Claude monet b. Nov. 14, 1840, Paris, Fr. d. Dec. 5, 1926, Giverny French painter, artist who was the initiator, leader, and unswerving advocate of theImpressionist style. In his mature works, Monet developed his method of producing several studies of the same motif in series, changing canvases with the light or as his interest shifted. These "series" were generally dated and were frequently exhibited in groups--for example, "Haystacks" (1891) and "Rouen Cathedral" (1894). At his home in Giverny, Monet created the water-lily pond that served as inspiration for his "Nymphéas" paintings Edouard manet Jan. 23, 1832, Paris, France d. April 30, 1883, Paris French painter and printmaker 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 Refusés, his "Le Déjeuner 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-Bergère" Eugene boudin b. July 12, 1824, Honfleur, France d. Aug. 8, 1898, Deauville one of the first French landscape painters to paint in the open air, directly from nature. His many beach scenes directly link the carefully observed naturalism of the early 19th century and the brilliant light and fluid brushwork of late 19thcentury Impressionism. Encouraged at an early age by the French landscape artist Jean-François Millet, Boudin studied briefly in Paris, where he became enamoured of the paintings of JeanBaptiste-Camille Corot. Back on the Atlantic coast in 1853, Boudin began to paint the sea, his lifelong passion, making careful annotations on the backs of his paintings of the weather, the light, and the time of day. In 1858 he met Claude Monet, then only 18 years old, and persuaded him to become a landscape painter, helping to instill in him a love of bright hues and the play of light on water later evident in Monet's Impressionist paintings. Boudin exhibited with the Impressionists in 1874 but was not an innovator, and from 1875 onward he exhibited in the official Salon. Although his beach scenes sold well, he received little recognition until 1888, when the French government began to buy a few of his works for the Luxembourg Gallery. He eventually was generally recognized as a master and in 1892, when he was 68 years old, received the Legion of Honour. Salon d’autumne (French: Autumn Salon), exhibition of the works of young artists held every fall in Paris since 1903. The Salon was established when modern artists who were not accepted by the conservative, official Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts decided to form their own organization with the aims of welcoming any artist who wished to join, selecting a jury for exhibitions by drawing straws from the new group's membership,
and giving the decorative arts the same respect accorded to the fine arts. The first Salon d'Automne was held on Oct. 31, 1903, at the Petit-Palais. During its early years, the Salon exhibited the works of Henri Matisse, Dunoyer de Segonzac, Georges Rouault, Jacques Villon, and several Impressionists. Exhibitions were still being held in the 1970s.
Mary cassat b. May 22, 1844, Allegheny City, Pa., U.S. d. June 14, 1926, Château de Beaufresne, near Paris, France American painter and printmaker who exhibited with the Mary cassat uch of Cassatt's early life was spent in Europe with her wealthy family. She attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1861-65) and worked briefly with Charles Joshua Chaplin in Paris, but she preferred working in her own way and copying old masters. Although she was never actually a pupil of Edgar Degas, he was a close friend, and Cassatt was much influenced by him. He admired her entry in the Salon of 1874, and at his invitation she joined the Impressionists and afterward showed her works at their exhibitions. Degas's influence is apparent in Cassatt's mastery of drawing and in her unposed, asymmetrical compositions. Like him, she was innovative and inventive in exploiting the medium of pastels, in which she executed some of her best works. Initially, Cassatt was a figure painter whose subjects were groups of women drinking tea or on outings with friends. After the great exhibition of Japanese prints held in Paris in 1890, she brought out her series of 10 coloured prints; e.g., "Woman Bathing" and "The Coiffure," in which the influence of the Japanese masters Utamaro and Toyokuni is apparent. In these etchings, combining aquatint, dry point, and soft ground, she brought her printmaking technique to perfection. Her emphasis shifted from form to line and pattern. Soon after 1900 her eyesight began to fail, and by 1914 she had ceased working. The principal motif of her mature and perhaps most familiar period is mothers caring for small children Cassatt urged her wealthy American friends and relatives to buy Impressionist paintings, and in this way, more than through her own works, she exerted a lasting influence on American taste. She was largely responsible for selecting the works that make up the H.O. Pierre auguste Renoir Association with the Impressionists Circumstances encouraged Renoir to attempt a new freedom and experimentation in his style. The tradition of the time was that a painting--even a landscape--had to be executed in the studio. In the spring of 1864, however, Gleyre's four students