The movement emerged around 1860, when a young group of artists side-tackled the public with a radically new group of paintings. The 'impressionists' (a term initially given to them in a derogatory way but later embraced by the painters) stressed the subjective nature of the constantly changing world and found inspiration in depicting their own personal impression of a scene.
The most striking element of this movement in regards to my independent study project is the shifting focus of these artists in terms of the way they perceived and depicted the human figure. Human figures in impressionist works are often painted from life, or 'in situ' as the French call it. The figure is created with a rapid and visible brushstroke and is often decentralized in the composition. Impressionists were blatantly unconcerned with replicating the human form with precise anatomical accuracy. Rather, they were enchanted with the way the light danced off it's myriad surfaces, the range of colors produced by shifting shadows, and the lyrical contours created by the body's subtlely shifting planes.
To take full advantage of the incredible Impressionist collections Paris has to offer, I visited the Petit Palais Museum, the Rodin Museum, and the acclaimed Musee D'Orsay. What a trio. Here's a photo of the interior courtyard of the Petit Palais — pretty pictoresque!
At the Petit Palais I was able to view a number of impressionist works featuring human figures, such as 'Le Bain' (below), painted by Mary Cassatt in 1910.
Then I scooted off to the Rodin Museum, an impressive collection of both sculpture and painting. The museum occupies Rodin's old house and well-manicured gardens. Based on the musculature in Rodin's sculpted bronze figures, the artist must have had a solid foundational knowledge and interest in human anatomy. Many of the sculptures, such as the one featured below, feel like throw backs to the days of Antiquity in regards to over-emphasized musculature and idealized forms. Rodin's figures feature several features that make them distinct from Classical sculpture, however. First, the surface of the sculpture often appears as if it has been modeled from clay, in stark contrast to the perfectly smooth surfaces of the flesh in Classical sculpture. Secondly, Rodin paid particular attention to rendering the details of the hands and feet, and as a result these body part are often much larger than in classical sculpture. Finally, the overall impact of Rodin's figure are more expressionistic; the characters are wracked with grief, regret, passion or fatigue, and their bodies reflect this host of emotions in a way that many of the stoic and noble characters of Greek and Roman sculpture never were.
While this Rodin sculpture, 'The Three Shades', appears to be three different figures, the artist in fact used the same mold for all three, and simply rotated the mold to create the illusion of three unique men. And he thought he could get away with that...
Since creating art 'en plein air' was one of the major principles of the Impressionists, I decided I better take this idea to heart. It was a gorgeous sunny afternoon in the garden, so I ripped out my sketchbook and got to work. In the following sketches I focused on capturing an initial impression of the sculpture, and then quickly translating that impression to paper using ink and oil pastels.
There was a couple getting married on the sunny steps to my left, and I couldn't resist making a few sketches from life. It was a little bit tough because the duo kept moving, but good practice for me in capturing the essence of the gestures.
My third stop was the Musee D'Orsay, and as one of the world's most amazing impressionist collectoins, it was a mob scene. I was not able to take photos of the works in the museum, thus the photos that follow are from the web and are not my own. I did however take notes while I was in front of the works, and will conclude this blog post with a sampling of 6 works I find particularly interesting with regards to impresisonism and depiction of the human form.
To start things off is a work by Edouard Manet, an artist generally considered to straddle realism and impressionism. 'Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe' was painted in 1863. The figures are rendered in a realistic style, featuring believable proportions and overall correct anatomy. Anatomical details are present, such as the gentle line of the nude's shoulder blade, her subtely defined thigh muscles, and naturally sprawling toes. This painting stands apart from many of the works I studied during the Realism section last week, however, due it's overall softern quality and the soulful gaze of the central nude. Her skin is luminescent, nearly opalescent, making her physical body the subject of this otherwise dark forest scene.
This next piece, 'Le garcon au chat,' was painted by Pierre Auguste Renoir in 1868. This painting is similarly realistic in regards to the boy's anatomy, but features the same soft quality as the previous work. The subject is bathed in soft indoor lighting, and his dark eyes stare off in an approachable and humanistic way. The painting takes a step closer to full-blown impressionism with the soft modeling of white light on the boy's back. Rodin uses visible white brushstrokes, following the contours of the boy's body, while distinguishing more contoured areas, such as the knees and left elbow, with light blues and browns.
The piece below is another Renoir at the D'Orsay, titled 'Etude, Torse, Effet de Soleil,' painted in 1875. As evidenced in the title, 'Study of a torso, effect of the sun,' Renoir's main artistic goal was to transfer the play of light on the woman's chest and abdomen to the canvas. Many of Renoir's figures are smoothed and softened to the point of becoming vague and dreamlike. It appears the Renoir's focus was not the underlying anatomy of this woman, but rather the light on her surface. This female nude reminds me of many female figures from classical scupture in the way that the artist seems to skim over the presence of bones and muscles beneath the skin and opt for an idealized, smooth, perfected surface. Here Renior paints that surface with shades of rose, peach, light blues and greens.
The next piece that drew my attention was a series of small bronze scupltures by Edgar Degas, such as the one below. Rather than rigidly map out the muscles and bone structure of these female nudes, Degas opted for a more movement-conscious and gesture-driven artistic approach. Upon first glance these figures appear relatively anatomically-accurate, at least enough so not to draw attention to the anatomy itself. Working from life, Degas most likely did not carefully caculate proportions but rather formed the shapes of the body by referencing them to one another. Part of the charm of these figures is their un-idealized nature — the effect of the surface is mottled and varied, unlike the smooth and idealized surface of Renoir's figures. The wonderful irony of these small sculptures is that the artist's goal was to lightly capture a momentary gesture, yet the gesture itself is memorialized in heavy, longlasting bronze.
The fifth piece that caught my eye in the d'Orsay's impressionist collection was 'Raboteurs de Parquet,' by Gustave Caillebotte, painted in 1875. The musculature of the figures is more precisely rendered than many other Impressionist works in the collection. Caeillebotte may have had the underlying musculature and bone anatomy more in mind as he employed light to define the contours of the men's backs and shoulders. This may be due to the fact that the men's muscles are directly linked to the subject matter of the painting — physical labor.
The final painting I'd like to highlight is another Renior, painted in 1918 and titled 'Les Baigneuses'. This piece encapsulates the impressionist principle of depicting light and the essence of form rather than focusing on detail or exact replication of reality. In this work the fat of the women's bodies folds uniformly from their breasts to their hips. It does not appear realistic, yet communicates the eased-out, heavy and sexualized nature of these woman to the viewer in an efficient way. In this work Renoir consciously forgoes accurate anatomy and instead puts his energy into communicating the heavy soft and lush nature of the women's forms in this seductive and warm work.
This week of studies was greatly enhanced by the opportunity to visit such a varied and rich body of impressionist work in Paris. I am looking forward to continuing my immersion in this subject next week as I move on to Post-Impressionism!
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