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The Chronicle
of Impressionism
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The Impressionists'
World
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Seldom in the history of European painting
has a single movement had so profound an impact as
Impressionism. Within little more than a century its
exponents have become household names in the global village
of today, and the prices fetched by their paintings equal
and often surpass those of the Old Masters. If a comparison
must be found for their achievement it is only with the
Renaissance, the period in which Man first believed in a
universe that he could order and even control, determining
what he saw and expressed not in terms of a transcendental
scale of values but by the laws of perspective.
The Impressionists carried the process one step further,
liberating art from its dependence on dogma and attempting
to paint not what they thought they saw, nor what they
thought they ought to see, but what they did see. From this
emancipation was to come the art of the twentieth century,
in all its varied manifestations.
The Impressionist movement was particularly remarkable in
that it was achieved by some twenty artists, all of them
familiar with each other, all based in one city, Paris, and
all children of their time, the product of a unique cultural
environment, which moulded them as much as they influenced
it.
Political Allegiances
Between the birth of Pissarro in 1830 and the death of Monet
in 1926, France experienced a variety of governments and
constitutions; it was involved in two major wars, several
minor ones, and a brief civil war that culminated in the
brutal crushing of the Commune. It also gained an empire in
Africa and the Far East, and was transformed from an
agricultural country to a primarily industrial one, the
basis of power passing to the predominantly mercantile
middle class, which
was becoming larger and more varied.
Nevertheless, despite the privations suffered during the
siege of Paris, the horrors of the Commune and its
suppression, the fierce passions roused by the Dreyfus
affair, and the persistent waves of financial scandal that
swept the country, the Impressionists — except for Pissarro,
who was a Socialist with strong anarchist leanings — did not
show much active political commitment.
Manet, it is true, was what might be described as an
upper-class Republican, and his political sensibilities are
occasionally evident in his work. His contempt for Napoleon
III found poignant expression in his paintings of the
execution of the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico - which by
showing the firing squad in what looked like French army
uniforms suggested, quite rightly, that the whole imbroglio
had been brought about by Napoleon's devious policies. Also,
out of all the Impressionists. Manet was the only one to
leave a record of the horrors of 1871, in the form of a few
drawings and lithographs showing scenes from the suppression
of the Commune. His criticisms of authority were, however,
muted by a desire to be accepted. 'Monsieur Manet has never
wished to protest,' he wrote in the preface to the catalogue
of his one-man exhibition of 1867, and the fact that he
never participated in any of the Impressionist exhibitions
seems to have stemmed from a reluctance openly to defy the
establishment. Monet too was a Republican, though not a very
aggressive one, his sentiments owing something to his
friendship with the politician Georges Clemenceau.
Renoir and Degas, on the other hand, were out-and-out
reactionaries. 'Education', Renoir once remarked to Julie
Manet, 'is the downfall of the working classes.' Both
artists strongly believed in the panacea-like benefits of
religion, although neither of them were actually practising
Christians; they also regarded the inferiority of women as
axiomatic; and were blatantly anti-Semitic. As for Cezanne,
despite his excitable character and his 'total disregard for
the dictionary of manners', once he settled down to
provincial life in Aix-en-Provence, the stirrings of
youthful rebellion faded, and he became a confirmed
conservative and a devout Catholic.
The Artists' Origins
The Impressionists were all either grands or petits
bourgeois in origin, and none of them came from the
peasantry or the proletariat. The fathers of Manet and
Berthe Morisot were from the upper ranks of the judiciary
and the civil service, Bazille's from a rich wine-growing
family, Degas' from the minor Italian aristocracy and
banking. Sisley's
father, until his bankruptcy, was a well-to-do English
businessman, settled in Paris; Pissarro's family were rich
colonial merchants; and Caillebotte's had made their money
in textiles, and augmented it by dabbling in real estate
during the redevelopment of Paris in the 1860s. Monet's
father and Renoir's — who came from the lower echelon of the
bourgeoisie, the one being a merchant, the other a tailor
both made enough money to be able to retire to the
countryside in their sixties. Cezanne's father, having
started his business career as a hatmaker in
Aix-en-Provence, developed into banking and became one of
the city's most influential citizens.
