The Lack of \"Finish\"<\/h2>\r\nPrior to Impressionism, most paintings had a \u201cfinished\u201d surface. These younger artists\u2019 completed works looked like sketches.\u00a0 And not even detailed sketches but the fast, preliminary \u201cimpressions\u201d that artists would dash off to preserve an idea of what to paint later. Normally, an artist\u2019s \u201cimpressions\u201d were not meant to be sold, but were meant to be aids for the memory\u2014to take these ideas back to the studio for the masterpiece on canvas. The critics thought it was insane to sell paintings that looked like slap-dash impressions and consider these paintings works \u201cfinished.\u201d\r\nLandscape and Contemporary Life (Not History Painting!)<\/h2>\r\nAlso\u2014Courbet, Manet and the Impressionists challenged the Academy\u2019s category codes. The Academy deemed that only \u201chistory painting\u201d was great painting. These young Realists and Impressionists opened the door to dismantling this hierarchy of subject matter. They believed that landscapes and genres scenes were worthy and important.\r\nColor<\/h2>\r\nIn their landscapes and genre scenes of contemporary life, the Impressionist artists tried to arrest a moment in their fast-paced lives by pinpointing specific atmospheric conditions\u2014light flickering on water, moving clouds, a burst of rain. Their technique tried to capture what they saw. They painted small commas of pure color one next to another. The viewer would stand at a reasonable distance so that the eye would mix the individual marks, thus blending the colors together optically. This method created more vibrant colors than those colors mixed on a palette. Becoming a team dedicated to this new,\u00a0 non-Academic painting gave them the courage to pursue the independent exhibition format\u2014a revolutionary idea of its own.\r\nLight<\/h2>\r\nAn important aspect of the Impressionist painting was the appearance of quickly shifting light on the surface. This sense of moving rapidly or quickly changing atmospheric conditions or living in a world that moves faster was also part of the Impressionist\u2019s criteria. They wanted to create an art that seemed modern: about contemporary life, about the fast pace of contemporary life, and about the sensation of seeing light change incessantly in the landscape. They painted outdoors (en plein air) to capture the appearance of the light as it really flickered and faded while they worked.\r\n\r\nMary Cassatt was an American who met Edgar Degas and was invited to join the group as they continued to mount independent exhibitions. By the 1880s, the Impressionist accepted the name the critics gave them. The American Mary Cassatt began to exhibition with the Impressionists in 1877.\u00a0For a very long time, the French refused to find the work worthy of praise. The Americans and other non-French collectors did. For this reason, the U.S. and other foreign collections own most of the Impressionist art.\r\nPost-Impressionism<\/h1>\r\nA group of artists inspired by the Impressionist movement came to be known as the Post-Impressionists. They were not a cohesive group of artists but the Metropolitan Museum describes them as \"breaking free of the naturalism of\u00a0Impressionism<\/a>\u00a0in the late 1880s, a group of young painters sought independent artistic styles for expressing emotions rather than simply optical impressions, concentrating on themes of deeper symbolism. Through the use of simplified colors and definitive forms, their art was characterized by a renewed aesthetic sense as well as abstract tendencies.\" The most well-known Post-Impressionist artists include Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, and Edvard Munch (pronounced \"moonk\").\r\n\r\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/719\/2015\/04\/05165236\/VanGogh-1024x824.jpg\")
\r\n<\/a>Vincent van Gogh.\u00a0The Bedroom<\/em>, 1889. Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris\r\n\r\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/719\/2015\/04\/05165315\/a-day-of-no-gods-1894.jpg\")
\r\nPaul Gaugin. Day of the God<\/em>\u00a0(Mahana No Atua) 1894.\r\nOil on canvas 26 7\/8 x 36 in. (68.3 x 91.5 cm)\r\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection, 1926.198.\r\n\r\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/719\/2015\/04\/05165539\/1200px-The_Scream-804x1024.jpg\")
\r\nEdvard Munch. The Scream<\/em> 1893, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Oslo.\r\nFauvism<\/h1>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n![](\"https:\/\/ka-perseus-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/5dfc880fd8a917b2a053d3b413f1b8fa928eb095.jpg\")
<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri\u00a0Matisse, The Green Line<\/em>, 1905, oil on canvas, 40.5 x 32.5 cm (Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nDistinctive brushwork<\/h3>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nFauvism developed in France to become the first new artistic style of the 20th century. In contrast to the dark, vaguely disturbing nature of much fin-de-si\u00e8cle, or turn-of-the-century, Symbolist art, the Fauves produced bright cheery landscapes and figure paintings, characterized by pure vivid color and bold distinctive brushwork.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\"Wild beasts\"<\/h3>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n![](\"https:\/\/ka-perseus-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/da3e058c0b3066d2e7d3d9f2579e6aa51f7f7d91.jpg\")
\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, Woman with a Hat<\/em>, 1905, oil on canvas, 79.4 x 59.7 cm (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nWhen shown at the 1905 Salon d\u2019Automne (an exhibition organized by artists in response to the conservative policies of the official exhibitions, or salons) in Paris, the contrast to traditional art was so striking it led critic Louis Vauxcelles to describe the artists as \u201cLes Fauves<\/em>\u201d or \u201cwild beasts,\u201d and thus the name was born.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOne of several Expressionist movements to emerge in the early 20th century, Fauvism was short lived, and by 1910, artists in the group had diverged toward more individual interests. Nevertheless, Fauvism remains signficant for it demonstrated modern art\u2019s ability to evoke intensely emotional reactions through radical visual form.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe expressive potential of color<\/h3>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe best known Fauve artists include Henri Matisse, Andr\u00e9 Derain, and Maurice Vlaminck who pioneered its distinctive style. Their early works reveal the influence of Post-Impressionist artists, especially Neo-Impressionists like Paul Signac, whose interest in color\u2019s optical effects had led to a divisionist method of juxtaposing pure hues on canvas. \u00a0The Fauves, however, lacked such scientific intent. They emphasized the expressive potential of color, employing it arbitrarily, not based on an object\u2019s natural appearance.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n![](\"https:\/\/ka-perseus-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/1de88a81909b102195b6f4b138710bdeb39b25a3.jpg\")
\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, Luxe, calme et volupt\u00e9<\/em>, 1904, oil on canvas, 98.5 x 118.5 cm (Muse\u00e9 d'Orsay, Paris)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nIn Luxe, calm et volupt\u00e9<\/em> (1904), for example, Matisse employed a pointillist style by applying paint in small dabs and dashes. \u00a0Instead of the subtle blending of complimentary colors typical of Neo-Impressionism Seurat, for example, the combination of firey oranges, yellows, greens and purple is almost overpowering in its vibrant impact.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSimilarly, while paintings such as Vlaminck\u2019s The River Seine at Chantou<\/em> (1906) appear to mimic the spontaneous, active brushwork of Impressionism, the Fauves adopted a painterly approach to enhance their work\u2019s emotional power, not to capture fleeting effects of color, light or atmosphere on their subjects. Their preference for landscapes, carefree figures and lighthearted subject matter reflects their desire to create an art that would appeal primarily to the viewers\u2019 senses.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n![](\"https:\/\/ka-perseus-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/8f798d8f2b87c775565fa8a1950007e30cc6c8de.png\")
\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMaurice de Vlaminck, The River Seine at Chatou<\/em>, 1906, oil on canvas, 82.6 x 101.9 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPaintings such as Matisse\u2019s Bonheur de Vivre<\/em> (1905-06) epitomize this goal. Bright colors and undulating lines pull our eye gently through the ideallic scene, encouraging us to imagine feeling the warmth of the sun, the cool of the grass, the soft touch of a caress, and the passion of a kiss.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nLike many modern artists, the Fauves also found inspiration in objects from Africa and other non-western cultures. Seen through a colonialist lens, the formal distinctions of African art reflected current notions of Primitivism\u2013the belief that, lacking the corrupting influence of European civilization, non-western peoples were more in tune with the primal elements of nature.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n![](\"https:\/\/ka-perseus-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/f92c44811b971c26cd39f1cbdb8db71aa55b933c.jpg\")
\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, Bonheur de Vivre (Joy of Life)<\/em>, 1905-6, oil on canvas, 176.5 x 240.7 cm\u00a0(Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBlue Nude (Souvenir of Biskra)<\/em> of 1907 shows how Matisse combined his traditional subject of the female nude with the influence of primitive sources. The woman\u2019s face appears mask-like in the use of strong outlines and harsh contrasts of light and dark, and the hard lines of her body recall the angled planar surfaces common to African sculpture. This distorted effect, further heightened by her contorted pose, clearly distinguishes the figure from the idealized odalisques of Ingres and painters of the past.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n![](\"https:\/\/ka-perseus-images.s3.amazonaws.com\/6f4f8bc42084791eb700de4a61a11813bf0c3074.jpg\")