moved temporarily to the forest of Fontainebleau, where they devoted themselves to painting directly from nature. The Fontainebleau forest had earlier attracted other artists, among them Théodore Rousseau and Jean-François Millet, who demanded that art represent the reality of everyday life, even though they had not yet completely renounced the constraints imposed by the traditional school. In 1863 Édouard Manet took a much bolder step: his picture, "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe" "Luncheon on the Grass"), provoked a violent scandal because its subject and technique affirmed the need for a revival of painting through the observation of reality. Manet's daring made him the leader of a new movement in the eyes of these young artists. Conditions were ripe for the birth of a new pictorial language, and Impressionism, bursting upon the scene, made quite a scandal in the first Impressionist exposition of 1874, held independently of the official Salon exhibition. It took 10 years for the movement to acquire its definitive form, its independent vision, and its unique perceptiveness. But one can point to 1874 as the year of departure for the movement
that subsequently spawned modern art. Renoir's work is a perfect illustration of this new approach in thought and in technique. Better than any other artist, he suggested by small multicoloured strokes the vibration of the atmosphere, the sparkling effect of foliage, and especially the luminosity of a young woman's skin in the outdoors. Renoir and his companions stubbornly strove to produce light-coloured paintings from which black was excluded, but their pursuits led to many disappointments: their paintings, so divergent from traditional formulas, were frequently rejected by the juries of the Salon and were extremely difficult to sell. On the other hand, despite the continuing criticisms, some of the Impressionists were making themselves known, as much among art critics as among the lay public. Renoir, because of his interest in the human figure, separated himself from the others who were more tempted by landscape. Thus he obtained several orders for portraits and was introduced, thanks to the publisher Georges Charpentier, to an upper-middle-class society, whose women and children he painted. Renoir was now a master of his craft, and his paintings showed great vitality despite the grave financial worries that troubled him. Several of his masterpieces date from this period: "La Loge" ("The Theatre Box," 1874), "Le Moulin de la galette" "The Luncheon of the Boating Party" (1881), "Mme Charpentier and Her Children" (1878). Charpentier organized a personal exposition for the works of Renoir in 1879 in the gallery La Vie Moderne. August Macke b. Jan. 3, 1887, Meschede, Ger. d. Sept. 26, 1914, Perthes-les-Hurlus, Fr. German painter who was a leader of Der Blaue Reiter group, one of the sources of German Expressionism. Macke was influenced, particularly in his earlier work, by his teacher Lovis Corinth, as well as by the Cubists and the Impressionists. A lyrical temperament, however, is revealed in his works, which avoid the often violent style and subject matter of his fellow Expressionists. His art combines the tradition of French painting--its sense of the grace of movement and atmosphere in landscape painting--with the cosmic sentiment of German art. In 1914 Macke traveled to Tunis with Paul Klee, and there he painted a series of works that place the subject upon a grid of various pure colours. These paintings demonstrate the effect that Orphic Cubism had upon Macke and number among his most widely admired works. Macke was killed in action in World War I. Copyright Š 1994-2000 EncyclopÌdia Britannica, Inc. Walter Sickert b. May 31, 1860, Munich, Bavaria [now in Germany] d. Jan. 22, 1942, Bath, Somerset, Eng. painter and printmaker who was the most important of the British Impressionists. Sickert was the son of Oswald Adalbert Sickert, a Danish-born German draftsman who settled in England in 1868. After several years on the stage, Sickert went in 1881 to the Slade School in London. In 1882 he became a pupil of James McNeill Whistler, and in 1883 he met Edgar Degas in Paris; these artists much influenced his work and personality. His first pictures of London music-hall interiors, which became one of his most typical subjects, appeared in 1886 at the New English Art Club, where Sickert exhibited until 1917. Sickert was indebted to Degas for the ability to establish a situation merely by the attitudes of the figures. He coupled this with a refreshing vein of satire, as in "Ennui" (c. 1913). Between 1885 and 1905 Sickert spent most of his summers at Dieppe and
worked in Venice. Returning to London in 1905, he became the focus of a group of painters that included Augustus John and Lucien Pissarro, the son of the French Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro. Through contact with Pissarro, Sickert began to show the influence of Neo-Impressionism in his work. He was a founder of the Camden Town and London groups (1911 and 1913, respectively). Sickert painted at Brighton and Bath in the 1920s and '30s and wrote occasional criticism, supporting Degas's principles of drawing.