Patrons and Collectors
Equally obvious were the bourgeois origins of the patronage
that the Impressionists received. Although many of the
surviving aristocrats were wealthy, few of them — apart from
the de Wagrams, who were of inferior Napoleonic nobility,
and the Bibescos, who were Romanians - showed the enterprise
displayed by the nouveaux riches. The acquisition of a
collection of paintings provided the upwardly mobile with a
visible symbol of their enhanced social standing; and it was
the bourgeoisie and professional classes who imposed their
taste on the art of the time.
Among the Impressionists' main patrons and collectors there
were doctors such as Gachet and de Bellio; teachers such as
the Abbe Gaugain; musicians such as Chabrier and the
baritone Jean-Baptiste Faure; and civil servants such as the
customs official Victor Chocquet. There were also
businessmen such as Ernest Hoschede, the department-store
owner whose widow married Monet; Henri Rouart, an
enterprising engineer who pioneered refrigeration machinery
as well as being a talented painter; Paul Berard, the banker
and diplomat at whose house at Wargemont Renoir so
frequently stayed; Eugene Aiurer, the restaurateur and
hotelier who gave free dinners for the Impressionists during
the 1870s; and Francois Depeaux, the Rouen merchant who for
a long time virtually supported Sisley.
An Expanding World
One consequence of industrialization was vastly improved
transport. Between 1850 and 1900 the railways in France
expanded from approximately 3000 kilometres (1850 miles) of
track to 13,000 kilometres (8000 miles). When Cezanne first
came up to Paris from Aix-en-Provence in 1861, the train
journey took three days; when he paid his last visit to the
capital in 1893, it took him only a day. The Impressionists
were able to travel on a scale unknown to their
predecessors. Monet, for example, not only explored and
painted various aspects of
the valley of the Seine and the Channel coast but was able
to travel to places as diverse as Normandy and Brittany, the
Creuse valley, Holland, Norway, Venice and London. The whole
of France was now available as a visual playground - places
such as Argenteuil, Ghatou and Asnieres that feature so
prominently in Impressionist paintings having been made
easily accessible by the railways, which themselves became
favourite images in the iconography of Manet, Monet and
Pissarro. The opening of transalpine tunnels improved access
to Italy, and the establishment of regular cross-Atlantic
steamer services made it possible for enterprising dealers
such as Paul Durand-Ruel to have easy access to the
American art market, thus allowing the wealth and initiative
of a new generation of collectors in the New World to
redress the aesthetic deficiencies of the old.
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Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Paul Durand-Ruel
1910
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Paul Durand-Ruel
born October 31, 1831, Paris, France
died February 5, 1922, Paris
in full Paul-Marie-Joseph Durand-Ruel French art dealer who was
an early champion of the Barbizonschool artists and the
Impressionists.
Durand-Ruel began his career in his father's art gallery, which
he inherited in 1865. At the outset he concentrated on buying
the work of Barbizon artists—particularly Camille Corot,
Charles-François Daubigny, and Jules Dupré—and for many years he
was the only dealer to do so. In 1848 he bought every painting
by Théodore Rousseau that he could locate; he was unable to sell
a single one of them for the next 20 years. He also advanced
money to Jean-François Millet, providing his sole support for
many years.
In the early 1870s Durand-Ruel met Claude Monet and Camille
Pissarro. Though they and the other Impressionists had been
denounced by the art establishment and shunned by the buying
public, Durand-Ruel courageously bought theirwork and that of
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley,
Édouard Manet, and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes as well.
In 1886 Durand-Ruel went to New York City to exhibit the works
of his painters at the National Academy of Design. The show was
so well received that he established a branch of Durand-Ruel in
New York City the following year. As a result of his persistence
and foresight, he gained a reputation as the principal agent for
the success of the Impressionist painters.
