Brushstrokes (Part 2 of 3) - The 19th Century
Summary
TLDRThis script explores the evolution of art from Realism to Post-Impressionism, focusing on key artists like Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Gauguin. It highlights their revolutionary techniques, such as Corot's brushwork, Manet's experimentation with color, and Monet's plein air painting. Technological advances, like the invention of the camera and paint tubes, also played a role in shaping these movements. The transition from Impressionism to Post-Impressionism is marked by more emotional expression, abstraction, and the pursuit of scientific analysis in painting.
Takeaways
- 🎨 The Realist movement emerged in the mid-1800s, focusing on unidealized depictions of real life.
- 🖌️ Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot developed a unique brushwork technique to capture the immediacy of nature.
- 🌿 Corot often worked outdoors, adding white to his paints to reflect natural light and true colors.
- 🖼️ Édouard Manet bridged the gap between Realism and Impressionism by experimenting with patches of color and outlining forms.
- 🖍️ Manet was influenced by Japanese art and helped popularize the 'a la prima' painting technique.
- 📸 The invention of the camera and advancements in painting materials allowed artists to paint faster and outdoors, leading to Impressionism.
- 🎨 Claude Monet, a key figure in Impressionism, used short, quick brushstrokes to capture changing light outdoors.
- 🖌️ Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s style was characterized by translucent layers, feathered brushstrokes, and wet-in-wet techniques.
- 🎨 Paul Cézanne simplified forms, using rhythmic, repetitive brushstrokes, influencing both Post-Impressionism and Cubism.
- 🌟 Vincent van Gogh used expressive, directional brushstrokes and bold colors to convey emotions, significantly impacting future art.
Q & A
What was the societal shift in focus after the American and French Revolutions, and how did it affect art?
-After the American and French Revolutions, societies began to focus more on the needs and rights of everyday people. This shift influenced artists, leading to the Realist movement, which focused on painting unidealized real-life scenes.
How did Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot contribute to the development of Realism?
-Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot developed a fresh approach to brushwork to capture what he saw in nature more effectively. He used wispy strokes and a light touch, often sweeping a dry brush across the surface to create a fresh artistic appearance.
Why is Corot sometimes considered the first Impressionist?
-Corot is often considered the first Impressionist because of his efforts to capture immediacy, natural light, and true colors in his works, techniques that influenced later Impressionist artists.
How did Edouard Manet’s artistic style differ from Realism and influence Impressionism?
-Manet bridged the gap between Realism and Impressionism by experimenting with patches of color, individual strokes, and limited shadowing. His revolutionary style and willingness to experiment influenced many Impressionists, even though he didn’t fully adopt the movement.
What role did Japanese art play in influencing Edouard Manet and other Western artists?
-When trade opened with Japan in 1853, Japanese art had a significant influence on Western artists, including Manet. They adopted techniques such as using patches of color rather than gradual gradients, a key aspect of Impressionist brushwork.
What technological innovations helped advance Impressionism?
-The development of the camera and transportable paint tubes allowed artists to focus less on realistic depictions and more on creative expression. These innovations enabled Impressionists to work outdoors and finish paintings on location.
How did Claude Monet’s brushwork and use of color reflect his Impressionist style?
-Monet developed a system of shorter, quicker brushstrokes to adapt to changing light conditions outdoors. He added white to all his colors to reflect natural light and created paintings with broken, expressive lines and dabs of color.
How did Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s brushwork differ from that of other Impressionists?
-Renoir painted with much thinner layers of paint, often using translucent washes of color similar to watercolor. He applied paint wet-in-wet and often slurred colors together with free brushwork, showing distinct bristle lines in his works.
What is Paul Cézanne’s legacy, and how did his work bridge Impressionism and Cubism?
-Cézanne’s work is known for its simple forms, flat perspective, and rhythmic brushstrokes. His approach to naturalism and use of repetitive color planes influenced both Impressionism and Cubism, making him a pivotal figure in the transition between the two movements.
How did Georges Seurat’s pointillism technique differ from traditional brushwork?
