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ART HISTORY 4450 Impressionism: Renoir & Morisot
Renoir (1841-1919) •
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biography: – good friends w/ Monet when both poor & struggling – often painted w/ Monet in Paris & its suburbs – joyous personality subjects: – delightful, intimate outdoor scenes – leisure time & gaiety of middleclass Parisians at cafes and concerts narrative: spontaneous effect of photography light & shadow: – fleeting effects of sunlight – falls in patches – dappling surface handling of paint: – loose & rapid – thick application (“impasto”)
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Renoir •
Theater Box (1874) – – –
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genre: portraiture subject: leisure activity of haute (upper) bourgeoisie narrative: disparate gazes communicate complex emotional states brushwork: painterly composition: dynamic arrangement of diagonals color: synthetic • limited palette range – black & white – muted browns • vibrant, primary accents light/shadow: • bleaching effect on principal figure • subtle gradations on background figure
Renoir’s Le Moulin de la Galette (1876)
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RENOIR’s Impressionist Le Moulin de la Galette (c. 1875) vs. POUSSIN’s Dance to the Music of Time (c. 1625)
Renoir’s The Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881)
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Renoir • The Terrace (1881) – – – –
subject: portraiture theme: bourgeois success brushwork: painterly perspective: synthetic • implicit linear • aerial cut-off by shrubbery – composition: synthetic • stable figures on CVA • dynamic: enlivening elements – diverted gazes – diagonal railing – color: vibrant & complimentary – light/shadow: dappling effects
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Details from Renoir’s The Terrace (1881)
Renoir •
Seated Bather (1883-84) – – – –
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narrative: contrived figure: modest pose: ambiguous placement of legs(?) brushwork: pastiche • painterly background • academic treatment of figure composition: synthetic • stable figure’s placement on CVA & implicit triangular format • dynamic enlivening features – gaze & pose – cascading descent of water color: warm & complimentary tonalities light/shadow: bleaching vs. dappling effect
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Renoir: Late Classicizing style (c. 1890-1918) •
aesthetic: Classical – began to feel that in seeking effects of light he had forgotten "how either to paint or to draw” and compose – Impressionist style led to monotony • refused to exhibit with the group in their shows of 1879, 1880, and 1881
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Italian pilgrimage: 1882 – goal: to view Vatican frescos of Raphael – “simplicity and grandeur” confirmed his dissatisfactions w/ Impressionism – also saw Pompeiian Paintings that had given impetus to classical revival a hundred years before – in light of these Italian revelations, Renoir discovered new virtues in Ingres’s meticulously controlled surfaces
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determined, as a matter of practical business, to make a success in the Salon
Renoir’s The Bathers (1887)
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Detail from Renoir’s The Bathers (c. 1890) vs. Caracci’s Italian Baroque Venus and Anchise (c. 1600)
Renoir: Late Work •
Bathers (1918) – subject: traditional – brushwork: painterly – figures: idealized • based on an established Western canon, rather than on direct observation • swollen bellies, massive thighs, great heavy feet, billowing construction of flesh – perspective: aerial – composition: frieze-like (high-relief) – color: vibrant & complimentary – light/shadow: evenly distributed w/ high-keyed highlights
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(Left) Renoir’s Seated Bather (1883-84) vs. (right) Bathers (1918)
Morisot (1841-1895) •
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biography: – daughter of a top civil servant – granddaughter of Rococo painter Fragonard – married to Eugène Manet, brother of painter Édouard Manet training/association: – taught by Corot (Barbizon) – met Manet in 1868 • modeled for him & became his pupil • began working “plein air” • introduced to Impressionist circle in Paris mature style: impasto brushwork subjects: upper-middle class women, children & domestic life – restricted by social conventions and constraints of her gender and class – subjects chosen from her family and domestic circles
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Morisot •
Hide-and-Seek (1873) – – –
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subject: bourgeois mother & child narrative: calm and static brushwork: painterly • fluent, agile, and spontaneous • bold/vigorous streaks, dashes & dabs • animated and energetic rhythms forms: blur & obliterate drawing • rudimentary characterization of features and textures • relatively scant indications of shape and modeling perspective: • linear (implicit) • aerial composition: stable color: vibrant • warm tonalities • subtle use of compliments light/shadow: diffuse, flickering
Morisot’s Servant Hanging Laundry (1881)
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IMAGE INDEX •
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BAZILLE. Portrait of Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1867), Oil on canvas, 37 x 32 1/3 in., Musee d'Orsay, Paris. RENOIR. The Theater Box (1874), Oil on canvas, 31 1/2 x 25 in., Courtauld Institute Galleries, London. RENOIR. Le Moulin de la Galette (1876), Oil on canvas, 51 5/8 x 68 7/8 in., Musee d'Orsay, Paris. Comparison between (left) RENOIR’s Impressionist Le Moulin de la Galette (c. 1875); and (right) POUSSIN’s French Baroque Dance to the Music of Time (c. 1625). RENOIR. The Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881), Oil on canvas, 51 x 68 in., Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Detail of glass in RENOIR’s The Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881). RENOIR. On the Terrace (1881), Oil on canvas, 39 1/2 x 31 7/8 in., The Art Institute of Chicago. Details from Renoir’s The Terrace (1881). RENOIR. Seated Bather (1883-84), Oil on canvas, 47 1/8 x 36 ¾ in., Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
IMAGE INDEX •
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RENOIR. Bathers (1887), Oil on canvas, 3’ 10 3/8 x 5’7 ¼ in., Philadelphia Museum of Art. (Left) RENOIR’s Impressionist Bathers (1887); and (right) CARRACCI’s Italian Baroque Venus and Anchises (c. 1600) from the Farnese Gallery, Rome. RENOIR. Bathers (1918), Oil on canvas, 26 ½ x 32 in., The Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA. (Left) RENOIR’s Seated Bather (1883-84) vs. (right) Bathers (1918). MORISOT. In the Garden at Maurecourt (1884), Oil on canvas, 21 ¼ x 25 5/8 in., The Toledo Museum of Art. MORISOT. Peasant Hanging out the Washing (1881), Oil on canvas, 18 x 26 ¼ in., Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. MORISOT. Hide-and-Seek (1873), Oil on canvas, 17 3/4 x 21 5/8 in., Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, Las Vegas.
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