\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, The Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra)<\/em>, 1907, oil on canvas, 92.1 x 140.3 cm\u00a0(Baltimore Museum of Art)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Fauves interest in Primitivism reinforced their reputation as \u201cwild beasts\u201d who sought new possibilities for art through their exploration of direct expression, impactful visual forms and instinctual appeal.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nEssay by Dr. Virginia B. Spivey<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"![\"Impression](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140215034723im_\/http:\/\/khan.smarthistory.org\/assets\/images\/images\/monet-impression-sunrise.jpg\" "\\"Impression")
<\/p>\nClaude Monet, Impression Sunrise, 1872 (exhibited at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Establishing Their Own Exhibitions\u2014Apart from the Salon<\/h2>\n
The group of artists who became known as the Impressionists did something ground-breaking, in addition to their sketchy, light-filled paintings. They established their own exhibition – apart from the annual salon. At that time, the salon was really the only way to exhibit your work (the work was chosen by a jury). Claude Monet, August Renoir, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley, and several other artists could not afford to wait for France to accept their work. They all had experienced rejection by the Salon jury in recent years and knew waiting a whole year in between each exhibition was no longer tenable. They needed to show their work and they wanted to sell it.<\/p>\n
So, in an attempt to get recognized outside of the official channel of the salon, these artists banded together and held their own exhibition. They pooled their money, rented a studio that belonged to the famous photographer Nadar and set a date for their first exhibition together. They called themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Printmakers. The show opened at about the same time as the annual Salon, May 1874. The Impressionists held eight exhibitions from 1874 through 1886.<\/p>\n
The decision was based on their frustration and their ambition to show the world their new, light-filled images.<\/p>\n
The impressionists regarded Manet as their inspiration and leader in their spirit of revolution, but Manet had no desire to join their cooperative venture into independent exhibitions. Manet had set up his own pavilion during the 1867 World\u2019s Fair, but he was not interested in giving up on the Salon jury. He wanted Paris to come to him and accept him\u2014even if he had to endure their ridicule in the process.<\/p>\n
Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Sisley had met through classes. Berthe Morisot was a friend of both Degas and Manet (she would marry \u00c9douard Manet\u2019s brother Eug\u00e8ne by the end of 1874). She had been accepted to the Salon, but her work had become more experimental since then. Degas invited Berthe to join their risky effort. The first exhibition did not repay them monetarily but it drew the critics who decided their art was abominable. It wasn\u2019t finished. They called it \u201cjust impressions.\u201d (And not in a complimentary way.)<\/p>\n
The Lack of “Finish”<\/h2>\n
Prior to Impressionism, most paintings had a \u201cfinished\u201d surface. These younger artists\u2019 completed works looked like sketches.\u00a0 And not even detailed sketches but the fast, preliminary \u201cimpressions\u201d that artists would dash off to preserve an idea of what to paint later. Normally, an artist\u2019s \u201cimpressions\u201d were not meant to be sold, but were meant to be aids for the memory\u2014to take these ideas back to the studio for the masterpiece on canvas. The critics thought it was insane to sell paintings that looked like slap-dash impressions and consider these paintings works \u201cfinished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Landscape and Contemporary Life (Not History Painting!)<\/h2>\n
Also\u2014Courbet, Manet and the Impressionists challenged the Academy\u2019s category codes. The Academy deemed that only \u201chistory painting\u201d was great painting. These young Realists and Impressionists opened the door to dismantling this hierarchy of subject matter. They believed that landscapes and genres scenes were worthy and important.<\/p>\n
Color<\/h2>\n
In their landscapes and genre scenes of contemporary life, the Impressionist artists tried to arrest a moment in their fast-paced lives by pinpointing specific atmospheric conditions\u2014light flickering on water, moving clouds, a burst of rain. Their technique tried to capture what they saw. They painted small commas of pure color one next to another. The viewer would stand at a reasonable distance so that the eye would mix the individual marks, thus blending the colors together optically. This method created more vibrant colors than those colors mixed on a palette. Becoming a team dedicated to this new,\u00a0 non-Academic painting gave them the courage to pursue the independent exhibition format\u2014a revolutionary idea of its own.<\/p>\n
Light<\/h2>\n
An important aspect of the Impressionist painting was the appearance of quickly shifting light on the surface. This sense of moving rapidly or quickly changing atmospheric conditions or living in a world that moves faster was also part of the Impressionist\u2019s criteria. They wanted to create an art that seemed modern: about contemporary life, about the fast pace of contemporary life, and about the sensation of seeing light change incessantly in the landscape. They painted outdoors (en plein air) to capture the appearance of the light as it really flickered and faded while they worked.<\/p>\n
Mary Cassatt was an American who met Edgar Degas and was invited to join the group as they continued to mount independent exhibitions. By the 1880s, the Impressionist accepted the name the critics gave them. The American Mary Cassatt began to exhibition with the Impressionists in 1877.\u00a0For a very long time, the French refused to find the work worthy of praise. The Americans and other non-French collectors did. For this reason, the U.S. and other foreign collections own most of the Impressionist art.<\/p>\n
Post-Impressionism<\/h1>\n
A group of artists inspired by the Impressionist movement came to be known as the Post-Impressionists. They were not a cohesive group of artists but the Metropolitan Museum describes them as “breaking free of the naturalism of\u00a0Impressionism<\/a>\u00a0in the late 1880s, a group of young painters sought independent artistic styles for expressing emotions rather than simply optical impressions, concentrating on themes of deeper symbolism. Through the use of simplified colors and definitive forms, their art was characterized by a renewed aesthetic sense as well as abstract tendencies.” The most well-known Post-Impressionist artists include Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, and Edvard Munch (pronounced “moonk”).<\/p>\n
Color<\/h2>\r\nIn their landscapes and genre scenes of contemporary life, the Impressionist artists tried to arrest a moment in their fast-paced lives by pinpointing specific atmospheric conditions\u2014light flickering on water, moving clouds, a burst of rain. Their technique tried to capture what they saw. They painted small commas of pure color one next to another. The viewer would stand at a reasonable distance so that the eye would mix the individual marks, thus blending the colors together optically. This method created more vibrant colors than those colors mixed on a palette. Becoming a team dedicated to this new,\u00a0 non-Academic painting gave them the courage to pursue the independent exhibition format\u2014a revolutionary idea of its own.\r\nLight<\/h2>\r\nAn important aspect of the Impressionist painting was the appearance of quickly shifting light on the surface. This sense of moving rapidly or quickly changing atmospheric conditions or living in a world that moves faster was also part of the Impressionist\u2019s criteria. They wanted to create an art that seemed modern: about contemporary life, about the fast pace of contemporary life, and about the sensation of seeing light change incessantly in the landscape. They painted outdoors (en plein air) to capture the appearance of the light as it really flickered and faded while they worked.\r\n\r\nMary Cassatt was an American who met Edgar Degas and was invited to join the group as they continued to mount independent exhibitions. By the 1880s, the Impressionist accepted the name the critics gave them. The American Mary Cassatt began to exhibition with the Impressionists in 1877.\u00a0For a very long time, the French refused to find the work worthy of praise. The Americans and other non-French collectors did. For this reason, the U.S. and other foreign collections own most of the Impressionist art.\r\nPost-Impressionism<\/h1>\r\nA group of artists inspired by the Impressionist movement came to be known as the Post-Impressionists. They were not a cohesive group of artists but the Metropolitan Museum describes them as \"breaking free of the naturalism of\u00a0Impressionism<\/a>\u00a0in the late 1880s, a group of young painters sought independent artistic styles for expressing emotions rather than simply optical impressions, concentrating on themes of deeper symbolism. Through the use of simplified colors and definitive forms, their art was characterized by a renewed aesthetic sense as well as abstract tendencies.\" The most well-known Post-Impressionist artists include Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, and Edvard Munch (pronounced \"moonk\").\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/a>Vincent van Gogh.\u00a0The Bedroom<\/em>, 1889. Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris\r\n\r\n\r\nPaul Gaugin. Day of the God<\/em>\u00a0(Mahana No Atua) 1894.\r\nOil on canvas 26 7\/8 x 36 in. (68.3 x 91.5 cm)\r\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection, 1926.198.\r\n\r\n\r\nEdvard Munch. The Scream<\/em> 1893, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Oslo.\r\nFauvism<\/h1>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri\u00a0Matisse, The Green Line<\/em>, 1905, oil on canvas, 40.5 x 32.5 cm (Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nDistinctive brushwork<\/h3>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nFauvism developed in France to become the first new artistic style of the 20th century. In contrast to the dark, vaguely disturbing nature of much fin-de-si\u00e8cle, or turn-of-the-century, Symbolist art, the Fauves produced bright cheery landscapes and figure paintings, characterized by pure vivid color and bold distinctive brushwork.