-Georges Seurat developed pointillism, where small dots of pure color were placed next to each other, allowing the viewer’s eye to blend the colors optically. This method was more scientific and impersonal compared to traditional brush techniques.
Outlines
🎨 The Rise of Realism and Early Impressionism
The mid-1800s saw a shift in focus towards the needs and rights of common people, influencing art movements such as Realism. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot was a significant figure during this period, known for his innovative brushwork aimed at capturing the immediacy of nature. His light, feathery strokes and use of white in his paints helped him depict the true colors and light in nature, setting the foundation for Impressionism. Edouard Manet, a contemporary of Corot, bridged the gap between Realism and Impressionism. Influenced by Japanese art, Manet experimented with patches of color and brushstrokes, often painting 'a la prima' or in a single layer. Despite his influence on the Impressionists, he was not fully part of the movement due to his continued use of black and refusal to exhibit with the group.
🌅 The Evolution of Monet and Renoir's Techniques
Monet, one of the most recognized Impressionists, developed his style in the 1870s with short, quick brushstrokes that captured the changing light outdoors. He and Renoir often painted completed works on location, returning to scenes multiple times. Monet's brushwork evolved from expressive dabs to more impasto and eventually to thinner strokes with an emphasis on color patches. Renoir, another key Impressionist, worked with thinner paint and translucent layers, creating a watercolor-like effect. His free, wet-in-wet brushwork allowed for expressive blending, and his technique later incorporated Cezanne's directional brushstrokes, edging toward Post-Impressionism.
🖌️ Cezanne and the Scientific Approach to Art
Paul Cezanne's unique approach to painting aimed to reflect nature as he felt it, using simplified forms, dark outlines, and incorrect perspectives. His rhythmic, repetitive brushstrokes and careful color choices made each stroke significant. Though often categorized as a Post-Impressionist, Cezanne's adherence to naturalism and his influence on modern art, including his role as a precursor to Cubism, earned him the title 'Father of Modern Art.' The Neo-Impressionists, including Georges Seurat, sought to systematize brushwork, laying down pure color side by side to let the eye mix them, resulting in Seurat's famous 'pointillism.'
🎨 Van Gogh and Gauguin: Expression Over Perception
Vincent van Gogh pushed beyond Impressionism, using expressive, rhythmic brushstrokes and bold colors to convey his emotions rather than merely what he saw. His impasto technique and directional strokes, planned meticulously in sketches, were central to his powerful artistic expression, despite his short ten-year career. Paul Gauguin, another key Post-Impressionist, favored large, flat areas of color and bold outlines, a style known as 'Cloisonnism,' which resembled pre-Renaissance tempera paintings. Gauguin’s work, characterized by flat brushstrokes and simplified forms, set the stage for a century where art would increasingly focus on shape, color, and line.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Realism
💡Impressionism
💡Brushwork
💡A la prima
💡Pointillism
💡Post-Impressionism
💡Japanese prints
💡Impasto
💡Neo-Impressionism
💡Claude Monet
Highlights
The Realist movement focused on unidealized real life, influenced by societal changes following the American and French Revolutions.
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot's innovative brushwork aimed to capture immediacy, with wispy strokes and a light touch to replicate the natural world.
Corot used a dry brush technique to feather across the surface, creating forms with a fresh, artistic appearance.
Edouard Manet bridged the gap between Realism and Impressionism by experimenting with patches of color instead of gradual gradients.
Manet was influenced by Japanese art, incorporating bold, independent brushstrokes and flat figures with little shadowing.
Manet popularized the alla prima technique, applying impasto paint in one layer to capture the desired colors immediately.
Claude Monet developed a system of shorter, quicker brushstrokes due to the time constraints of outdoor painting and changing light.
Monet added white to his colors, similar to Corot, to reflect natural light more effectively.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted with thinner layers of paint and translucent washes, achieving a watercolor-like effect.
Paul Cézanne used repetitive, directional brushstrokes and flat planes of color, simplifying forms and focusing on sensations rather than realism.
Georges Seurat developed pointillism, applying patches of complementary color to create shimmering light and atmosphere through optical mixing.
