Impres.
Impressionism
and
thesubsequent
development
ofPost-Impressionism
together constituteone
of themajor
artistic innovations since the Renaissance.Mark
Powell-Jones
shows
how
novel ideas of the periodabout
paintingtech-niques, brushstrokes, canvas, light, subject matter, expres-sion, realism,
photography, the
aim
of paintingand
the roleof the artist, all laid the
foundations
ofmodern
art.The
authoritative text takes intoaccount
new
research inart history.
Over
100
full-color illustrations arecomple-mented
by
tinted information panels providing specificreferenceto
each major
painting, itsbackground
and
critical interpretations.Among
the artists in thisbook
are Boudin,Monet,
Pissarro,Manet, Degas,
Sisley,Cezanne,
Morisot, Renoir,Gauguin,
Mark
Powell-Jones
impREssiomsT
PRiminG
4l
Mayflower
Books
New
York
h
—.'•'
ft
Mark
Powell-Jones
impRESsiomsT
pninnnc
M
pftf ---?J *•.!**%»,-,m
X;
•*W>
For
Erica
Davies
The works of
Bonnard
and Braque areC
by ADAGP, Paris. 1979. and those ofRenoir and Vuillard areC
spadem. Paris. 1979.
overleaf
Monet
: The Thames below Westminster.47
x 73cm. 1871MAYFLOWER
BOOKS.
INC..575 Lexington Avenue.
Sew
York City 10022.First published 1979
< iixr
1979
Phaidon Press Limited( design 1979 Heraclio Fournier. S. A. The film positives ofthe illustrations are the propertyofHeraclio Fournier.S. A.
All rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright Convention.
Published in the United States by Mayflower Books. Inc..
New
York City 10022.Originally published in England by Phaidon Press.
Oxford.
No
part of this publicationmay
be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or byany means, without prior written permission ofthe publishers. Inquiries should be addressed to Mayflower Books. Inc.
Library ofCongress Cataloging in Publication Data
POV\I I I [ONIS, \1 \Kk.
Impressionist painting.
1. Impressionism (Artl - History. 2. Painting,
Modern
—
19th Centurj History. I. Title.ND192.14P68
759.OS78-25565
isbn
8317
4893-1
isbn0-831
7-4894-X
pbk.Above
Delacroix: RiderAttackedJaguar,
29
x 24crn, 1850
Right
Courbet:
BurialatOrnans
315
x668cm, 1849-50
Delacroix
and
Courbet both belonged toa
movement
in European painting thatwas
to be important in thedevelopment
of Impressionism. Delacroixwas
a heroto younger generation of painters. His
use of bright colours and the freedom of
his brushstrokes led him to be
con-sidered an outcast by the followers of Ingres, but exercised an influence
on
thework
of painters as diverse as Renoirand
Seurat.Courbet, even
more
of an outcast than Delacroix, tried toshow
inworks
such as Burialat
Ornans
that ordinary eventsand
people could provide fitsubjects for
monumental
paintings. This propositionwas
considered revolu-tionary atthe time, and the Impressionistsadmired his stand against the
establish-ment.
Filmsei in Englandby soi ihern positives \nd negatives (span), Lingfield, Surrey
Printedand hound in Spain by HERA<I in
mi
i<\nR s\. Iitoria.Impressionist
Painting
The
Origins ofImpressionism
The
roots
of
impressionism
can
befound
in anumber
of different
and
apparentlyconflictingmovements
inthought
and
art. Firstand
foremost, itsprang
from
the tradition ofnaturalism in the visual arts,
from
the idea that the painter's job is toproduce
aconvincing
image
of reality. Thisappar-ently simple
aim
has within itan
unresolved ambiguity: isthe
convincing
image one
thatshows
theworld
asthe artistknows
it to be, or is itone
thatshows
it ashe
and
others perceive it? Primitive societies,knowing
that aman
has
two
eyes, tend to
demand
that hisimage
shouldalways
have
two
eyes as well. In the years leadingup
to the Renaissance,however,
paintersbegan
tomove
towards
painting scenes not astheyknew
them
to be. but as theywould
appear
from
a particular viewpoint, so that a
man
in profilewas
shown
with onlyone
eye,and
aman
in theforeground
was
biggerthan
a castle in thebackground.
The
public, in short,were
trained to accept the use of perspective, a
convention
thatcame
toseem
so natural thatEuropeans
were
quite sur-prised to findthat topeople outside theirtradition adrawing
of a table in perspective simply looked like a
drawing
of acrooked
table.The
achievement
ofthe Impressionistswas
tomatch
the revolution achieved in theRenaissance
withregard to the representation of
form by
an
equal revolution in the representation of colour. For the first time in the history of art theymade
aprolonged
and
concerted attempt to paint objects not thecolour thatwe know
them
to be but the colour thatwe
seethem.