(Encyclopaedia Britannica)
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THE DAWN OF A NEW STYLE
1863-1873
Other
Events
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1863
Art in Revolt
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The ornate entrance to the Palais de l'Industrie in the Champs-Elysees,
where the annual exhibition of the Salon was held. |
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Other
Events
-First aerial photographs of Paris taken by Nadar
-First underground railway opens in London
-Delacroix dies
-Rossetti paints "Beata Beatrix"
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Furious at their rejection from the Salon,
hundreds of French artists complain to the authorities. As a result, the Emperor
orders an exhibition of rejected works, the Salon des Refuses. It is dominated
by Manet's
"Dejeuner sur L'herbe",
showing a naked woman picnicking in the open with two
fully clothed men - to young artists a triumph of Realism, to conservatives a
shmeless piece of pornography.
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MANET
Lola de Valence
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MANET
Music in the Tuileries Garden
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MANET
Dejeuner sur L'herbe
The inspiration for this painting [originally entitled Le Bain)
came from two sources:
Marcantomo Raimondi's engraving (c.1500) of Raphael's The
Judgement of Paris and Titian's Le Concert Champetre,
of which Manet owned a copy.
The man looking out from the painting is based on one of Manet's
brothers (or possibly both),
while his companion is the sculptor Ferdinand Leenhoff, brother of
Suzanne Leenhoff,
whom Manet married in October.
The nude sitting with them is Victorine Meurcnt — who also posed for
Olympia.
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CRITICAL REACTIONS TO MANET'S 'DEJEUNER SUR L'HERBE'
I ought not to omit a remarkable picture of the Realist
school, a translation of a thought of Giorgione into modern
French. Yes, there they are, under the trees, the principal lady
entirely undressed, sitting calmly in the well-known attitude oj
Gwrgione's Venetian woman; another female in a chemise coming
out of a little stream that runs hard by; and two Frenchmen in
wide-awakes [broad-brimmed hats] sitting on the very
green grass with a stupid look of bliss.
PHILIP HAMERTON, Fine Arts Quarterly Review, June 1863
Unfortunately the nude hasn't a good figure and one can't
think of anything uglier than the man stretched out beside her,
who hasn't even thought of taking off... his horrid padded cap.
It is the contrast of a creature so inappropriate in a pastoral
scene with this naked bather that is so shocking.
THEOPHILE THORE, Salons, 1863
I see garments without feeling the anatomical structure that
supports them and explains their movements. I see boneless
fingers and heads without skulls. I see side-whiskers made of
two strips of black cloth that could have been glued to the
cheeks. What else do I see? The artist's lack of conviction and
sincerity. JULES CASTAGNARY, reprinted in Salons, 1892
A commonplace woman of the demi-monde, as naked as possible,
shamelessly lolls between two overdressed fops, who look like
schoolboys on a holiday doing something naughty to play at being
grown-up. I search in vain for any meaning to this unbecoming
riddle.
LOUIS ETIENNE, Le Jury et les exposants, 1863
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1864
A More Tolerant Salon
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Other
Events
-Gustave
Moreau successfully exhibits
"Oedipus and the Sphinx"
at the Salon
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As a result of complaints about the Salon of 1863, the number of works
rejected by the jury drops by 40 per cent. Manet, Morisot, Pissarro and Renoir exhibit;
but Monet and Bazille make no submissions, though both are productive, working together in
Honfleur.
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BAZILLE
The Pink Dress |
MANET
Racetrack Near Paris |
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1865
"Olympia" - a Sensation
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Works by academic painters purchased by the State at the Salon
of 1865.
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Other
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-Gustave Dore
illustrates the Bible
-Yale University opens first Department of
Fine Arts in USA
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Manet - the "father" of Impressionism - causes a sensation with a
painting accepted by the Salon. As with "Dejeuner sur l'herbe" of 1863, the
subject (a recumbent Venus) is inspired by a classical precedent, but it has been
reinterpreted in a contemporary manner.