Childe Hassam b. Oct. 17, 1859, Boston d. Aug. 27, 1935, East Hampton, N.Y., U.S. painter and printmaker, one of the foremost exponents of French Impressionism in American art. Hassam studied in Boston and Paris (1886-89), where he fell under the influence of the Impressionists and took to painting in brilliant colour with touches of pure pigment. On his return from Paris he settled in New York City, where he became a member of the group known as The Ten. His works are distinctive for their freshness and clear luminous atmosphere. Scenes of New York life remained his favourite subject matter--e.g., "Washington Arch, Spring" (1890; Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.). He also painted landscapes of New England and rural New York that, with their intense blue skies, lush foliage, and shimmering white light, became especially popular. Hassam produced about 300 black-and-white etchings and lithographs that are notable for their sense of light and atmosphere.
Prendergast Maurice basil b. Oct. 10, 1859, St. John's, Nfd., Can. d. Feb. 1, 1924, New York City painter, one of the finest American watercolourists, and one of the first artists in the United States to use the broad areas of colour characteristic of Postimpressionism. During the 1880s he studied art for two years in Paris, where he was influenced by the work of the French Impressionists and James McNeill Whistler. A painting such as "Umbrellas in the Rain" (1899; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), painted during his second European trip, reflects his new interest in Postimpressionist currents, especially in the paintings of Édouard Vuillard and Paul CÊzanne and the doctrines of Pointillism. Later pictures are composed of floating geometric areas of colour, representing such objects as hats, umbrellas, trees, balloons, and carriage wheels. Many of his works before 1904 were done in watercolour, but after this date he increasingly painted in oils from watercolour sketches. Still mosaic-like in effect, his later works are more abstract in treatment. Prendergast's works were shown in the controversial Armory Show in New York City (1913), and he exhibited with The Eight (see Eight, The). b. Aug. 4, 1853, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. Watchman-John Henry d. Aug. 8, 1902, Gloucester, Mass. painter and etcher, one of the first American Twachtman went to Munich in 1875 to study painting and adopted the broad brushwork and warmly dark tonal colouring of the Munich school. Later, he studied at the Julian Academy in Paris, where he came into contact with Impressionism and began to paint with broken dabs of colour. Unsuccessful at first, he supported himself after 1889 by teaching at the Art Students League in New York City. From that year also, his lyrical interpretation of landscape attained its maturity. He preferred painting scenes of nature veiled in cool, shimmering light--e.g., "The White Bridge." Among his best-known works are winter or early spring landscapes with delicate high-keyed colour and strong underlying formal
construction--e.g., "Hemlock Pool" (c. 1902). Twachtman was also prominent among The Ten, a group of American painters exhibiting independently of the National Academy of Design from 1895 onward. Whistler, James (Abbott) McNeill The challenge of his final period. Whistler faced many problems in later years. He may have felt that he was out of step with modern movements. For instance, by the 1890s Impressionism was a dominant style, but he himself, though keen on painting after nature, never used the radiant colours or technique of the Impressionists. He was happiest in painting small studies of townscape and seascape that reflect the influence of the 19th-century French painter Camille Corot. He made many etchings and lithographs, but--significantly at a time when colour lithographs were becoming popular--only three or four of his were in colour. His black-and-white lithographs, however, are delightful. After his return from Venice, Whistler became a great figure in London life, seeking publicity and winning points against Oscar Wilde in controversy. In 1888 he married Beatrix Godwin, and he and his wife spent much time in Paris on the Left Bank. When Beatrix Whistler died in 1896, Whistler was deeply upset, and his final years were sad. Although he kept in touch with his