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\"Wild beasts\"<\/h3>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, Woman with a Hat<\/em>, 1905, oil on canvas, 79.4 x 59.7 cm (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nWhen shown at the 1905 Salon d\u2019Automne (an exhibition organized by artists in response to the conservative policies of the official exhibitions, or salons) in Paris, the contrast to traditional art was so striking it led critic Louis Vauxcelles to describe the artists as \u201cLes Fauves<\/em>\u201d or \u201cwild beasts,\u201d and thus the name was born.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOne of several Expressionist movements to emerge in the early 20th century, Fauvism was short lived, and by 1910, artists in the group had diverged toward more individual interests. Nevertheless, Fauvism remains signficant for it demonstrated modern art\u2019s ability to evoke intensely emotional reactions through radical visual form.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe expressive potential of color<\/h3>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe best known Fauve artists include Henri Matisse, Andr\u00e9 Derain, and Maurice Vlaminck who pioneered its distinctive style. Their early works reveal the influence of Post-Impressionist artists, especially Neo-Impressionists like Paul Signac, whose interest in color\u2019s optical effects had led to a divisionist method of juxtaposing pure hues on canvas. \u00a0The Fauves, however, lacked such scientific intent. They emphasized the expressive potential of color, employing it arbitrarily, not based on an object\u2019s natural appearance.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, Luxe, calme et volupt\u00e9<\/em>, 1904, oil on canvas, 98.5 x 118.5 cm (Muse\u00e9 d'Orsay, Paris)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nIn Luxe, calm et volupt\u00e9<\/em> (1904), for example, Matisse employed a pointillist style by applying paint in small dabs and dashes. \u00a0Instead of the subtle blending of complimentary colors typical of Neo-Impressionism Seurat, for example, the combination of firey oranges, yellows, greens and purple is almost overpowering in its vibrant impact.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSimilarly, while paintings such as Vlaminck\u2019s The River Seine at Chantou<\/em> (1906) appear to mimic the spontaneous, active brushwork of Impressionism, the Fauves adopted a painterly approach to enhance their work\u2019s emotional power, not to capture fleeting effects of color, light or atmosphere on their subjects. Their preference for landscapes, carefree figures and lighthearted subject matter reflects their desire to create an art that would appeal primarily to the viewers\u2019 senses.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMaurice de Vlaminck, The River Seine at Chatou<\/em>, 1906, oil on canvas, 82.6 x 101.9 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPaintings such as Matisse\u2019s Bonheur de Vivre<\/em> (1905-06) epitomize this goal. Bright colors and undulating lines pull our eye gently through the ideallic scene, encouraging us to imagine feeling the warmth of the sun, the cool of the grass, the soft touch of a caress, and the passion of a kiss.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nLike many modern artists, the Fauves also found inspiration in objects from Africa and other non-western cultures. Seen through a colonialist lens, the formal distinctions of African art reflected current notions of Primitivism\u2013the belief that, lacking the corrupting influence of European civilization, non-western peoples were more in tune with the primal elements of nature.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, Bonheur de Vivre (Joy of Life)<\/em>, 1905-6, oil on canvas, 176.5 x 240.7 cm\u00a0(Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBlue Nude (Souvenir of Biskra)<\/em> of 1907 shows how Matisse combined his traditional subject of the female nude with the influence of primitive sources. The woman\u2019s face appears mask-like in the use of strong outlines and harsh contrasts of light and dark, and the hard lines of her body recall the angled planar surfaces common to African sculpture. This distorted effect, further heightened by her contorted pose, clearly distinguishes the figure from the idealized odalisques of Ingres and painters of the past.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, The Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra)<\/em>, 1907, oil on canvas, 92.1 x 140.3 cm\u00a0(Baltimore Museum of Art)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Fauves interest in Primitivism reinforced their reputation as \u201cwild beasts\u201d who sought new possibilities for art through their exploration of direct expression, impactful visual forms and instinctual appeal.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nEssay by Dr. Virginia B. Spivey<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<\/p>\nClaude Monet, Impression Sunrise, 1872 (exhibited at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Establishing Their Own Exhibitions\u2014Apart from the Salon<\/h2>\n
The group of artists who became known as the Impressionists did something ground-breaking, in addition to their sketchy, light-filled paintings. They established their own exhibition – apart from the annual salon. At that time, the salon was really the only way to exhibit your work (the work was chosen by a jury). Claude Monet, August Renoir, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley, and several other artists could not afford to wait for France to accept their work. They all had experienced rejection by the Salon jury in recent years and knew waiting a whole year in between each exhibition was no longer tenable. They needed to show their work and they wanted to sell it.<\/p>\n
So, in an attempt to get recognized outside of the official channel of the salon, these artists banded together and held their own exhibition. They pooled their money, rented a studio that belonged to the famous photographer Nadar and set a date for their first exhibition together. They called themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Printmakers. The show opened at about the same time as the annual Salon, May 1874. The Impressionists held eight exhibitions from 1874 through 1886.<\/p>\n
The decision was based on their frustration and their ambition to show the world their new, light-filled images.<\/p>\n
The impressionists regarded Manet as their inspiration and leader in their spirit of revolution, but Manet had no desire to join their cooperative venture into independent exhibitions. Manet had set up his own pavilion during the 1867 World\u2019s Fair, but he was not interested in giving up on the Salon jury. He wanted Paris to come to him and accept him\u2014even if he had to endure their ridicule in the process.<\/p>\n
Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Sisley had met through classes. Berthe Morisot was a friend of both Degas and Manet (she would marry \u00c9douard Manet\u2019s brother Eug\u00e8ne by the end of 1874). She had been accepted to the Salon, but her work had become more experimental since then. Degas invited Berthe to join their risky effort. The first exhibition did not repay them monetarily but it drew the critics who decided their art was abominable. It wasn\u2019t finished. They called it \u201cjust impressions.\u201d (And not in a complimentary way.)<\/p>\n
The Lack of “Finish”<\/h2>\n
Prior to Impressionism, most paintings had a \u201cfinished\u201d surface. These younger artists\u2019 completed works looked like sketches.\u00a0 And not even detailed sketches but the fast, preliminary \u201cimpressions\u201d that artists would dash off to preserve an idea of what to paint later. Normally, an artist\u2019s \u201cimpressions\u201d were not meant to be sold, but were meant to be aids for the memory\u2014to take these ideas back to the studio for the masterpiece on canvas. The critics thought it was insane to sell paintings that looked like slap-dash impressions and consider these paintings works \u201cfinished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Landscape and Contemporary Life (Not History Painting!)<\/h2>\n
Also\u2014Courbet, Manet and the Impressionists challenged the Academy\u2019s category codes. The Academy deemed that only \u201chistory painting\u201d was great painting. These young Realists and Impressionists opened the door to dismantling this hierarchy of subject matter. They believed that landscapes and genres scenes were worthy and important.<\/p>\n
Color<\/h2>\n
In their landscapes and genre scenes of contemporary life, the Impressionist artists tried to arrest a moment in their fast-paced lives by pinpointing specific atmospheric conditions\u2014light flickering on water, moving clouds, a burst of rain. Their technique tried to capture what they saw. They painted small commas of pure color one next to another. The viewer would stand at a reasonable distance so that the eye would mix the individual marks, thus blending the colors together optically. This method created more vibrant colors than those colors mixed on a palette. Becoming a team dedicated to this new,\u00a0 non-Academic painting gave them the courage to pursue the independent exhibition format\u2014a revolutionary idea of its own.<\/p>\n
Light<\/h2>\n
An important aspect of the Impressionist painting was the appearance of quickly shifting light on the surface. This sense of moving rapidly or quickly changing atmospheric conditions or living in a world that moves faster was also part of the Impressionist\u2019s criteria. They wanted to create an art that seemed modern: about contemporary life, about the fast pace of contemporary life, and about the sensation of seeing light change incessantly in the landscape. They painted outdoors (en plein air) to capture the appearance of the light as it really flickered and faded while they worked.<\/p>\n
Mary Cassatt was an American who met Edgar Degas and was invited to join the group as they continued to mount independent exhibitions. By the 1880s, the Impressionist accepted the name the critics gave them. The American Mary Cassatt began to exhibition with the Impressionists in 1877.\u00a0For a very long time, the French refused to find the work worthy of praise. The Americans and other non-French collectors did. For this reason, the U.S. and other foreign collections own most of the Impressionist art.<\/p>\n
Post-Impressionism<\/h1>\n
