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What is impressionism?
The term impressionism is sometimes applied to the effect here attained, and
correctly in so far as that means something physically momentary. Impressionism is a
term that can be applied to both pictures and paintings.

Maurice Utrillo Valadon

French Painter
Influenced by Impressionism, but created a unique style some refer to as "Classic
Modernism"
Date and Place of Birth:

December 25, 1883, Paris, France

Life:

Utrillo (born Maurice Valadon, illegitimate son of artist Suzanne Valadon) took
up painting to save his life. At the age of 19, after being institutionalized for chronic
alcoholism, his mother suggested painting as an outlet and distraction. He took to it
with a vengeance, producing thousands of paintings and sketches over the course of the
next 50-plus years. He is best known for his cityscape's of the Montmarte artists'
quarter in Paris. (Art History)
Maurice Utrillo Valadon

is fascinated by the sad little streets and miserable

bistros of the industrial suburbs. It is true that he also painted some of the great
cathedrals of France and panoramas of Brittany and Corsica, as well as a few flower
pieces, but it is as the painter of the unheralded sights of the French capital that he
will be known forever.
One may recognize the influence of Pissarro and Czanne, but his solidity of
composition, his gift for simplification, and his unerring sense of color relation are
instinctive to him. Just as he is not a primitive, neither is he a classicist, a realist, an
Impressionist, a Fauve, an Expressionist, nor even a romantic. He is a complete
individualist who defies all classifications. It is customary to concentrate on the
pictures of his "white period," when roughly between 1909 and 1914, white tints and
shades were prominent in his work. However, the years preceding those of his white
period yielded many fine paintings and in the paintings of his later colorist period
he often used bright and gay hew successfully.
Utrillo is one of the few contemporary painters whose works please sophisticated
as well as simple tastes. Despite changing fashions and fluctuations of the market, his
canvasses bring higher and higher prices with each year -- good Utrillos of the "white
period" are sold for thousands of dollars. Now universally respected, he has been
challenged in the courts twice and emerged victorious each time: once when American
customs officials had denounced his work as dutiable products because they had been
done with the aid of picture postcards and another time when a catalogue of a London
museum stated that the artist had long since perished, a victim of excessive drinking.
In the second case, the squire of Le Vsinet was able to convince a British court that
he was very much alive and was dividing his time between work and religious devotion.
Now seventy, Utrillo still remembers and paints the Bohemian and proletarian Paris
which he roamed as a frustrated, unhappy young ruffian, yet he never visits these
scenes. His life will have no tragic ending la Van Gogh, Modigliani, or Pascin. The
story's end is peace -- the same peace that greets the beholder of Utrillo's

transfigurations of even the most sordid places the peace that as an old man he is
now seeking with the believing soul of a child.

Important Works:

Rue de la Jonquiere
(c. 1909)

L'Impasse Cottin
(1910)

Paris Street
(1914)

Montmarte and Broullards
(1934)
Date and Place of Death:

November 5, 1955, Dax, France

Impressionism a major movement in painting that developed chiefly in France
th
th
during the late 19
and early 20
centuries. Impressionist painting comprises the work
produced between about 1867 and 1886 by a group of artists who shared a set of
related approaches and techniques. Characteristics of Impressionism were an attempt
to accurately and objectively record visual reality in terms of transient effects of light
and color.
The principal Impressionist painters were Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir,
Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Berthe Morisot, Armand Guillaumin, and Frdric
Bazille, who worked together, influenced each other, and exhibited together
independently. Edgar Degas and Paul Czanne also painted in an Impressionist style for
a time in the early 1870s. The established painter douard Manet, whose work in the
1860s greatly influenced Monet and others of the group, himself adopted the
Impressionist approach about 1873.

Edouard Manet
French Painter
Date and Place of Birth:

January 23, 1832, Paris, France

Life:
(Art History)

douard Manet, a French painter and print maker who in his own work
accomplished the transition from the realism of Gustave Courbet to Impressionism.
Manet broke new ground in choosing subjects from the events and appearances of his
own time and in stressing the definition of painting as the arrangement of paint areas
on a canvas over and above its function as representation. Exhibited in 1863 at the
Salon des Refuss, his
Le Djeuner sur l'herbe
("Luncheon on the Grass") aroused the
hostility of the critics and the enthusiasm of a group of young painters who later
formed the nucleus of the Impressionists. His other notable works include
Olympia
(1863) and
A Bar at the Folies-Bergre
(1882).