Naturalism
was
not,however,
popular withtheartestab-lishment in
France
and
elsewhere,which
believed thatmere
problems about
therepresentation ofrealityhad
been
solved,once
and
for all. during the Renaissance.That
being so, itwas
felt that the sacredduty
of the artistwas
to search forand
express in his painting the ideal, to bring into peoples'lives precisely that
which
is lacking in reality.Now
tradi-tionally the artist, like
any
othercraftsman,had
been
atthe service of the society inwhich
he
lived.Naturalism
had
flourished onlywhen,
as in seventeenth-century Holland, thosewho
paid for thepaintingswere
interested inthe repre-sentation of reality.The
extraordinary decision of the Impressionists toproduce
work
forwhich
not onlywas
thereno
strongdemand,
buttowards
which
the public felt activehostility
and
contempt,can
be explained onlyby
referenceto the effect of
Romanticism.
The
Romantics were
notintheleastconcerned
withmun-dane
reality but they didhave
strongand
influential viewson
the relation of the individual to societyand
to nature.Impressionist Painting
Corot
Rocks
in theForest ofFontainebleau The Forest ofFontainebleauCivita Castellana
Corot visited Italy in
1825-8
and
again in 1834.He
stayed frequently in the region of Fontainebleau, andwas
closely associated with the Barbizon school of landscape painters. His devotion to nature and desire to be faithful to his observationswere
the qualities inhis art that attracted the Impressionists. His advice to
students
was
to submit tothe first impression, but he did not achieve thisimmediacy
until late in his career, and he always completed pictures intended forexhibition in the studio. Berthe Morisot painted with
Impressionist
Painting:Corot
Manet
Bazille
left Corot: Rocks in the Forest ofFontainebleau,
46
x 59cm,1860-5
left, below Corot: The Forest ofFontainebleau.
29x43cm.
c.1850rightCorot: Civita Castellana, 36x 51cm,
1826-7
below Manet: Portrait ofEmile Zola.
146x
114cm,1867-8
Manet:
BazillePortrait ofEmile Zola
Studio of the Artist
Manet'sPortrait ofEmile Zola
and
Bazille's Studio ofthe Artistshow
some
ofthemost
important figures in the Parisian avant-garde in the late 1860s. Emile Zolawas
one
ofthe firstand most
influentialdefenders of Manet'swork.
A
childhood friend of Cezanne, hewas
initially friendly to the Impressionist's efforts.
However,
'L'Oeuvre', anovel published in 1886, the hero of
which
was
basedon
Cezanne,was
seen as demonstrating a lack of faith in their work, andMonet
wrote to him that hefeared that 'our enemies
may make
use of thisbook
to deal us a knockout blow'.The
portraitshows
Manet'spreference for painting with the light behind his head, so thatthe object in view is flattened, obviating the need for modelling.
A
Japanese
print and an engraving of Manet's Olympia can be seen inthe frame
above
Zola's desk.Such
printswere
to provide acon-tinuing source of inspiration for the Impressionists, influencing the
way
they used colour, lineand
space.Bazille's studio in the ruede la
Condamine
is thescene for thisgroup portrait painted in the
same
year as histragically early death. Zola is leaning over the stairs talking to Renoir, whileMonet
inspects the canvason
the easeland
Manet
stand beside him.The
figure of Bazille with palette and brushes inhand
was
painted in later by Manet.They
expressedwhat
were, interms
ofestablishedEuropean
thought,two
revolutionary views.The
firstwas
thatan
individual's personality
was
ofan importance
thattran-scended
any
limitationsimposed by
his place in the socialhierarchy,
and
that itwas
not only permissible, but insome
way
rather heroic, to hold views thatwent
clean contrary to accepted opinion.From
this followed the concept of thenoble outcast,
misunderstood
and
mistreatedby
society,which
made
being heroic in this sense a position thatpre-vious generations
would
have
regarded asboth pitiableand
laughable.The
second
was
that nature isadmirable
not, asprevious generations
had
tended to believe, in so far as ithad
been
ordered byman.
