Impressionism
Impressionism can be distinguished by its anti-academic approach to the hierarchy of subject matter and its interest in modern life and everyday subjects. In the city this included the leisure activities of the middle classes and the changing environment of Paris, or, in the suburban landscape, the modernity of railway bridges and encroaching industry, and a preference for the un-picturesque.
Claude Monet, Shadows on the Sea, Pourville, 1882. Oil on canvas, 57 x 80 cm. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.
Under the influence of scientific studies of colour and light and the evidence of their own eyes, the Impressionists began to abandon the tonal modelling of objects from dark to light in favour of the representation of objects and space through the juxtaposition and variation of colour. This emphasis on the separation of coloured marks, rather than their smooth blending, gave prime importance to the brushstroke, which gained in independence, spontaneity and expressive effect.
Their interest in a direct response to nature, the capturing of ephemeral effects of light and weather that was involved in plein-air painting led to a preference for smaller paintings that could be finished more quickly, though it should be said that much work was done in the studio. Their compositions were more relaxed and casual in their general feeling and sometimes influenced by Japanese woodcut prints with their cropping of figures, abrupt dislocations of space and flattened perspective.
Although the Impressionists exhibited their early works in the Salon, the mature development of their style led to increasing rejection and they began to rely on private clients, public auctions and the new dealers to provide outlets for their work. In 1874 they held their first independent exhibition, and there were to be a further seven, the last in 1886.
Edouard Manet (1832–1883), who was much admired by the Impressionists for his painting of modern life, believed that the Salon, despite his early rejections, was the proper arena for a serious painter. Although he came closer to the Impressionists in the 1870s, he never participated in any of their group exhibitions. One aspect of his technique, which linked him with them, was his rapid, gestural brushstrokes and lack of concern for accepted conventions of finish.
Edouard Manet , On the Beach: Suzanne and Eugène Manet at Berck, 1873. Oil on canvas, 60 x 73.5 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Donation Jean-Edouard du Brujeaud sous réserve d’usufruit, 1953
As a non-academic adolescent, the sixteen-year-old Manet sailed from Le Havre to Rio de Janeiro to explore a potential career in the French Navy. His skills as a draughtsman may have developed more successfully than his abilities as a seaman, but he came away from the experience with a feeling for the lives of mariners and their struggle with the elements.
The Manet family made three trips to the Channel coast, to Boulogne in 1864 and 1868, and to nearby Berck in 1873. His pictures of Boulogne harbour take in both the lives of the native fishermen as well as the activity of tourists waiting for the ferry boat to England. A frequent motif was the open sea, peopled by moving boats, expressed in rapidly drawn, incisive marks. Low Tide at Berck lacks this sense of movement, but shows how Manet’s feeling for the expanse of beach and sea combined with the apparently simple delineation of a few boats and a piece of driftwood can make a satisfying composition.
‘There is also a woman in the group, as is the case with all famous gangs. Her name is Berthe Morisot, and she is interesting to behold. In her, feminine grace is preserved amidst the frenzy of a mind in delirium.’
Albert Wolff, 1876
Berthe Morisot was that rare figure, a successful woman painter, admired by other artists and seen as a valued member of the Impressionist group, contributing to nearly every one of their exhibitions. She and her sister Edma showed such application and talent that their teacher, J.B.Guichard, felt bound to warn their mother of his fear that they might become professional artists. ‘In the upper class milieu to which you belong, this will be revolutionary, I might almost say catastrophic.’ The mother was undeterred and sent the sisters for further training with Camille Corot (1796–1875).
Morisot met Edouard Manet in 1868 and appeared in his painting The Balcony, which was followed by a large number of single-figure studies, until her marriage to Eugène in December 1874. While never a pupil of his, Morisot was influenced by Manet’s approach to painting and she was to make him more aware of the Impressionist understanding of colour and the practice of plein-air painting.
As an upper-class woman Morisot led a protected life without access to the contemporary urban subjects that attracted many of her fellow artists. Her preference for domestic subjects was reinforced by critics who tended to ignore her harbour scenes or boatyards in which her brushmarks show an astonishing independence and vitality.
[Morisot] ‘always painted standing up, walking back and forth before her canvas. She would stare at her subject for a long time (and her look was piercing), her hand ready to place her brushstrokes just where she wanted them.’
Monique Angoulvent
Pierre Auguste Renoir, Children on the Seashore, Guernsey, c.1883 Oil on canvas, 91.4 x 66.4 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Bequest of John T. Spaulding. Photo © 2007 Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) was largely a painter of the human figure, but landscape played an important role in his work, providing opportunity for experimentation in brushmark and colour, and frequently showing his awareness of the work of other artists. His admiration for Courbet’s wave paintings led him to take on the same theme, but with a tumbling, energetic application of paint that threatens to engulf the viewer and demonstrates his understanding of Monet’s sea paintings.
'Nothing is more attractive than the mixture of men and women crowded on these rocks. One would think oneself in a landscape by Watteau rather than in the real world.'
Auguste Renoir, 1883
This text is abridged from the Royal Academy Education Department's guide
Impressionists by the Sea: An Introduction to the Exhibition (712 KB)
, by Greg Harris.