A group of artists inspired by the Impressionist movement came to be known as the Post-Impressionists. They were not a cohesive group of artists but the Metropolitan Museum describes them as “breaking free of the naturalism of\u00a0Impressionism<\/a>\u00a0in the late 1880s, a group of young painters sought independent artistic styles for expressing emotions rather than simply optical impressions, concentrating on themes of deeper symbolism. Through the use of simplified colors and definitive forms, their art was characterized by a renewed aesthetic sense as well as abstract tendencies.” The most well-known Post-Impressionist artists include Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, and Edvard Munch (pronounced “moonk”).<\/p>\n
Post-Impressionism<\/h1>\r\nA group of artists inspired by the Impressionist movement came to be known as the Post-Impressionists. They were not a cohesive group of artists but the Metropolitan Museum describes them as \"breaking free of the naturalism of\u00a0Impressionism<\/a>\u00a0in the late 1880s, a group of young painters sought independent artistic styles for expressing emotions rather than simply optical impressions, concentrating on themes of deeper symbolism. Through the use of simplified colors and definitive forms, their art was characterized by a renewed aesthetic sense as well as abstract tendencies.\" The most well-known Post-Impressionist artists include Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, and Edvard Munch (pronounced \"moonk\").\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/a>Vincent van Gogh.\u00a0The Bedroom<\/em>, 1889. Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris\r\n\r\n\r\nPaul Gaugin. Day of the God<\/em>\u00a0(Mahana No Atua) 1894.\r\nOil on canvas 26 7\/8 x 36 in. (68.3 x 91.5 cm)\r\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection, 1926.198.\r\n\r\n\r\nEdvard Munch. The Scream<\/em> 1893, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Oslo.\r\nFauvism<\/h1>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri\u00a0Matisse, The Green Line<\/em>, 1905, oil on canvas, 40.5 x 32.5 cm (Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nDistinctive brushwork<\/h3>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nFauvism developed in France to become the first new artistic style of the 20th century. In contrast to the dark, vaguely disturbing nature of much fin-de-si\u00e8cle, or turn-of-the-century, Symbolist art, the Fauves produced bright cheery landscapes and figure paintings, characterized by pure vivid color and bold distinctive brushwork.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\"Wild beasts\"<\/h3>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, Woman with a Hat<\/em>, 1905, oil on canvas, 79.4 x 59.7 cm (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nWhen shown at the 1905 Salon d\u2019Automne (an exhibition organized by artists in response to the conservative policies of the official exhibitions, or salons) in Paris, the contrast to traditional art was so striking it led critic Louis Vauxcelles to describe the artists as \u201cLes Fauves<\/em>\u201d or \u201cwild beasts,\u201d and thus the name was born.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOne of several Expressionist movements to emerge in the early 20th century, Fauvism was short lived, and by 1910, artists in the group had diverged toward more individual interests. Nevertheless, Fauvism remains signficant for it demonstrated modern art\u2019s ability to evoke intensely emotional reactions through radical visual form.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe expressive potential of color<\/h3>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe best known Fauve artists include Henri Matisse, Andr\u00e9 Derain, and Maurice Vlaminck who pioneered its distinctive style. Their early works reveal the influence of Post-Impressionist artists, especially Neo-Impressionists like Paul Signac, whose interest in color\u2019s optical effects had led to a divisionist method of juxtaposing pure hues on canvas. \u00a0The Fauves, however, lacked such scientific intent. They emphasized the expressive potential of color, employing it arbitrarily, not based on an object\u2019s natural appearance.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, Luxe, calme et volupt\u00e9<\/em>, 1904, oil on canvas, 98.5 x 118.5 cm (Muse\u00e9 d'Orsay, Paris)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nIn Luxe, calm et volupt\u00e9<\/em> (1904), for example, Matisse employed a pointillist style by applying paint in small dabs and dashes. \u00a0Instead of the subtle blending of complimentary colors typical of Neo-Impressionism Seurat, for example, the combination of firey oranges, yellows, greens and purple is almost overpowering in its vibrant impact.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSimilarly, while paintings such as Vlaminck\u2019s The River Seine at Chantou<\/em> (1906) appear to mimic the spontaneous, active brushwork of Impressionism, the Fauves adopted a painterly approach to enhance their work\u2019s emotional power, not to capture fleeting effects of color, light or atmosphere on their subjects. Their preference for landscapes, carefree figures and lighthearted subject matter reflects their desire to create an art that would appeal primarily to the viewers\u2019 senses.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMaurice de Vlaminck, The River Seine at Chatou<\/em>, 1906, oil on canvas, 82.6 x 101.9 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPaintings such as Matisse\u2019s Bonheur de Vivre<\/em> (1905-06) epitomize this goal. Bright colors and undulating lines pull our eye gently through the ideallic scene, encouraging us to imagine feeling the warmth of the sun, the cool of the grass, the soft touch of a caress, and the passion of a kiss.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nLike many modern artists, the Fauves also found inspiration in objects from Africa and other non-western cultures. Seen through a colonialist lens, the formal distinctions of African art reflected current notions of Primitivism\u2013the belief that, lacking the corrupting influence of European civilization, non-western peoples were more in tune with the primal elements of nature.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, Bonheur de Vivre (Joy of Life)<\/em>, 1905-6, oil on canvas, 176.5 x 240.7 cm\u00a0(Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBlue Nude (Souvenir of Biskra)<\/em> of 1907 shows how Matisse combined his traditional subject of the female nude with the influence of primitive sources. The woman\u2019s face appears mask-like in the use of strong outlines and harsh contrasts of light and dark, and the hard lines of her body recall the angled planar surfaces common to African sculpture. This distorted effect, further heightened by her contorted pose, clearly distinguishes the figure from the idealized odalisques of Ingres and painters of the past.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, The Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra)<\/em>, 1907, oil on canvas, 92.1 x 140.3 cm\u00a0(Baltimore Museum of Art)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Fauves interest in Primitivism reinforced their reputation as \u201cwild beasts\u201d who sought new possibilities for art through their exploration of direct expression, impactful visual forms and instinctual appeal.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nEssay by Dr. Virginia B. Spivey<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<\/p>\nClaude Monet, Impression Sunrise, 1872 (exhibited at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Establishing Their Own Exhibitions\u2014Apart from the Salon<\/h2>\n
The group of artists who became known as the Impressionists did something ground-breaking, in addition to their sketchy, light-filled paintings. They established their own exhibition – apart from the annual salon. At that time, the salon was really the only way to exhibit your work (the work was chosen by a jury). Claude Monet, August Renoir, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley, and several other artists could not afford to wait for France to accept their work. They all had experienced rejection by the Salon jury in recent years and knew waiting a whole year in between each exhibition was no longer tenable. They needed to show their work and they wanted to sell it.<\/p>\n
So, in an attempt to get recognized outside of the official channel of the salon, these artists banded together and held their own exhibition. They pooled their money, rented a studio that belonged to the famous photographer Nadar and set a date for their first exhibition together. They called themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Printmakers. The show opened at about the same time as the annual Salon, May 1874. The Impressionists held eight exhibitions from 1874 through 1886.<\/p>\n
The decision was based on their frustration and their ambition to show the world their new, light-filled images.<\/p>\n
The impressionists regarded Manet as their inspiration and leader in their spirit of revolution, but Manet had no desire to join their cooperative venture into independent exhibitions. Manet had set up his own pavilion during the 1867 World\u2019s Fair, but he was not interested in giving up on the Salon jury. He wanted Paris to come to him and accept him\u2014even if he had to endure their ridicule in the process.<\/p>\n
Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Sisley had met through classes. Berthe Morisot was a friend of both Degas and Manet (she would marry \u00c9douard Manet\u2019s brother Eug\u00e8ne by the end of 1874). She had been accepted to the Salon, but her work had become more experimental since then. Degas invited Berthe to join their risky effort. The first exhibition did not repay them monetarily but it drew the critics who decided their art was abominable. It wasn\u2019t finished. They called it \u201cjust impressions.\u201d (And not in a complimentary way.)<\/p>\n
The Lack of “Finish”<\/h2>\n
Prior to Impressionism, most paintings had a \u201cfinished\u201d surface. These younger artists\u2019 completed works looked like sketches.\u00a0 And not even detailed sketches but the fast, preliminary \u201cimpressions\u201d that artists would dash off to preserve an idea of what to paint later. Normally, an artist\u2019s \u201cimpressions\u201d were not meant to be sold, but were meant to be aids for the memory\u2014to take these ideas back to the studio for the masterpiece on canvas. The critics thought it was insane to sell paintings that looked like slap-dash impressions and consider these paintings works \u201cfinished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Landscape and Contemporary Life (Not History Painting!)<\/h2>\n