but inand
for itself. So, ifnaturalism provided a tradition
and an
unresolved problem.Romanticism
providedan
attitudetowards
naturethatmade
study ofit
seem
desirable,and
a self-image for theartist thatmade
itpossibleforhim
topursue
iteven
in the face of public hostility.11
Impressionist
Painting:Manet
Degas
Manet: The Railway. 93x 115cm. 1873
Bazille: Family
Reunion
(page 10)Manet:
The RailwayDegas:
AbsintheDegas:
The Orchestra of theOpera
Bazille's Family Reunion, Manet's The Railway, Degas's
Absinthe
and
The Orchestra of theOpera
show
differentaspects of the painting of contemporary life that literary
figures like Baudelaire, the
Goncourt
brothersand
Zolahad been calling for in the previous decades. All of
them
depict the friends or family ofthe artist. Bazille painted
members
of hisfamily at his parents' estate nearMont-pellier; although he
began
in theopen
air, this paintingwas
completed in the studio. Itwas
accepted for the1868
Salon. Manet, like Turner
and
Monet, found the railwayan exciting subject,
one
of thewonders
ofmodern
tech-nology. L Absintheshows
a scene atthe cafe called the'New
Athens' in the Place Pigalle,which
from1876
onwards
was
one
of the Impressionists' meeting places.left Degas: Absinthe. 92x68cm,
1876-7
right Degas: The Orchestra of the Opera. 56 x
46cm. 1868-9
Impressionist
Painting:Bazille
Bazille: Family Reunion, \~>2
230cm,
186/Courbet
and
theBarbizon School provideda thirdessential element in the birth ofImpressionism
—
an
actual, livingexample
ofpainterswho
had
alreadyset outon
such
a path.Courbet.
who
in his artand
opinions totally rejected bothRomanticism
and
Idealism,was
nevertheless theepitome
of theromantic
outcast. Inworks
like Burial titOrnans
he notonly
had
taken itupon
himself to represent ordinary people(who
were
about as likely to befound
in thecanvases
ofrespectable painters as in the
drawing
rooms
of polite societj i: but he alsooutraged even
thosewho
were
preparedto accept the sentimentalized poverty of the peasants in the
work
of a painter like Millet, byshowing
the peasants as they actually were.Such
outrage derivedfrom
a belief,shared equally by Courbet
and
theregime
- which
he as a revolutionarj republican loathed that to allow thatcom-mon
peoplewere
a lit subject for artwas
to imply that theyw
ere tit to govern,and
that toshow up
official art as asham
was
to implj thai the structure of theregime
was
one
too.I
mm
Courbet'sexample
artists learnt thai therepresenta-tion ofreality
was
not simply a technical exercise, but ratheran activity with considerable social
and
intellectualimplica-tions, rhey also learnt that
an
artist could lakeon
SOCietjand win
al leastwidespread
notoriety,and
the admiration of a select lewThe
Impressionistswere
not.however,
much
attracted by Courbet's subject-matter or technique. Hwas
Coroland
theBarbizon School
who
providedan
example
ol painterswork-ing
towards
a sincereunderstanding
of nature. Theirwork
did not in
any
sense represent a revolution in the historj ollandscape painting.
Turner
had demonstrated
amore
daringapproach
toproblems
ofatmosphere,
by painting the effectsof light
and
mist,and even
the Barbizon School'semphasis
on
work
in theopen
airhad been
anticipated by the Englishlandscape school. Vet it
was
these painters that theImpres-sionists looked
up
to with admiration,and
itwas
from
them
and. in Monet's case,
Boudin
and
Jongkind. that they took their subject matterand
approach.Jongkind:
The Ruins of theChateau
deRosemont
Boudin:
The Pier atDeauvilleBoudin:
The PortofAntwerp
Jongkind
and Boudin
both influenced theyoung
Monet. Boudinwas
a delicate painterand
a sharp observer of thechanges
in seaand
sky at differenttimes of the day
and
different seasons.He
felt that itwas
important toshow
the 'extreme stubbornness in retaining one's first impression'.A
convictionwhich
Monet
came
to sharewhen
they painted together in1858-9.
Jongkind
was
aDutch
painterwho
spentmuch
of his life painting in the Seine estuary.He
met
Monet
in1862 on
Monet's return from Algeria.Although, unlike Boudin, he did not finish his canvases
in the
open
air, his bold approach to nature had astrong effect on the
younger
painter'swork
in theearly 1860s.
Impressionist
Painting:Jongkind
Boudin
)ongkind: The Ruins of the Chateau de Rosemont. 34x 57cm, 1861
Boudin: The Pierat Deauville.
24
x 33cm,869
2i««u''y. j
Boudin: The Port ofAntwerp, 41
x66cm,
1871^^m
The
Early YearsMonel
was, from the beginning, thedominant
force in thedevelopment
of Impressionism. Itwas
hisprofound
love of natureand
his obstinate belief in theimportance
oi finding themost
perfectway
of rendering itsappearance on canvas
that set
and
kept his friends on the pathtowards
[mpressionism,
and
itwas
hewho
continued to develop it \\ ith the greatest tenacity right to theend
of his life.Claude
Monel
was
born in L840
and
grew
up
atLeHa\
rein
Normandy.
