Paintings by Monet, Degas and Renoir

The term 'Impressionist' was first used as an insult in response to an exhibition of new paintings in Paris in 1874. A diverse group of painters, rejected by the art establishment, defiantly set up their own exhibition. They included Monet, Renoir, Pissarro and Degas. What characterises Impressionism for most people nowadays, is both the subject matter and the technique. Today, the Impressionist paintings are some of the best-known and best-loved in the collection.

Impressionism - Art History Basics on Impressionism - 1869 to the Present Impressionism is about the nature of fugitive light falling on surfaces. This play of moving light, as opposed to stationary light, expresses the ephemeral quality of modernity. Impressionism is about the temporary, the here and now, and not about the timeless, the forever. Impressionism is about life lived in bursts of brief encounters in the city. It's about faster speeds, quickly moving clouds, sunshine reflected on water, and the shimmer of satin ribbons dangling from a baby's cradle. Above all, Impressionism is about modernity: its faster pace and various improvements in the quality of daily life. The artists who seemed to quickly jot down these instances of modern life were playfully dubbed "Impressionists" and their paintings became known as "Impressionism." However, the critics' nickname was not a compliment, for at this time "serious" artists blended their colors and minimized the appearance of brushstrokes to produce the "licked" surface preferred by the academic masters.

Task 1 When Impressionism Was a Dirty Word The Academic Tradition By the 19th century, the art world in France had been controlled for over two centuries by the powerful national art academy, the Royal Academy of Art. The origins of the Royal Academy of Art in France (in French, École des Beaux-Arts) go back to 1648 when it was founded by Cardinal Mazarin for King Louis XIV. The Academy was set up to train the most talented students in drawing, painting, sculpture, and architecture. Over time, it became a powerful organization that controlled both what was taught and what was exhibited in France. The curriculum required students to prove their skills with basic drawing tasks before advancing to figure drawing and painting. The Barbizon School A group of painters now known as the Barbizon artists, named for the region of France that they worked in, began to turn increasingly towards landscape as a subject matter, painting outdoors, or en plein air, directly from nature.

Japonisme | Thematic Essay The Old Plum, Edo period (1615–1868), ca. 1645Kano Sansetsu (Japanese, ca. 1589–1651)Four sliding door panels (fusuma); ink, color, gold leaf on paper H. 68 3/4 in. (174.6 cm)The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick and Louis V. After Japanese ports reopened to trade with the West in 1853, a tidal wave of foreign imports flooded European shores. Parisians saw their first formal exhibition of Japanese arts and crafts when Japan took a pavilion at the World's Fair of 1867. It is said that James Whistler discovered Japanese prints in a Chinese tearoom near London Bridge and that Claude Monet first came upon them used as wrapping paper in a spice shop in Holland. Degas' American friend Mary Cassatt (16.2.5), who declared that she "hated conventional art," found in Japanese woodcuts like those of Utamaro (JP1278) a fresh approach to the depiction of common events in women's lives.