Also\u2014Courbet, Manet and the Impressionists challenged the Academy\u2019s category codes. The Academy deemed that only \u201chistory painting\u201d was great painting. These young Realists and Impressionists opened the door to dismantling this hierarchy of subject matter. They believed that landscapes and genres scenes were worthy and important.<\/p>\n
Color<\/h2>\n
In their landscapes and genre scenes of contemporary life, the Impressionist artists tried to arrest a moment in their fast-paced lives by pinpointing specific atmospheric conditions\u2014light flickering on water, moving clouds, a burst of rain. Their technique tried to capture what they saw. They painted small commas of pure color one next to another. The viewer would stand at a reasonable distance so that the eye would mix the individual marks, thus blending the colors together optically. This method created more vibrant colors than those colors mixed on a palette. Becoming a team dedicated to this new,\u00a0 non-Academic painting gave them the courage to pursue the independent exhibition format\u2014a revolutionary idea of its own.<\/p>\n
Light<\/h2>\n
An important aspect of the Impressionist painting was the appearance of quickly shifting light on the surface. This sense of moving rapidly or quickly changing atmospheric conditions or living in a world that moves faster was also part of the Impressionist\u2019s criteria. They wanted to create an art that seemed modern: about contemporary life, about the fast pace of contemporary life, and about the sensation of seeing light change incessantly in the landscape. They painted outdoors (en plein air) to capture the appearance of the light as it really flickered and faded while they worked.<\/p>\n
Mary Cassatt was an American who met Edgar Degas and was invited to join the group as they continued to mount independent exhibitions. By the 1880s, the Impressionist accepted the name the critics gave them. The American Mary Cassatt began to exhibition with the Impressionists in 1877.\u00a0For a very long time, the French refused to find the work worthy of praise. The Americans and other non-French collectors did. For this reason, the U.S. and other foreign collections own most of the Impressionist art.<\/p>\n
Post-Impressionism<\/h1>\n
A group of artists inspired by the Impressionist movement came to be known as the Post-Impressionists. They were not a cohesive group of artists but the Metropolitan Museum describes them as “breaking free of the naturalism of\u00a0Impressionism<\/a>\u00a0in the late 1880s, a group of young painters sought independent artistic styles for expressing emotions rather than simply optical impressions, concentrating on themes of deeper symbolism. Through the use of simplified colors and definitive forms, their art was characterized by a renewed aesthetic sense as well as abstract tendencies.” The most well-known Post-Impressionist artists include Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, and Edvard Munch (pronounced “moonk”).<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/719\/2015\/04\/05165236\/VanGogh.jpg\")
<\/div>\r\nDistinctive brushwork<\/h3>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nFauvism developed in France to become the first new artistic style of the 20th century. In contrast to the dark, vaguely disturbing nature of much fin-de-si\u00e8cle, or turn-of-the-century, Symbolist art, the Fauves produced bright cheery landscapes and figure paintings, characterized by pure vivid color and bold distinctive brushwork.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\"Wild beasts\"<\/h3>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, Woman with a Hat<\/em>, 1905, oil on canvas, 79.4 x 59.7 cm (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nWhen shown at the 1905 Salon d\u2019Automne (an exhibition organized by artists in response to the conservative policies of the official exhibitions, or salons) in Paris, the contrast to traditional art was so striking it led critic Louis Vauxcelles to describe the artists as \u201cLes Fauves<\/em>\u201d or \u201cwild beasts,\u201d and thus the name was born.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOne of several Expressionist movements to emerge in the early 20th century, Fauvism was short lived, and by 1910, artists in the group had diverged toward more individual interests. Nevertheless, Fauvism remains signficant for it demonstrated modern art\u2019s ability to evoke intensely emotional reactions through radical visual form.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe expressive potential of color<\/h3>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe best known Fauve artists include Henri Matisse, Andr\u00e9 Derain, and Maurice Vlaminck who pioneered its distinctive style. Their early works reveal the influence of Post-Impressionist artists, especially Neo-Impressionists like Paul Signac, whose interest in color\u2019s optical effects had led to a divisionist method of juxtaposing pure hues on canvas. \u00a0The Fauves, however, lacked such scientific intent. They emphasized the expressive potential of color, employing it arbitrarily, not based on an object\u2019s natural appearance.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, Luxe, calme et volupt\u00e9<\/em>, 1904, oil on canvas, 98.5 x 118.5 cm (Muse\u00e9 d'Orsay, Paris)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nIn Luxe, calm et volupt\u00e9<\/em> (1904), for example, Matisse employed a pointillist style by applying paint in small dabs and dashes. \u00a0Instead of the subtle blending of complimentary colors typical of Neo-Impressionism Seurat, for example, the combination of firey oranges, yellows, greens and purple is almost overpowering in its vibrant impact.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSimilarly, while paintings such as Vlaminck\u2019s The River Seine at Chantou<\/em> (1906) appear to mimic the spontaneous, active brushwork of Impressionism, the Fauves adopted a painterly approach to enhance their work\u2019s emotional power, not to capture fleeting effects of color, light or atmosphere on their subjects. Their preference for landscapes, carefree figures and lighthearted subject matter reflects their desire to create an art that would appeal primarily to the viewers\u2019 senses.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMaurice de Vlaminck, The River Seine at Chatou<\/em>, 1906, oil on canvas, 82.6 x 101.9 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPaintings such as Matisse\u2019s Bonheur de Vivre<\/em> (1905-06) epitomize this goal. Bright colors and undulating lines pull our eye gently through the ideallic scene, encouraging us to imagine feeling the warmth of the sun, the cool of the grass, the soft touch of a caress, and the passion of a kiss.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nLike many modern artists, the Fauves also found inspiration in objects from Africa and other non-western cultures. Seen through a colonialist lens, the formal distinctions of African art reflected current notions of Primitivism\u2013the belief that, lacking the corrupting influence of European civilization, non-western peoples were more in tune with the primal elements of nature.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, Bonheur de Vivre (Joy of Life)<\/em>, 1905-6, oil on canvas, 176.5 x 240.7 cm\u00a0(Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBlue Nude (Souvenir of Biskra)<\/em> of 1907 shows how Matisse combined his traditional subject of the female nude with the influence of primitive sources. The woman\u2019s face appears mask-like in the use of strong outlines and harsh contrasts of light and dark, and the hard lines of her body recall the angled planar surfaces common to African sculpture. This distorted effect, further heightened by her contorted pose, clearly distinguishes the figure from the idealized odalisques of Ingres and painters of the past.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, The Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra)<\/em>, 1907, oil on canvas, 92.1 x 140.3 cm\u00a0(Baltimore Museum of Art)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Fauves interest in Primitivism reinforced their reputation as \u201cwild beasts\u201d who sought new possibilities for art through their exploration of direct expression, impactful visual forms and instinctual appeal.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nEssay by Dr. Virginia B. Spivey<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<\/p>\nClaude Monet, Impression Sunrise, 1872 (exhibited at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Establishing Their Own Exhibitions\u2014Apart from the Salon<\/h2>\n
The group of artists who became known as the Impressionists did something ground-breaking, in addition to their sketchy, light-filled paintings. They established their own exhibition – apart from the annual salon. At that time, the salon was really the only way to exhibit your work (the work was chosen by a jury). Claude Monet, August Renoir, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley, and several other artists could not afford to wait for France to accept their work. They all had experienced rejection by the Salon jury in recent years and knew waiting a whole year in between each exhibition was no longer tenable. They needed to show their work and they wanted to sell it.<\/p>\n
So, in an attempt to get recognized outside of the official channel of the salon, these artists banded together and held their own exhibition. They pooled their money, rented a studio that belonged to the famous photographer Nadar and set a date for their first exhibition together. They called themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Printmakers. The show opened at about the same time as the annual Salon, May 1874. The Impressionists held eight exhibitions from 1874 through 1886.<\/p>\n
The decision was based on their frustration and their ambition to show the world their new, light-filled images.<\/p>\n
The impressionists regarded Manet as their inspiration and leader in their spirit of revolution, but Manet had no desire to join their cooperative venture into independent exhibitions. Manet had set up his own pavilion during the 1867 World\u2019s Fair, but he was not interested in giving up on the Salon jury. He wanted Paris to come to him and accept him\u2014even if he had to endure their ridicule in the process.<\/p>\n
Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Sisley had met through classes. Berthe Morisot was a friend of both Degas and Manet (she would marry \u00c9douard Manet\u2019s brother Eug\u00e8ne by the end of 1874). She had been accepted to the Salon, but her work had become more experimental since then. Degas invited Berthe to join their risky effort. The first exhibition did not repay them monetarily but it drew the critics who decided their art was abominable. It wasn\u2019t finished. They called it \u201cjust impressions.\u201d (And not in a complimentary way.)<\/p>\n
The Lack of “Finish”<\/h2>\n
Prior to Impressionism, most paintings had a \u201cfinished\u201d surface. These younger artists\u2019 completed works looked like sketches.\u00a0 And not even detailed sketches but the fast, preliminary \u201cimpressions\u201d that artists would dash off to preserve an idea of what to paint later. Normally, an artist\u2019s \u201cimpressions\u201d were not meant to be sold, but were meant to be aids for the memory\u2014to take these ideas back to the studio for the masterpiece on canvas. The critics thought it was insane to sell paintings that looked like slap-dash impressions and consider these paintings works \u201cfinished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Landscape and Contemporary Life (Not History Painting!)<\/h2>\n
Also\u2014Courbet, Manet and the Impressionists challenged the Academy\u2019s category codes. The Academy deemed that only \u201chistory painting\u201d was great painting. These young Realists and Impressionists opened the door to dismantling this hierarchy of subject matter. They believed that landscapes and genres scenes were worthy and important.<\/p>\n
Color<\/h2>\n
In their landscapes and genre scenes of contemporary life, the Impressionist artists tried to arrest a moment in their fast-paced lives by pinpointing specific atmospheric conditions\u2014light flickering on water, moving clouds, a burst of rain. Their technique tried to capture what they saw. They painted small commas of pure color one next to another. The viewer would stand at a reasonable distance so that the eye would mix the individual marks, thus blending the colors together optically. This method created more vibrant colors than those colors mixed on a palette. Becoming a team dedicated to this new,\u00a0 non-Academic painting gave them the courage to pursue the independent exhibition format\u2014a revolutionary idea of its own.<\/p>\n
Light<\/h2>\n
An important aspect of the Impressionist painting was the appearance of quickly shifting light on the surface. This sense of moving rapidly or quickly changing atmospheric conditions or living in a world that moves faster was also part of the Impressionist\u2019s criteria. They wanted to create an art that seemed modern: about contemporary life, about the fast pace of contemporary life, and about the sensation of seeing light change incessantly in the landscape. They painted outdoors (en plein air) to capture the appearance of the light as it really flickered and faded while they worked.<\/p>\n
Mary Cassatt was an American who met Edgar Degas and was invited to join the group as they continued to mount independent exhibitions. By the 1880s, the Impressionist accepted the name the critics gave them. The American Mary Cassatt began to exhibition with the Impressionists in 1877.\u00a0For a very long time, the French refused to find the work worthy of praise. The Americans and other non-French collectors did. For this reason, the U.S. and other foreign collections own most of the Impressionist art.<\/p>\n
Post-Impressionism<\/h1>\n
A group of artists inspired by the Impressionist movement came to be known as the Post-Impressionists. They were not a cohesive group of artists but the Metropolitan Museum describes them as “breaking free of the naturalism of\u00a0Impressionism<\/a>\u00a0in the late 1880s, a group of young painters sought independent artistic styles for expressing emotions rather than simply optical impressions, concentrating on themes of deeper symbolism. Through the use of simplified colors and definitive forms, their art was characterized by a renewed aesthetic sense as well as abstract tendencies.” The most well-known Post-Impressionist artists include Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, and Edvard Munch (pronounced “moonk”).<\/p>\n
\"Wild beasts\"<\/h3>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, Woman with a Hat<\/em>, 1905, oil on canvas, 79.4 x 59.7 cm (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nWhen shown at the 1905 Salon d\u2019Automne (an exhibition organized by artists in response to the conservative policies of the official exhibitions, or salons) in Paris, the contrast to traditional art was so striking it led critic Louis Vauxcelles to describe the artists as \u201cLes Fauves<\/em>\u201d or \u201cwild beasts,\u201d and thus the name was born.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOne of several Expressionist movements to emerge in the early 20th century, Fauvism was short lived, and by 1910, artists in the group had diverged toward more individual interests. Nevertheless, Fauvism remains signficant for it demonstrated modern art\u2019s ability to evoke intensely emotional reactions through radical visual form.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe expressive potential of color<\/h3>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe best known Fauve artists include Henri Matisse, Andr\u00e9 Derain, and Maurice Vlaminck who pioneered its distinctive style. Their early works reveal the influence of Post-Impressionist artists, especially Neo-Impressionists like Paul Signac, whose interest in color\u2019s optical effects had led to a divisionist method of juxtaposing pure hues on canvas. \u00a0The Fauves, however, lacked such scientific intent. They emphasized the expressive potential of color, employing it arbitrarily, not based on an object\u2019s natural appearance.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, Luxe, calme et volupt\u00e9<\/em>, 1904, oil on canvas, 98.5 x 118.5 cm (Muse\u00e9 d'Orsay, Paris)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nIn Luxe, calm et volupt\u00e9<\/em> (1904), for example, Matisse employed a pointillist style by applying paint in small dabs and dashes. \u00a0Instead of the subtle blending of complimentary colors typical of Neo-Impressionism Seurat, for example, the combination of firey oranges, yellows, greens and purple is almost overpowering in its vibrant impact.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSimilarly, while paintings such as Vlaminck\u2019s The River Seine at Chantou<\/em> (1906) appear to mimic the spontaneous, active brushwork of Impressionism, the Fauves adopted a painterly approach to enhance their work\u2019s emotional power, not to capture fleeting effects of color, light or atmosphere on their subjects. Their preference for landscapes, carefree figures and lighthearted subject matter reflects their desire to create an art that would appeal primarily to the viewers\u2019 senses.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMaurice de Vlaminck, The River Seine at Chatou<\/em>, 1906, oil on canvas, 82.6 x 101.9 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPaintings such as Matisse\u2019s Bonheur de Vivre<\/em> (1905-06) epitomize this goal. Bright colors and undulating lines pull our eye gently through the ideallic scene, encouraging us to imagine feeling the warmth of the sun, the cool of the grass, the soft touch of a caress, and the passion of a kiss.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nLike many modern artists, the Fauves also found inspiration in objects from Africa and other non-western cultures. Seen through a colonialist lens, the formal distinctions of African art reflected current notions of Primitivism\u2013the belief that, lacking the corrupting influence of European civilization, non-western peoples were more in tune with the primal elements of nature.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, Bonheur de Vivre (Joy of Life)<\/em>, 1905-6, oil on canvas, 176.5 x 240.7 cm\u00a0(Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBlue Nude (Souvenir of Biskra)<\/em> of 1907 shows how Matisse combined his traditional subject of the female nude with the influence of primitive sources. The woman\u2019s face appears mask-like in the use of strong outlines and harsh contrasts of light and dark, and the hard lines of her body recall the angled planar surfaces common to African sculpture. This distorted effect, further heightened by her contorted pose, clearly distinguishes the figure from the idealized odalisques of Ingres and painters of the past.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, The Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra)<\/em>, 1907, oil on canvas, 92.1 x 140.3 cm\u00a0(Baltimore Museum of Art)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Fauves interest in Primitivism reinforced their reputation as \u201cwild beasts\u201d who sought new possibilities for art through their exploration of direct expression, impactful visual forms and instinctual appeal.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nEssay by Dr. Virginia B. Spivey<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<\/p>\nClaude Monet, Impression Sunrise, 1872 (exhibited at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Establishing Their Own Exhibitions\u2014Apart from the Salon<\/h2>\n
The group of artists who became known as the Impressionists did something ground-breaking, in addition to their sketchy, light-filled paintings. They established their own exhibition – apart from the annual salon. At that time, the salon was really the only way to exhibit your work (the work was chosen by a jury). Claude Monet, August Renoir, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley, and several other artists could not afford to wait for France to accept their work. They all had experienced rejection by the Salon jury in recent years and knew waiting a whole year in between each exhibition was no longer tenable. They needed to show their work and they wanted to sell it.<\/p>\n
So, in an attempt to get recognized outside of the official channel of the salon, these artists banded together and held their own exhibition. They pooled their money, rented a studio that belonged to the famous photographer Nadar and set a date for their first exhibition together. They called themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Printmakers. The show opened at about the same time as the annual Salon, May 1874. The Impressionists held eight exhibitions from 1874 through 1886.<\/p>\n
The decision was based on their frustration and their ambition to show the world their new, light-filled images.<\/p>\n
