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Impressionism
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Impressionism
Claude Monet
Photo : CC0
It’s time to speak of Monet with an “O”.

This painter worked with a group of friends, including Auguste Renoir and Berthe Morisot. They wanted to shake up the art of their time, but official exhibitions refused to hang their paintings.

 

So, they decided to exhibit their works independently from formal galleries – a radical move for the time! Between 1874 and 1886, they held eight exhibitions.

 

These were the “Impressionist Exhibitions”. But what were the characteristics of this new movement?

Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise,
1872, oil on canvas, 1’7” x 2’1”, Marmottan Monet Museum, Paris
Berthe Morisot, A Summer’s Day,
1879, oil on canvas, 1’6” x 2’6”, National Gallery, London
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Dance at the Moulin de la Galette,
1876, oil on canvas, 12” x 5‘9”, Orsay Museum, Paris
Edgar Degas, Le Tub,
1886, pastel, 2’1” x 2’7”, Orsay Museum, Paris
Camille Pissarro, The Public Garden at Pontoise,
1877, oil on canvas, 5’5” x 4’1”, private collection

The artists were passionate about the effects of light.

Some of their work was painted outside, thanks to the invention of tubes of coloured paints.

They represent life in modern times.

They deal with subjects rarely painted before them, in this case prostitution.

They painted the simple pleasures of life.

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