Edouard Manet viewed the life around him and is explicit and positive in his
formal interpretations.
A Bar at the Folies-Bergre
(1882) was last of his Salon
pictures, having been shown in 1882., the year before his death. Like the earlier
pictures, the painting is significant in its presentation of a theme whose value lies in
being an exercise n seeing, for the subject is completely casual. It was appreciated by
the public for its novelty in this respect, popular taste having changed considerably in
the twenty yeats since Manet first exhibited. But to Manet it was important principally
for the opportunity provided for still further analysis of visual experience and of the
pectorial means by which it could be defined and organized. The varied textures and
colors of bottles, glasses, and fruit on the marble topped bar, the costumes, and the
gleam of gaslights in the mirror are translated into pigment with a sureness of touch
and an exonomy of means that are the final revelation of Manets lifelong interest in
the methods of painting.

The Bar at the Folies Bergeres is a summation of Manets art. Technically it

reveals his method of analyzing visual experience by determining the structural planes
of three dimensional forms and his way of reconstructing those planes in color which
functions directly, without values or chiaroscuro.
Important Works:

Dejeuner sur l'herbe (Luncheon on the Grass)
(1863)

Olympia
(1863)

Bar at the Folies-Bergre
(1882)
Date and Place of Death:

April 30, 1883, Paris, France

A French 19th century art movement, which marked a momentous, break from
tradition in European painting. The Impressionists incorporated new scientific research
into the physics of color to achieve a more exact representation of color and tone.
The sudden change in the look of these paintings was brought about by a
change in methodology: applying paint in small touches of pure color rather than
broader strokes, and painting out of doors to catch a particular fleeting impression of
color and light. The result was to emphasize the artist's perception of the subject
matter as much as the subject itself.
Impressionist art is a style in which the artist captures the image of an object
as someone would see it if they just caught a glimpse of it. They paint the pictures
with a lot of color and most of their pictures are outdoor scenes. Their pictures are
very bright and vibrant. The artists like to capture their images without detail but
with bold colors. Some of the greatest impressionist artists were Edouard Manet,
Camille Pissaro, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot and Pierre
Auguste Renoir.
Manet influenced the development of impressionism. He painted everyday
objects. Pissaro and Sisley painted the French countryside and river scenes. Degas
enjoyed painting ballet dancers and horse races. Morisot painted women doing everyday
things. Renoir loved to show the effect of sunlight on flowers and figures. Monet was
interested in subtle changes in the atmosphere.
While the term Impressionist covers much of the art of this time, there were
smaller movements within it, such as Pointillism, Art Nouveau and Fauvism. Pointilism
was developed from Impressionism and involved the use of many small dots of color to
give a painting a greater sense of vibrancy when seen from a distance. The equal size
dots never quite merge in the viewer's perception resulting in a shimmering effect like
one experience on a hot and sunny day. One of the leading exponents was Seurat to
whom the term was first applied in regard to his painting 'La Grand Jette' (1886).
Seurat was part of the Neo-Impressionist movement, which included Camille
Pissarro, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Signac. The
word Divisionism describes the theory they followed while the actual process was known
as pointillism. The effects of this technique, if used well, were often far more striking
than the conventional approach of mixing colors together. The Neo-Impressionist
movement was brief yet influential. The term Divisionism was also the name of an
Italian version of Neo-Impressionism in the 1890s and early 1900s, and one can trace
a line to Futurism, which was founded in 1909.

Signac, Paul
French Painter
Date and Place of Birth:

November 11,
1863, Paris, France
Life:

(Art History)
Paul Signac was a French neo-impressionist painter, one of the originators of
the technique known as pointillism or divisionism. Upon Seurat's death, he succeeded
him as leader of the Neo-Impressionists.
Seurat was born in Paris on November 11, 1863. He originally planned to study
architecture, but upon getting to know the Impressionist school, he decided to become
an artist, his prosperous shop keeping family giving him financial independence. He
painted in Paris with his friend Armand Guillaumin, an artist on the fringe of
Impressionism.
In 1884 he met Monet and Georges Seurat. He was struck by the systematic
working methods of Seurat, and his theory of colors and became Seurat's faithful
supporter. Under his influence he abandoned the short brushstrokes of impressionism
to experiment with scientifically juxtaposed small dots of pure color, intended to
combine and blend not on the canvas but in the viewer's eye, the defining feature of
pointillism.
Important Works:

The Dining Room, 1887

Portrait of M. Flix Fnon in 1890, 1890
Women at the Well, 1892

Red Buoy, 1895

Date and Place of Death:

1935, Paris, France

Portrait of Paul Signac done by Edouard Manet.