Post-Impressionists like van Gogh and Gauguin sought emotional expression over realism, simplifying forms and intensifying color.
Vincent van Gogh used bold, rhythmic brushstrokes and complementary colors to convey emotional intensity, rather than just visual representation.
Gauguin's Cloisonnism featured flat areas of color with distinct outlines, influenced by pre-Renaissance techniques and the cloisonné metalwork style.
The development of portable paint tubes and ready-made canvases allowed artists like Monet and Renoir to work directly outdoors, contributing to the rise of Impressionism.
Transcripts
By the mid-1800s, after the American and French Revolutions, societies began to focus on the
needs and rights of everyday people. This change influenced artists as well, bringing
on the Realist movement which focused on painting unidealized real life. One of the artists in this
period, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot developed a fresh approach to brushwork in order to
better capture what he saw in nature. His goal was immediacy, to enable the viewer to experience what
he experienced in that exact moment. His strokes were wispy and his touch very light. In fact,
if you look very closely, you can see that he sweeps, or feathers, a fairly dry brush across
the surface giving his forms of fresh artistic appearance. He also dabbed small highlights of
paint or used freely painted independent strokes to enhance the breezy feeling. In order to get
as close to reality as possible, Corot would often work outside and add white to all of his
paints. In that way he could better communicate the true colors of nature. He also strove to
capture natural light and, for all these reasons, Corot is often considered the first Impressionist.
Edouard Manet was a contemporary of Corot's and represents a giant leap in a new artistic
direction He's said to bridge the gap between Realism and Impressionism. Manet didn't want
his work to just be a window to the world, he wanted it to be a piece of art in and of itself,
and so he was more willing to experiment. Like many of the artists of his day, Manet was highly
influenced by Asian art when trade opened with Japan in 1853. The artistic innovations in these
prints caused a sensation in Western art. Artists, and Manet in particular, began to implement into
their own work some of what they saw, and this includes the idea of patches of color rather
than gradual gradients. His brushwork looks a lot like what we see with the Impressionists:
strokes that are individual, directional, fairly short and also repetitive. He sometimes includes
a harsh outlining of forms and he doesn't use much shadowing, giving his figures a flat
appearance. Manet also made popular the idea of painting a la prima, where the artist lays down,
in a single layer, impasto paint capturing the desired colors in a single effort. Manet's
revolutionary style was inspirational to many of the Impressionists to come and, in fact,
he often painted alongside Monet, but he was never really considered an impressionist due to
his continued use of black and his unwillingness to exhibit in the group's exhibitions. In addition
to societal changes and the influence of Japanese prints, technology was an integral part of the
development of Impressionism, One such innovation was the development of the camera. Because society
could now record images of scenes and loved ones, artists were free to veer away from painting
realistic representations of life. Another event that was influential was the advancement
of painting materials. Paint tubes were developed, meaning artists didn't have to make
it themselves and the paint was transportable. And ready-made canvases were now available. These
two innovations meant that artists could now take their supplies outside and even complete
a finished painting on location. But now that they were trying to paint it in one sitting, time was
limited so they had to develop a quicker way to paint, and this is what led to Impressionism.
Claude Monet is probably the most recognizable name when it comes to the Impressionists and,
alongside Renoir, is one of its foundational members. His style was initially influenced
by the work of Manet, but the abbreviated strokes of color picked up from Manet became
small dashes of color in the hands of Monet. By the 1870s, Monet had fully developed his style.