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MANET
Olympia
1863
Criticism of Manet's Olympia was directed as much against the
"ugliness' of the model as against its stylistic novelty.
It is easy to understand the shock provoked by this painting when it
is compared with the pictures
by academic painters that were habitually hung in the Salon, with
their anonymous faces,
contrived poses and total insulation from contemporary reality.
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CRITICAL REACTIONS TO MANET'S 'OLYMPIA'
The sensation provoked by Olympia at the Salon of 1865 was even
greater than that which had greeted Dejeuner sur l'herhe - few
critics showing the perspicacity of Zola, who in 1867 published
the following apostrophe to Manet:
For you a picture is but an opportunity for analysis. You
wanted a nude, and you took Olympia, I he first to come along;
you wanted bright, luminous patches, and the bouquet provided
them; you wanted black patches, and von added a black woman and
a black cat. What does all this mean? You hardly know, nor do I.
But I know that you succeeded admirably in creating a work of
painting, of great painting, and in translating into a special
language the verities of light and shade, the realities of
persons and things.
EMILE ZOLA, L'Artiste, January 1st, 1867
More common were sentiments such as the following:
What's this yellow-bellied odalisque, this vile model picked
up goodness knows where and representing Olympia?
JULES CLARETIE, L'Artiste, May, 1865
The crowd, as at the morgue, throngs in front of the gamy
'Olympia' and the horrible 'Ecce Homo' of M. Manet.
PAUL DE SAINT-VICTOR, La Presse, May 28th, 1865
'Olympia' can be understood from no point of view, even if
you take it for what it is. a puny model stretched out on a
sheet. The cnlour of the flesh is dirty, the modelling
non-existent. The shadows are indicated by comparatively large
smears of blacking. What's to be said for the negress, who
brings a bunch of flowers wrapped in some paper, or for the
black cat that leaves its dirty pawmarks on the bed? We would
still forgive the ugliness were it truthful, carefully studied,
heightened by some effect of colour. The least beautiful woman
has bones, muscles, skin, heightened by some sort of colour.
Here is nothing, we are sorry to say, but the desire to attract
attention at any price.
THEOPHILE GAUTIER, Le Moniteur universel, June 24th, 1865
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1866
A Defender Appears
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Other
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-Winslow
Homer paints "Prisoners from
the Front"
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Emile Zola - a childhood friend of Cezanne - becomes increasingly identified
with the future Impressionists, recognizing in their preference for scenes of
contemporary life "Realist" tendencies complementary to his own literary aims.
By publicly lending the artists his support, however, he incurs ridicule and
hostility from his readers.
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RENOIR
Mother Anthony's Inn at Marlotte |
MONET
Women in the Garden |
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1867
Manet's
Personal Exhibition
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Cover of one of the many illustrated publications
produced to promote the Universal Exhibition.
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Other
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-Millais paints "The Boyhood of Raleigh"
-Japanese art exhibited for first time in
West at Universal Exhibition in Paris
-Peter
von Cornelius,
Ingres
and
Theodore Rousseau
die
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Capitalizing on the vast
number of people expected to visit the Universal Exhibition,
Manet and Courbet each erect a pavilion in the Place de l'Alma,
near one of the entrances, in order to display their own work.
Despite widespread publicity and the amount of money lavished on
the pavilions, both exhibitions are no more than a partial
success and neither receive much critical acclaim.
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RENOIR
Lise with a Parasol |
PISSARRO
The Hermitage at Pontoise |
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1868
The Realist Impulse
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This engraving of the Salon of 1868 shows how
closely
the exhibits were crowded together.
Large paintings were generally hung above smaller ones.
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Other
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-Eugene Boudin Museum founded in Honfleur, France
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Most of the artists
have works accepted by the Salon this year. Their submissions
vary tremendously in technique and subject matter, being
connected only by a shared concern with contemporary life.