The impressionists regarded Manet as their inspiration and leader in their spirit of revolution, but Manet had no desire to join their cooperative venture into independent exhibitions. Manet had set up his own pavilion during the 1867 World\u2019s Fair, but he was not interested in giving up on the Salon jury. He wanted Paris to come to him and accept him\u2014even if he had to endure their ridicule in the process.<\/p>\n
Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Sisley had met through classes. Berthe Morisot was a friend of both Degas and Manet (she would marry \u00c9douard Manet\u2019s brother Eug\u00e8ne by the end of 1874). She had been accepted to the Salon, but her work had become more experimental since then. Degas invited Berthe to join their risky effort. The first exhibition did not repay them monetarily but it drew the critics who decided their art was abominable. It wasn\u2019t finished. They called it \u201cjust impressions.\u201d (And not in a complimentary way.)<\/p>\n
The Lack of “Finish”<\/h2>\n
Prior to Impressionism, most paintings had a \u201cfinished\u201d surface. These younger artists\u2019 completed works looked like sketches.\u00a0 And not even detailed sketches but the fast, preliminary \u201cimpressions\u201d that artists would dash off to preserve an idea of what to paint later. Normally, an artist\u2019s \u201cimpressions\u201d were not meant to be sold, but were meant to be aids for the memory\u2014to take these ideas back to the studio for the masterpiece on canvas. The critics thought it was insane to sell paintings that looked like slap-dash impressions and consider these paintings works \u201cfinished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Landscape and Contemporary Life (Not History Painting!)<\/h2>\n
Also\u2014Courbet, Manet and the Impressionists challenged the Academy\u2019s category codes. The Academy deemed that only \u201chistory painting\u201d was great painting. These young Realists and Impressionists opened the door to dismantling this hierarchy of subject matter. They believed that landscapes and genres scenes were worthy and important.<\/p>\n
Color<\/h2>\n
In their landscapes and genre scenes of contemporary life, the Impressionist artists tried to arrest a moment in their fast-paced lives by pinpointing specific atmospheric conditions\u2014light flickering on water, moving clouds, a burst of rain. Their technique tried to capture what they saw. They painted small commas of pure color one next to another. The viewer would stand at a reasonable distance so that the eye would mix the individual marks, thus blending the colors together optically. This method created more vibrant colors than those colors mixed on a palette. Becoming a team dedicated to this new,\u00a0 non-Academic painting gave them the courage to pursue the independent exhibition format\u2014a revolutionary idea of its own.<\/p>\n
Light<\/h2>\n
An important aspect of the Impressionist painting was the appearance of quickly shifting light on the surface. This sense of moving rapidly or quickly changing atmospheric conditions or living in a world that moves faster was also part of the Impressionist\u2019s criteria. They wanted to create an art that seemed modern: about contemporary life, about the fast pace of contemporary life, and about the sensation of seeing light change incessantly in the landscape. They painted outdoors (en plein air) to capture the appearance of the light as it really flickered and faded while they worked.<\/p>\n
Mary Cassatt was an American who met Edgar Degas and was invited to join the group as they continued to mount independent exhibitions. By the 1880s, the Impressionist accepted the name the critics gave them. The American Mary Cassatt began to exhibition with the Impressionists in 1877.\u00a0For a very long time, the French refused to find the work worthy of praise. The Americans and other non-French collectors did. For this reason, the U.S. and other foreign collections own most of the Impressionist art.<\/p>\n
Post-Impressionism<\/h1>\n
A group of artists inspired by the Impressionist movement came to be known as the Post-Impressionists. They were not a cohesive group of artists but the Metropolitan Museum describes them as “breaking free of the naturalism of\u00a0Impressionism<\/a>\u00a0in the late 1880s, a group of young painters sought independent artistic styles for expressing emotions rather than simply optical impressions, concentrating on themes of deeper symbolism. Through the use of simplified colors and definitive forms, their art was characterized by a renewed aesthetic sense as well as abstract tendencies.” The most well-known Post-Impressionist artists include Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, and Edvard Munch (pronounced “moonk”).<\/p>\n
\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nThe expressive potential of color<\/h3>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe best known Fauve artists include Henri Matisse, Andr\u00e9 Derain, and Maurice Vlaminck who pioneered its distinctive style. Their early works reveal the influence of Post-Impressionist artists, especially Neo-Impressionists like Paul Signac, whose interest in color\u2019s optical effects had led to a divisionist method of juxtaposing pure hues on canvas. \u00a0The Fauves, however, lacked such scientific intent. They emphasized the expressive potential of color, employing it arbitrarily, not based on an object\u2019s natural appearance.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, Luxe, calme et volupt\u00e9<\/em>, 1904, oil on canvas, 98.5 x 118.5 cm (Muse\u00e9 d'Orsay, Paris)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nIn Luxe, calm et volupt\u00e9<\/em> (1904), for example, Matisse employed a pointillist style by applying paint in small dabs and dashes. \u00a0Instead of the subtle blending of complimentary colors typical of Neo-Impressionism Seurat, for example, the combination of firey oranges, yellows, greens and purple is almost overpowering in its vibrant impact.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSimilarly, while paintings such as Vlaminck\u2019s The River Seine at Chantou<\/em> (1906) appear to mimic the spontaneous, active brushwork of Impressionism, the Fauves adopted a painterly approach to enhance their work\u2019s emotional power, not to capture fleeting effects of color, light or atmosphere on their subjects. Their preference for landscapes, carefree figures and lighthearted subject matter reflects their desire to create an art that would appeal primarily to the viewers\u2019 senses.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nMaurice de Vlaminck, The River Seine at Chatou<\/em>, 1906, oil on canvas, 82.6 x 101.9 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPaintings such as Matisse\u2019s Bonheur de Vivre<\/em> (1905-06) epitomize this goal. Bright colors and undulating lines pull our eye gently through the ideallic scene, encouraging us to imagine feeling the warmth of the sun, the cool of the grass, the soft touch of a caress, and the passion of a kiss.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nLike many modern artists, the Fauves also found inspiration in objects from Africa and other non-western cultures. Seen through a colonialist lens, the formal distinctions of African art reflected current notions of Primitivism\u2013the belief that, lacking the corrupting influence of European civilization, non-western peoples were more in tune with the primal elements of nature.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, Bonheur de Vivre (Joy of Life)<\/em>, 1905-6, oil on canvas, 176.5 x 240.7 cm\u00a0(Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBlue Nude (Souvenir of Biskra)<\/em> of 1907 shows how Matisse combined his traditional subject of the female nude with the influence of primitive sources. The woman\u2019s face appears mask-like in the use of strong outlines and harsh contrasts of light and dark, and the hard lines of her body recall the angled planar surfaces common to African sculpture. This distorted effect, further heightened by her contorted pose, clearly distinguishes the figure from the idealized odalisques of Ingres and painters of the past.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHenri Matisse, The Blue Nude (Souvenir de Biskra)<\/em>, 1907, oil on canvas, 92.1 x 140.3 cm\u00a0(Baltimore Museum of Art)<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe Fauves interest in Primitivism reinforced their reputation as \u201cwild beasts\u201d who sought new possibilities for art through their exploration of direct expression, impactful visual forms and instinctual appeal.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nEssay by Dr. Virginia B. Spivey<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<\/p>\nClaude Monet, Impression Sunrise, 1872 (exhibited at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Establishing Their Own Exhibitions\u2014Apart from the Salon<\/h2>\n
The group of artists who became known as the Impressionists did something ground-breaking, in addition to their sketchy, light-filled paintings. They established their own exhibition – apart from the annual salon. At that time, the salon was really the only way to exhibit your work (the work was chosen by a jury). Claude Monet, August Renoir, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley, and several other artists could not afford to wait for France to accept their work. They all had experienced rejection by the Salon jury in recent years and knew waiting a whole year in between each exhibition was no longer tenable. They needed to show their work and they wanted to sell it.<\/p>\n
So, in an attempt to get recognized outside of the official channel of the salon, these artists banded together and held their own exhibition. They pooled their money, rented a studio that belonged to the famous photographer Nadar and set a date for their first exhibition together. They called themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Printmakers. The show opened at about the same time as the annual Salon, May 1874. The Impressionists held eight exhibitions from 1874 through 1886.<\/p>\n
The decision was based on their frustration and their ambition to show the world their new, light-filled images.<\/p>\n
The impressionists regarded Manet as their inspiration and leader in their spirit of revolution, but Manet had no desire to join their cooperative venture into independent exhibitions. Manet had set up his own pavilion during the 1867 World\u2019s Fair, but he was not interested in giving up on the Salon jury. He wanted Paris to come to him and accept him\u2014even if he had to endure their ridicule in the process.<\/p>\n
Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Sisley had met through classes. Berthe Morisot was a friend of both Degas and Manet (she would marry \u00c9douard Manet\u2019s brother Eug\u00e8ne by the end of 1874). She had been accepted to the Salon, but her work had become more experimental since then. Degas invited Berthe to join their risky effort. The first exhibition did not repay them monetarily but it drew the critics who decided their art was abominable. It wasn\u2019t finished. They called it \u201cjust impressions.\u201d (And not in a complimentary way.)<\/p>\n
The Lack of “Finish”<\/h2>\n
Prior to Impressionism, most paintings had a \u201cfinished\u201d surface. These younger artists\u2019 completed works looked like sketches.\u00a0 And not even detailed sketches but the fast, preliminary \u201cimpressions\u201d that artists would dash off to preserve an idea of what to paint later. Normally, an artist\u2019s \u201cimpressions\u201d were not meant to be sold, but were meant to be aids for the memory\u2014to take these ideas back to the studio for the masterpiece on canvas. The critics thought it was insane to sell paintings that looked like slap-dash impressions and consider these paintings works \u201cfinished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Landscape and Contemporary Life (Not History Painting!)<\/h2>\n
Also\u2014Courbet, Manet and the Impressionists challenged the Academy\u2019s category codes. The Academy deemed that only \u201chistory painting\u201d was great painting. These young Realists and Impressionists opened the door to dismantling this hierarchy of subject matter. They believed that landscapes and genres scenes were worthy and important.<\/p>\n
Color<\/h2>\n
In their landscapes and genre scenes of contemporary life, the Impressionist artists tried to arrest a moment in their fast-paced lives by pinpointing specific atmospheric conditions\u2014light flickering on water, moving clouds, a burst of rain. Their technique tried to capture what they saw. They painted small commas of pure color one next to another. The viewer would stand at a reasonable distance so that the eye would mix the individual marks, thus blending the colors together optically. This method created more vibrant colors than those colors mixed on a palette. Becoming a team dedicated to this new,\u00a0 non-Academic painting gave them the courage to pursue the independent exhibition format\u2014a revolutionary idea of its own.<\/p>\n
Light<\/h2>\n
An important aspect of the Impressionist painting was the appearance of quickly shifting light on the surface. This sense of moving rapidly or quickly changing atmospheric conditions or living in a world that moves faster was also part of the Impressionist\u2019s criteria. They wanted to create an art that seemed modern: about contemporary life, about the fast pace of contemporary life, and about the sensation of seeing light change incessantly in the landscape. They painted outdoors (en plein air) to capture the appearance of the light as it really flickered and faded while they worked.<\/p>\n
Mary Cassatt was an American who met Edgar Degas and was invited to join the group as they continued to mount independent exhibitions. By the 1880s, the Impressionist accepted the name the critics gave them. The American Mary Cassatt began to exhibition with the Impressionists in 1877.\u00a0For a very long time, the French refused to find the work worthy of praise. The Americans and other non-French collectors did. For this reason, the U.S. and other foreign collections own most of the Impressionist art.<\/p>\n
Post-Impressionism<\/h1>\n
A group of artists inspired by the Impressionist movement came to be known as the Post-Impressionists. They were not a cohesive group of artists but the Metropolitan Museum describes them as “breaking free of the naturalism of\u00a0Impressionism<\/a>\u00a0in the late 1880s, a group of young painters sought independent artistic styles for expressing emotions rather than simply optical impressions, concentrating on themes of deeper symbolism. Through the use of simplified colors and definitive forms, their art was characterized by a renewed aesthetic sense as well as abstract tendencies.” The most well-known Post-Impressionist artists include Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, and Edvard Munch (pronounced “moonk”).<\/p>\n
\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/p>\nClaude Monet, Impression Sunrise, 1872 (exhibited at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Establishing Their Own Exhibitions\u2014Apart from the Salon<\/h2>\n
The group of artists who became known as the Impressionists did something ground-breaking, in addition to their sketchy, light-filled paintings. They established their own exhibition – apart from the annual salon. At that time, the salon was really the only way to exhibit your work (the work was chosen by a jury). Claude Monet, August Renoir, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley, and several other artists could not afford to wait for France to accept their work. They all had experienced rejection by the Salon jury in recent years and knew waiting a whole year in between each exhibition was no longer tenable. They needed to show their work and they wanted to sell it.<\/p>\n
So, in an attempt to get recognized outside of the official channel of the salon, these artists banded together and held their own exhibition. They pooled their money, rented a studio that belonged to the famous photographer Nadar and set a date for their first exhibition together. They called themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Printmakers. The show opened at about the same time as the annual Salon, May 1874. The Impressionists held eight exhibitions from 1874 through 1886.<\/p>\n
The decision was based on their frustration and their ambition to show the world their new, light-filled images.<\/p>\n
The impressionists regarded Manet as their inspiration and leader in their spirit of revolution, but Manet had no desire to join their cooperative venture into independent exhibitions. Manet had set up his own pavilion during the 1867 World\u2019s Fair, but he was not interested in giving up on the Salon jury. He wanted Paris to come to him and accept him\u2014even if he had to endure their ridicule in the process.<\/p>\n
Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Sisley had met through classes. Berthe Morisot was a friend of both Degas and Manet (she would marry \u00c9douard Manet\u2019s brother Eug\u00e8ne by the end of 1874). She had been accepted to the Salon, but her work had become more experimental since then. Degas invited Berthe to join their risky effort. The first exhibition did not repay them monetarily but it drew the critics who decided their art was abominable. It wasn\u2019t finished. They called it \u201cjust impressions.\u201d (And not in a complimentary way.)<\/p>\n
The Lack of “Finish”<\/h2>\n
Prior to Impressionism, most paintings had a \u201cfinished\u201d surface. These younger artists\u2019 completed works looked like sketches.\u00a0 And not even detailed sketches but the fast, preliminary \u201cimpressions\u201d that artists would dash off to preserve an idea of what to paint later. Normally, an artist\u2019s \u201cimpressions\u201d were not meant to be sold, but were meant to be aids for the memory\u2014to take these ideas back to the studio for the masterpiece on canvas. The critics thought it was insane to sell paintings that looked like slap-dash impressions and consider these paintings works \u201cfinished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Landscape and Contemporary Life (Not History Painting!)<\/h2>\n
Also\u2014Courbet, Manet and the Impressionists challenged the Academy\u2019s category codes. The Academy deemed that only \u201chistory painting\u201d was great painting. These young Realists and Impressionists opened the door to dismantling this hierarchy of subject matter. They believed that landscapes and genres scenes were worthy and important.<\/p>\n
Color<\/h2>\n
In their landscapes and genre scenes of contemporary life, the Impressionist artists tried to arrest a moment in their fast-paced lives by pinpointing specific atmospheric conditions\u2014light flickering on water, moving clouds, a burst of rain. Their technique tried to capture what they saw. They painted small commas of pure color one next to another. The viewer would stand at a reasonable distance so that the eye would mix the individual marks, thus blending the colors together optically. This method created more vibrant colors than those colors mixed on a palette. Becoming a team dedicated to this new,\u00a0 non-Academic painting gave them the courage to pursue the independent exhibition format\u2014a revolutionary idea of its own.<\/p>\n
Light<\/h2>\n
An important aspect of the Impressionist painting was the appearance of quickly shifting light on the surface. This sense of moving rapidly or quickly changing atmospheric conditions or living in a world that moves faster was also part of the Impressionist\u2019s criteria. They wanted to create an art that seemed modern: about contemporary life, about the fast pace of contemporary life, and about the sensation of seeing light change incessantly in the landscape. They painted outdoors (en plein air) to capture the appearance of the light as it really flickered and faded while they worked.<\/p>\n
Mary Cassatt was an American who met Edgar Degas and was invited to join the group as they continued to mount independent exhibitions. By the 1880s, the Impressionist accepted the name the critics gave them. The American Mary Cassatt began to exhibition with the Impressionists in 1877.\u00a0For a very long time, the French refused to find the work worthy of praise. The Americans and other non-French collectors did. For this reason, the U.S. and other foreign collections own most of the Impressionist art.<\/p>\n
Post-Impressionism<\/h1>\n
A group of artists inspired by the Impressionist movement came to be known as the Post-Impressionists. They were not a cohesive group of artists but the Metropolitan Museum describes them as “breaking free of the naturalism of\u00a0Impressionism<\/a>\u00a0in the late 1880s, a group of young painters sought independent artistic styles for expressing emotions rather than simply optical impressions, concentrating on themes of deeper symbolism. Through the use of simplified colors and definitive forms, their art was characterized by a renewed aesthetic sense as well as abstract tendencies.” The most well-known Post-Impressionist artists include Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gaugin, and Edvard Munch (pronounced “moonk”).<\/p>\n