contemporaries and ran an art school in Paris, his productive period was over. In the early 1900s many excellent judges of art considered Whistler to be one of the leading painters of the day. Within a relatively short time, however, the reputation of this versatile artist suffered a decline, and only recently has Whistler begun to receive serious acclaim once again. Camile Pissarro b. July 10, 1830, St. Thomas, Danish West Indies d. Nov. 13, 1903, Paris painter, who endured prolonged financial hardship in keeping faith with the aims of Impressionism. Despite acute eye trouble, his later years were his most prolific. The Parisian and provincial scenes of this period include "Place du Théâtre Française" (1898) and "Bridge at Bruges" (1903). Pissarro was the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant, Abraham Gabriel Pissarro, and Rachel Manzano-Pomié. At the age of 12 he left home for studies in Paris, where he showed an early interest in art. Returning to the West Indies after five years to work in his father's store, he began making sketches of the exotic island and its people. Because he was unable to obtain his father's permission to study art, he ran away to Caracas in 1853 and remained there for two years with the Danish painter Fritz Melbye. Finally, Pissarro's father relented, and in 1855 he returned to France. His earliest canvases, dating from this period, are figure paintings and landscapes of the tropics and of the French countryside; although broadly painted, they show the careful observation of nature that was to remain a characteristic of his art throughout his life. The uninspired academic teaching at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he was enrolled, led Pissarro to seek out the painter Camille Corot, who permitted Pissarro to call himself Corot's "pupil" at a Salon exhibition in 1864. At this time Pissarro was also attracted to the rural, sentimental paintings of the Barbizon artist Jean-François Millet and to the works of Gustave Courbet, the leading proponent of everyday Realism. During the 1860s Pissarro participated in the famous Parisian Café Guerbois discussions, in which artists and writers exchanged ideas, and worked with the younger painters Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet. To escape the Franco-German War, in 1870 Pissarro fled to England; there he and Monet, who had also fled France,
visited the museums, where they viewed British landscape paintings. It was in London that Pissarro married Julie Vellay, formerly his mother's maid, who had already borne him two of their seven children. Later Impressionism. Monet's celebrated method of producing works in series, each representing the same motif under different light and weather conditions, was not fully implemented until the 1890s, but what is usually regarded as the first series was executed in or around the Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris during the winter of 1876-77. A total break with the customary Impressionist subjects, the engines belching smoke and steam in the great shed recall Turner's "Rain, Steam, and Speed--The Great Western Railway" of 1844 and prefigure the mechanical subjects painted by Italian Futurists after 1909. Monet's life was less happy after he moved to Vétheuil, farther from Paris. In 1876 a liaison had begun between Monet and Alice Hoschedé, the wife of a department-store owner and collector. Monet had incurred a burden of debts in Argenteuil, and Camille was pregnant and ill. At Vétheuil they were joined by Hoschedé, who had left her husband, and at least five of her children. From her dowry she assumed Monet's debts and cared for Camille, who died in September 1879. By 1881 the original Impressionist group began to disintegrate, although it was still to hold two more exhibitions--the eighth and last (in which Monet did not show) in 1886, after the advent of Neo-Impressionism. Only Monet continued with the same fervour to carry on the scrutiny of nature. Among the sites he chose during the 1880s were Pourville, Étretat, Fécamp, and Varangéville in Normandy, the rugged and isolated Breton island of Belle-Île, the wild Creuse River Valley, Menton and Antibes in the Midi, and Bordighera in Italy. In 1886 he made a second visit to The Netherlands to paint the tulip fields, before important sojourns at Étretat and Belle-Île. In 1883 