Portrait de M. Flix Fnon, 1890

What is Impressionism or neo-impressionism?
The Neo-Impressionists sought to modify Impressionist style by giving greater
form and unity to their compositions through short, broken brushstrokes of adjacent
complementary colors creating a vibrating, shimmering effect to the viewer's eye.
This was a movement in painting, which was an outgrowth and reaction to
Impressionism.
It was originated by Georges-Pierre Seurat (French, 1859-1891),Other
neo-impressionists include Camille Pissaro (French, 1830-1903), Paul Signac (French,
1863-1935), Theodoor van Rysselberghe (Belgian, 1862-1926), and Henry Edmond
Cross (French, 1856-1910).

Lance O'Gorman
Painter
Date and Place of Birth:

New Zealand
Life:
Lance O'Gorman has earned the reputation of being one of New Zealand's
foremost artists, classified as a neo-impressionist, he has a unique style and creates a
sense of colour that captures the atmosphere and feeling of the subject he paints.
(International Art Centre)

Painting for almost fifty years, he has captured the New Zealand landscape,
particularly Auckland and the Hauraki Gulf. Works feature in many private, public and
corporate collections in the United States, Europe and Asia. He is represented in the
collections of Roche, Fletcher Challenge and more recently that of the Sultan of
Brunei. (International Art Centre)
O'Gorman says, As an artist, much of my work is to explore pigments,
surfaces, brushstroke and colour, and then apply this knowledge, in a variety of styles,
to our surroundings. Although basically an impressionist, his aim is to apply both
modern and traditional concepts in the painting to enhance atmosphere and feeling.
(International Art Centre)
He is a member of the New Zealand, Australian and British Fellowship of
Artists who has received several awards including a Kelliher Art Prize. In recent issues
of the Australian Artist Lance O'Gorman was nominated favourite New Zealand artist.
Books on the artist's work are Northland - A Portrait, The Art of Lance O'Gorman
and more recently Auckland, City of Sails. (International Art Centre)
Before addressing the question of origins in more detail, it is worth asking
simply, and in the broadest possible terms, why the impressionist phenomenon occurred
th
when it did. The influence of these artists dates back to the 16
century, and has
changed in somewhat limited ways. Many of the artists used ideas and styles from one
another to achieve success as an impressionistic painter. It seems that the French
were the strongest of the impressionist painters. Impressionism has generated several
new painting styles such as pointillism, which is very similar to divisionism, but where
divisionism is concerned with color theory. Pointillism is more focused on the specific
style of brushwork used to apply the paint. These techniques are based on the
scientific positioning of touches or dots of pure color. The human brain blends the
colors automatically in the involuntary process of optical mixing. Optical mixing
is the

process by which the eyes blend bits of pure color placed next to each other in an
image.
Each impressionist painter used a sequence of coloured dots made from the tip
of the paintbrush to form each painting in most instances. This could have very well
have led to the style of painting known as pointillism. This style of painting leads to a
blurry effect of limited details. Each dot of paint forms a image or figure within the
painting that allows the painting to come alive with expressions. With careful intricacy
of light and dark colour, the painting shows depth and perception. Blending these dots
of colour allowed the painter to form the painting into brilliant painting with contrast
and look of no other style of painting.

Over the years a massive body of scholarly material has appeared that has a
direct bearing on the history of this fascinating art movement. One by one, each
artists has contributed to the great history of impressionism. A collection of art work
from the impressionist, along with the personal information of the impressionists lives
have been highlighted by publications, documents, and correspondence. This has allowed
a significant amount of history to be revealed to multiple people throughout the world.
Their works have been closely scrutinized and subjected to analyses from many
perspectives. Many of these pieces of art work have been reproduced in many ways.
As you may already know all these timeless pieces of art work are located throughout
multiple muesems amongst the world. Many of these pieces have become daunting to
students and specialist alike. With one or two exceptions, Impressionist painting
entailed a rejection of unaccepted themes drawn from religion, mythology, and history.
Impressionist focus on much more immediate and restricted goal of the artist
passing. Impressionism involves discarding traditional methods of dark to light using
tonal gradients, and glazes of colour. Over time impressionism became very popular
amongst the people. This kind of popularity was not common in earlier parts of art.
This contributed to the uniqueness of the art as a whole. The artist and the viewer
could get lost in a painting as if they were at the scene when the painting was
produced.
Finally, Impressionism is considered soothing by many people because it avoids
the painful realities of the world. Impressionism has a reassuring air of confidence
unlike much conceptually based art of today. It does not constantly raise the question
of its own legitimacy and seek to redefine its place in todays culture.

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Ash,Russell.
TheImpressionistsAndTheirArt
,1980.LongMeadowPress.

Stamford,CT.18March2004.

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April27,2004.

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TheHarperHistoryofPainting
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NewYork.18March2004.

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Impressionism,Origins,Practice,Reception
,2000.Thames&

HudsonWorldofArt.NewYork,NewYork.18March2004.