So who are the impressionists’ favourite models? They might be a sister-in-law who’s an artist herself, children playing, women with parasols…
As we’ve already seen, these modern artists stand against academic painting: it’s no longer about depicting historical heroes or ancient deities! On the contrary; impressionist works feature realistic, familiar, everyday subjects.
And as it’s easier (and cheaper) to get your own family to pose for you than hire professional models, it’s members of the painters’ circle (especially their children) who are enlisted. Let’s invade their privacy for a moment…
The impressionists often use family members as their models.
As well as painting their children, several impressionist painters train them to become artists.
In all families, the birth of a child turns everyday life upside-down… If the parents are artists, it’s also reflected in their art!
The impressionist painters, including Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet and Berthe Morisot, regularly depict their babies in their works, reflecting the joys and challenges of parenthood alike.
As for Berthe Morisot, she paints her sister watching over her daughter with tenderness and a touch of melancholy. She keeps this cherished painting all her life!
Artists’ children become their parents’ models from the cradle onwards.
The impressionist painters also capture childhood’s happy times! Such charming subjects please their customer because they’re fleeting, symbolising the brevity of existence at a time when infant mortality is still high.
Monet sometimes depicts his garden as a place of freedom where children can have fun and develop their imaginations, while sometimes it symbolises the adult world, too big for them.
In this painting by Pissarro, a little girl is depicted alone, under the watchful eye of an adult.
If getting a lively child to pose proves challenging, Renoir has a solution! He could rely on Gabrielle, the children’s nanny, to keep Jean entertained with toys while he painted them.
Children’s games are fleeting moments captured by the impressionists.
The impressionist painters are also interested in adolescence, a delicate age marked by an emotional transition between childhood and adulthood. And the moments they capture once again fluctuate between joy and melancholy.
Berthe Morisot provides us with two visions of this period:
With Gustave Caillebotte, childhood is already a distant memory: hand on hip, the boy he’s depicted is striking an adult pose!
In impressionist works, the world of adolescence is alternately depicted in joyful and melancholy fashion.
One of these children is going to devote her life to impressionism: Julie Manet, Berthe Morisot’s daughter.
After all, the little girl lives in a world devoted to art: her mother, her uncle Manet and August Renoir paint her more than 70 times! She learns to handle brushes herself at a very early age, thanks to the lessons they give her.
As an adult, Julie Manet collects these modern artists’ works. And above all, she fights to get them recognised and exhibited in museums! By doing so, she ensures that her mother and her friends will never be forgotten…
Julie Manet was several painters’ favourite model and devoted her life to passing on the impressionist memory.
Meanwhile, the impressionists haven’t forgone professional models! But they aren’t turned into idealised figures frozen in static poses, as is the case with academic painters. Through their models, the moderns above all seek to study light and movement.
These two paintings bear witness to this. They depict Ellen Andrée, an actress and professional model who often sat for Renoir, Manet, Degas and other artists of the time.
Whatever their subjects, artists such as Degas and Renoir above all seek to study movement and light.
An episode produced under the academic supervision of Cyrille Sciama and adapted from his lecture “The Impressionist Adventure · The Models”.
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