He was really the first artist to develop a system of shorter, quicker brushstrokes,
and this was due to the time restrictions of the changing light while painting outside. Like Corot,
Monet added white to all of his colors in order to better reflect the light in nature. He and
Renoir would work finished paintings on location rather than just studies,
which was a common practice at the time. They often had to return to a scene repeatedly in order
to complete a painting. Monet's brush strokes were vigorous and generally didn't change in
size to convey depth. His style went from typical Impressionism with the broken expressive lines and
dabs to a very impasto kind of a smeared look to a much thinner style later in his career, with a
focus on lines and patches of color that reflect what is seen in the Post-Impressionist movement.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was one of the original Impressionist painters, working alongside Monet as
they developed what is known as the "Impressionist style". Renoir painted with much thinner paint
than his colleagues. His translucent layers were almost like washes of color seen in watercolor
painting. And notice the distinct feathering effect with the strong bristle lines of a hog-hair
brush. They were applied with painterly strokes, or he might rub the paint on in order to provide
a slight layer of color. Renoir preferred to apply his colors directly to the canvas, wet-in-wet, and
then he would slur them together with incredibly free brushwork. He also allowed his colored
grounds to show through his translucent layers and spots. In the 1880s, Renoir also painted next
to Cezanne, and incorporated some of Cezanne's repetitive directional brushstrokes into his own
work. And this pushed his style closer to that of the Post-Impressionists, later in his career.
Paul Cezanne is an artist that crosses multiple stylistic categories. His aim was to reflect
nature according to his sensations. He painted his forms very simply with dark outlines and
incorrect perspective. His style was very flat and very unique, but he's also known for the use
of repetitive flat planes of color and rhythmic directional brushstrokes in almost parallel,
diagonal lines. Cezanne was very particular about the color of every brush stroke,
feeling that each stroke was important. Now Cezanne is often listed as a Post-Impressionist,
but he really adhered to the naturalistic ideals of the Impressionists throughout his career.
It's said that he actually bridges the gap between Impressionism and Cubism,
and today he's actually considered the "Father of Modern Art". In the late 1800s, a group of artists
began seeking a more orderly way to apply their brushwork. These artists strove for a unification,
painting all the strokes relatively the same size. They wanted brushwork to be impersonal,
and these orderly, impersonal brushstrokes are what led to what is known as Neo-Impressionism.
Neo-Impressionists had an affinity for laying down pure color next to each other with very little
mixing, letting the viewers eye optically mix the colors upon sight. Georges Seurat was the inventor
of this new method of painting. Seurat was looking for a scientific methodical way to convey natural
light and atmosphere, and in the summer of 1885 he developed his "dot method" of applying paint that
would eventually be called "pointillism". His theory is that patches of complementary color
placed next to each other would enhance each of the individual colors, and therefore produce a
kind of shimmering light when seen at a distance. So, like Leonardo da Vinci, Neo-Impressionists
used scientific analysis to influence their art. The Post-Impressionists focused on emotions rather
than recording what they saw. Their colors were more simplified, and forms were more harshly
defined. There was even a hint of abstraction. But Post-Impressionists were not anti-Impressionists,
they just wanted to push beyond it. The primary artists in this movement were Cezanne,
van Gogh and Gauguin. Vincent van Gogh felt that Impressionism didn't allow for enough artistic
expression. He is said to have confessed to a friend that he intentionally painted with such
expressive force that viewers would say he had no technique. Van Gogh was the king of rhythmic,
directional brushstrokes, combining them with his bold, complementary color schemes and a
very heavy impasto paint in order to express his feelings rather than just what he saw. Notice in
this sketch that he did for his painting "The Harvest", he's planned out the direction of
his various brushstrokes. And now here's the finished painting. Van Gogh felt that this was
one of his best paintings, even commenting to his brother that, "The canvas absolutely kills
all the rest". And his innovative style had an important impact on future generations. All of
this is even more impressive when you consider that his career only lasted for ten years. Another
Post-Impressionist who showed great innovation was Paul Gauguin. Like Manet and Cezanne before him,
he paints patches of color. But Gauguin takes the concept a step farther, painting large,
flat areas of almost single color without much form and very distinct outlines. His style is
often referred to as "Cloisonnism" because of its similarity to cloisonné, an artistic
form of metalwork. As you can see, like Gauguin, cloisonné features isolated segments of color and
highly outlined forms. His application of paint is very flat and his brushstrokes generic, almost
indistinguishable. In fact he seems to show a complete lack of attention to brushwork. His style
is actually reminiscent of the pre-Renaissance tempera paintings because of the flatness of the
appearance, the nondescript brushstrokes as well as the masses of color. And it's also something
that we see a lot of in the century to come, when art tends to focus more on shape, color and line.
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