Monet, Hoschedé, her children, and Monet's sons, Jean and Michel, settled at Giverny, a hamlet near Vernon, 52 miles (84 km) from Paris, on the tiny Epte River. Here Monet purchased a farmhouse surrounded by an orchard, which was to be his home until his death and is now a French national monument. After the travels of the 1880s, the '90s were spent at or near Giverny in concentrated application to one series after another. When Pissarro returned to France in 1871, he found his house in Louveciennes looted and a great number of his paintings destroyed. Soon he was to look for another house in Pontoise. (Because it was costly to live in Paris, Pissarro, like several of his painter friends, lived in villages not far from the city.) His surroundings formed the theme of his art for some 30 years and were always carefully chosen: "I require a spot that has beauty!" At Pontoise he was joined by Paul Cézanne in 1872, and the two of them painted out-of-doors, even in the middle of winter. Pissarro's paintings are never dramatic; on the contrary, his leading motifs during the 1870s and 1880s are simply houses, factories, trees, haystacks, fields, labouring peasants, and river scenes. Forms do not dissolve but remain firm, and colours are strong; during the latter part of the 1870s his comma-like brushstrokes frequently recorded the sparkling scintillation of light, as in "Orchard with Flowering Fruit Trees, Springtime, Pontoise" (1877). Although his paintings were sold by the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who represented several of the Impressionists, Pissarro continued to experience financial hardships, which he described in letters to his eldest son, Lucien; this remarkable correspondence began in 1883 and lasted for 20 years. In some of the letters to his son, Pissarro expressed dissatisfaction with his own work. Preoccupied by problems of style and technique, he eagerly embraced the NeoImpressionist theories of Georges Seurat, whom he met in 1885 through the painter Paul Signac. Seurat's technique, consisting of meticulously painted small dots of
juxtaposed colours, was adopted by Pissarro; for about five years he painted in this "divisionist" manner, a style which made his works unpopular with dealers, collectors, and even his old fellow artists. Overwhelmingly discouraged by their continuing state of poverty, Madame Pissarro considered drowning herself and their two youngest children. Finally, Pissarro abandoned the style, not, however, because of the opposition he met but because "it was impossible to be true to my sensations and consequently to render life and movement, impossible to be faithful to the effects, so random and so admirable, of nature . . . ." At about this time, also, there was an estrangement from Paul Gauguin, who had formerly worked at his side but now was involved with the new Symbolist movement. A large and successful retrospective exhibition of Pissarro's paintings was held by Durand-Ruel in 1892, giving the artist greater financial stability, although by this time he was troubled by a chronic eye infection that frequently made it impossible for him to work out-of-doors. Both in 1893 and 1897 he took hotel rooms in Paris from which he painted 24 canvases of the city's streets by day and by night, in sun, rain, and fog. During the 1890s he also did a series of river scenes in Rouen, likewise depicting the various effects of nature. From 1900 until his death three years later, Pissarro continued working, mainly in Paris, Éragny, Dieppe, and Le Havre, with freshness of vision and increasing freedom in his technique. More than 1,600 works, consisting of oils, gouaches, temperas, pastels--and even paintings on fans and the backs of his paintings of the weather, the light, and the time of day. In 1858 he met Claude Monet, -Impressionism. Only Monet continued with the same fervour to carry on the scrutiny of nature. Among the sites he chose during the 1880s were Pourville, Étretat, Fécamp, and Varangéville in Normandy, the rugged and isolated Breton island of Belle-Île, the wild Creuse River Valley, Menton and Antibes in the Midi, and Bordighera in Italy. In 1886 he made a second visit to The Netherlands to paint the tulip fields, before important sojourns at Étretat and Belle-Île. In 1883 Monet, Hoschedé, her children, and Monet's sons, Jean and Michel, settled at