mothers, sisters, and daughters going about their daily routines. On the other hand, her technique was often more radical even than that of her Impressionist colleagues--particularly in the looseness of her brushwork. These traits are evident in Julie Manet with Nursemaid, which she showed at the sixth group show.
No:49
Paul CΘzanne
LÆEstaque, 1882-85
oil on canvas
28 x 22 ╛ in
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
In 1871, Napoleon III declared war on Prussia. To avoid being drafted, CΘzanne left Paris and went to LÆEstaque, a fishing port fifteen miles from his hometown of Aix. The beauty of the town and the coastline provided a compelling subject for CΘzanne, one which he returned to frequently in his life. LÆEstaque and Gulf of Marseille Seen from LÆEstaque, completed between 1882 and 1885, show CΘzanneÆs growing interest in revealing the geometrical and enduring forms that lie beneath the surface "impression." It was through such methods that he hoped to "make of Impressionism something solid and durable." He succeeded instead in laying the foundation for Modern art.
No:50
Claude Monet
Corn Poppies Near VΘtheuil, 1879
oil on canvas
28 x 35 ╜ in
E. G. Buhrle Foundation, Zurich
"It is because I rediscovered and allowed intuitive and secret forces to predominate that I was able to identify with creation and become absorbed in it. My art is an act of faith, an act of love and humility." --Claude Monet
No:51
Paul CΘzanne
The Gulf of Marseille Seen from LÆEstaque, 1878
oil on canvas
MusΘe dÆOrsay, Paris
In 1871, Napoleon III declared war on Prussia. To avoid being drafted, CΘzanne left Paris and went to LÆEstaque, a fishing port fifteen miles from his hometown of Aix. The beauty of the town and the coastline provided a compelling subject for CΘzanne, one which he returned to frequently in his life. Gulf of Marseille Seen from LÆEstaque and LÆEstaque, completed between 1882 and 1885, show CΘzanneÆs growing interest in revealing the geometrical and enduring forms that lie beneath the surface "impression." It was through such methods that he hoped to "make of Impressionism something solid and durable." He succeeded instead in laying the foundation for Modern art.
No:52
Auguste Renoir
Dancing in Town, 1883
oil on canvas
71 x 35 ╜ in
MusΘe dÆOrsay
In 1881, Renoir took a trip to Italy, where he saw the works of Raphael at the Vatican and the ancient frescos at Pompeii, an experience that caused him to reconsider the Impressionist approach to painting, with its lack of line and often hazy forms. He recounted to Ambrose Vollard, "About 1883, a sort of break occurred in my work. I had got to the end of Impressionism and had reached the conclusion that I could neither paint nor draw." This assessment caused Renoir to forego the Impressionist preoccupation with light and return to an emphasis on line and composition. The subsequent three to four years entailed a shift to darker, colder colors and is characterized as his "harsh" period. Dancing in Town was one of three pictures of couples dancing that Renoir completed just before that shift. It is painted in a stylistic manner lacking the evocative detail and brushwork of his previous work.
No:53
Claude Monet
Camille in the Garden with Jean, 1873
oil on canvas
23 ╝ x 31 ╝ in
Collection Madame H. Anda-Bⁿhrle
Monet was among thirty artists that showed their works at the exhibition by the SociΘtΘ Anonyme des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs, Etc., later known as the first exhibition of the Impressionists. One of MonetÆs contributions, Impression--Sunrise, was featured in a satire of the exhibit by Louis Leroy, in which he repeatedly used the term "impression" to deride the paintings he saw. It was from MonetÆs title and LeroyÆs review that the new style of painting became known as "Impressionism." Monet was singled out by another critic too, who claimed that his paintings were "the most absurd daubs in that laughable collection of absurdities." Disappointed but not discouraged, Monet continued to paint in his increasingly distinctive style.