Renoir's "Lise with a Parasol" — described by one critic as 'the
fat woman daubed in white'' — attracts attention because of the
freshness of the image and the directness of Renoir's brushwork.
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MANET
The Balcony |
RENOIR
Alfred Sisley and his Wife |
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1869
Manet Falls Foul
of the Censor
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Other
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-Charles Cros invents colour photography
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Manet is fully aware that his decision to paint the execution of Emperor
Maximilian - a controversial episode from recent political history - is unlikely to win
the approval of the authorities. He therefore is not surprised when the Salon refuses to
exhibit it.
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BAZILLE
Bathers |
MANET
The Execution of Emperor Maximilian |
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1870
Soldiers and Exiles
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Frederic Bazille
dies
/1841-1870/
Frederic
Bazille
(b Montpellier, 6 Dec 1841; d
Beaune-la-Rolande, 28 Nov 1870).
French painter. The son of
a senator, he was born into the wealthy Protestant middle
class in Montpellier. He soon came into contact with the
contemporary and still controversial painting of Eugène
Delacroix and Gustave Courbet through the Montpellier
collector, Alfred Bruyas. In response to his family’s wishes
he began to study medicine in 1860. He moved to Paris in
1862 and devoted his time increasingly to painting. In
November 1862 he entered the studio of Charles Gleyre where
he produced academic life drawings (examples in Montpellier,
Mus. Fabre) and made friends with the future Impressionists,
Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley. When the
studio closed in 1863, he did not look for another teacher
but followed his friends to Chailly, near the forest of
Fontainebleau, where he made studies from nature (e.g.
Study of Trees; priv. col.). From 1863 he took an active
part in Parisian musical life, attending the Pasdeloup and
Conservatoire concerts. He developed a passion for opera
(Berlioz and Wagner in particular) and German music
(Beethoven and Schumann). He attended the salon of his
cousins, the Lejosne family, where Henri Fantin-Latour,
Charles Baudelaire, Edmond Maitre, Renoir and Edouard Manet
were frequent guests, and at the end of 1863 he met Courbet.
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Other
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-Schliemann begins excavations at Hissarlik, in Turkey, which he believes to be the site of Troy.
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Political events - the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, the proclamation of
the Third Republic and the Siege of Paris - greatly affect the lives of the
artists.
Manet, Degas and Renoir enlist; Monet and Pissarro flee to England.
Bazille is killed in action, ages
29.
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DEGAS
Musicians in the Orchestra |
PISSARRO
The Road from Versailles at Louveciennes
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1871
The "Terror"
of the Commune
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Other
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-Zola starts writing the first of his
"Rougon-Macquart" novels
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The Franco-Prussian War is followed by the proclamation of the Commune in
Paris. Courbet's first action as President of the Art Commission is to organize the
demolition of the Napoleonic column in Place Vendome, but after seventy-two days the
Commune is suppressed and Courbet imprisoned.
In London, Durand-Ruel exhibits the works of Monet and Pissarro,
and forges a lasting and significant link with the fu5ture
Impressionist artists.
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MANET
The Barricade |
MORISOT
Portrait of Edma Pontillon
(nee Morisot) |
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1872
The Rise of
Durand-Ruel
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Other
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-Whistler paints "The Artist's Maother"
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Buying in bulk gives the dealer Durant-Ruel the opportunity to purchase
works by Degas, Manet, Renoir and Sisley relativery cheaply. This year he
also mounts the first exhibitionsw of Impressionist work to be
held in London, though these are not a commercial success.
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RENOIR
Claude Monet Reading |
SISLEY
The Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne |
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1873
Gathering of the
Future Impressionists
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Other
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-Corot paints "Souvenir d'Italie"
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Despite the fact that an increasing number of the future Impressionists are
still working
outside Paris, there is a growing sense of common purpose among the artists, which
culminates in the formation of the Societe Anonyme des Artistes, the primary aim of which is to mount group exhibitions free from
selection by a jury.
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GUILLAUMIN
Outskirts of Paris |
PISSARRO
Self-Portrait |
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