Giverny, a hamlet near Vernon, 52 miles (84 km) from Paris, on the tiny Epte River. Here Monet purchased a farmhouse surrounded by an orchard, which was to be his home until his death and is now a French national monument. After the travels of the 1880s, the '90s were spent at or near Giverny in concentrated application to one series after another. When Pissarro returned to France in 1871, he found his house in Louveciennes looted and a great number of his paintings destroyed. Soon he was to look for another house in Pontoise. (Because it was costly to live in Paris, Pissarro, like several of his painter friends, lived in villages not far from the city.) His surroundings formed the theme of his art for some 30 years and were always carefully chosen: "I require a spot that has beauty!" At Pontoise he was joined by Paul Cézanne in 1872, and the two of them painted http://localhost:90/g? gtype=article_view&doc_name=core/06/19/27_1.html&terms=impressionist impressionistsout-of-doors, even in the middle of winter. Pissarro's paintings are never dramatic; on the contrary, his leading motifs during the 1870s and 1880s are simply houses, factories, trees, haystacks, fields, labouring peasants, and river scenes. Forms do not dissolve but remain firm, and colours are strong; during the latter part of the 1870s his comma-like brushstrokes frequently recorded the sparkling scintillation of light, as in "Orchard with Flowering Fruit Trees, Springtime, Pontoise" (1877). Although his paintings were sold by the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who represented several of the Impressionists, Pissarro continued to experience financial hardships, which he described in letters to his eldest son, Lucien; this remarkable correspondence began in 1883 and lasted for 20 years.
In some of the letters to his son, Pissarro expressed dissatisfaction with his own work. Preoccupied by problems of style and technique, he eagerly embraced the NeoImpressionist theories of Georges Seurat, whom he met in 1885 through the painter Paul Signac. Seurat's technique, consisting of meticulously painted small dots of juxtaposed colours, was adopted by Pissarro; for about five years he painted in this "divisionist" manner, a style which made his works unpopular with dealers, collectors, and even his old fellow artists. Overwhelmingly discouraged by their continuing state of poverty, Madame Pissarro considered drowning herself and their two youngest children. Finally, Pissarro abandoned the style, not, however, because of the opposition he met but because "it was impossible to be true to my sensations and consequently to render life and movement, impossible to be faithful to the effects, so random and so admirable, of nature . . . ." At about this time, also, there was an estrangement from Paul Gauguin, who had formerly worked at his side but now was involved with the new Symbolist movement. A large and successful retrospective exhibition of Pissarro's paintings was held by Durand-Ruel in 1892, giving the artist greater financial stability, although by this time he was troubled by a chronic eye infection that frequently made it impossible for him to work out-of-doors. Both in 1893 and 1897 he took hotel rooms in Paris from which he painted 24 canvases of the city's streets by day and by night, in sun, rain, and fog. During the 1890s he also did a series of river scenes in Rouen, likewise depicting the various effects of nature. From 1900 until his death three years later, Pissarro continued working, mainly in Paris, Éragny, Dieppe, and Le Havre, with freshness of vision and increasing freedom in his technique. More than 1,600 works, consisting of oils, gouaches, temperas, pastels--and even paintings on fans and on porcelain--as well as nearly 200 fine prints, give testimony to the high quality of Pissarro's half century of work. Pissarro was the only Impressionist painter who participated in all eight of the group's exhibitions. His kindness, warmth, wisdom, and encouraging words cast him in a fatherly role to struggling younger artists--Monet, Renoir, CÊzanne, and Gauguin-who were exploring new means of personal expression. Despite financial burdens that continued until he reached his 60s, Pissarro never lost faith in the new art, believing that "one must be sure of success to the very end, for without that there is no hope!"