His talent, rather ironically in view of the faclthat his later
work showed
little orno
interest in thehuman
face, firstshowed
itselfin juvenile caricatures.These
were
sosuccessful that he
was
able to sellthem
in theshop
of a picture-framemaker,
and
there in1858
hemet
Eugene
Boudin.Although Monet
initially detested the older artist'sseascapes he finally accepted his imitation to go sketching in the country. It
was
in the country, he later recalled.'My
left Manet: Le Dejeuner sur I'Herbe,
208
x265cm. 1863
below
Monet
: Le Dejeuner surI'Herbe (fragment). 418x 150cm. 1865
eyes
were
finallyopened and
I reallyunderstood
nature: 1learned at the
same
time to love it.'In 1859. at Boudin's suggestion.
Monet went
to Paris.He
decided to
remain
there in order tobecome
a painter but, with a radicalarrogance
almost unbelievable in ahalt-educated
young
provincial, declined to takewhat was
then the only recognized training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.Instead, he
continued
to study landscapeand
started todraw
thenude
at a private establishment, theAcademic
above Monet:
Women
in the Garden. 255 -205cm. 1866
Manet:
Le Dejeunersur I'HerbeMonet:
Le Dejeunersur I'Herbe (fragment)Monet:
Women
in theGarden
Manet's Le Dejeunersur I'Herbewas
exhibited attheSalon des Refuses in 1863. It
caused a great scandal and
Louis
Napoleon
proclaimed it'indecent'.
A
societywhich
found the femalenude
accept-ablewhen
posed in classical surroundingswas
horrified at this nakedwoman,
accom-panied bytwo
fully clothedmen, staring so calmly at the
observer.
Manet's picture had obvi-ously been painted in the studio and
Monet
set out to demonstrate in hisown
Le Dejeunersur I'Herbehow
figures
would
really look in a rural setting.He
worked
at Chailly-en-Biere attheedge
of the Forest of Fontainebleau and Bazille posed for him. Eventually heabandoned
the work.When
hewent
back toit, years later, part of it had
rotted and it
was
cut up.Women
inthe Garden, hissecond attempt,
was
paintedentirely in the
open
air, from aspecial trench
dug
for the occasion. Camille, Monet's mistress, posed forall the figures. Perhaps partly becauseof Courbet's adverse criticism of his
work and
partly because ofthe labour involved,Monet
showed
little interest in large figure composition after thisdate.
Impressionist
Painting:Renoir
Sisley
Renoir: La Grenouillere
Renoir:
On
the Terrace Sisley: L'lle de Grande-JatteThe
effect of light reflected in waterwas
to be a constanttheme
in Impressionist painting. In1869
Renoirworked
withMonet
at La Grenouillere, apopula: boating and bathing place in the outer suburbs of Paris. Here they pursued their discovery that
shadows
are notbrown
or black, but are coloured bytheir surroundings.
To
reproducethis effectthey used pure,unmixed
colours.Ten
years later Renoir used the riveras abackground
for the charmingOn
the Terrace,which
also contains others of hisfavourite subjects, flowers, a pretty girland
a child. Sisley returned timeand time again tothe
theme
of water. This paintingdemonstrates his particular feeling for cloudscapes and
forthe cold clear light of winter.
Renoir: La Grenouillere, 66x 81cm,
1868-9
Suisse. In
I860
he
was
drafted to Algeria as a conscript inthe
French
army.
In
1862
Monet,
who
said later that 'the impression oflight
and
colour' that hehad
received in Africa 'containedthe
germ
ofmy
future researches',became
illand
was
bought
out ofthe
army.
Athome
in LeHavre
in thesummer
of thatyear
he
met
theDutch
painter,Johan
Barthold Jongkind.'From
thattime',Monet
recalled, 'hewas
my
realmaster
. . .it
was
tohim
that Iowe
the final education ofmy
eye,'and
indeedMonet's
land-and
seascapes ofthe1860s
are closer in their boldnessand
solidity to Jongkind'sthan
to Boudin's relatively timid work.Monet's
father insisted that ifhe
wanted
an allowance he
must
enter the studio ofa successful painter. Reluctantlyhe
agreed,
and went
towork
under
Charles Gleyre, themost
popularand
lenient oftheacademic
teachers.There
hemet
Frederic Bazille, a rich
young
man
from
the south ofFrance,Alfred Sisley
and Auguste
Renoir.Renoir
was
unique
among
the Impressionists incoming
from
a poor family,and
inhaving
grown up
in the poorer quarters of central Paris.He was
apprenticed as a painter ofporcelain,
and
when
the business closeddown,
he
managed
to earn
good
money
by
painting blindsand mural
decora-tions in cafes.
By
the age oftwenty-one he
had
earned
enough
tokeep
himself asan
art student,and
passed theentrance
exams
for the Ecole desBeaux-Arts
with high marks.He
settleddown
towork
in Gleyre'sstudio, where, ashe
later recalled. T stayed quietly inmy
corner, very atten-tive, verydocile, studyingthe model,listeningtothe master.'Indeed
had
it notbeen
for hisunacademic
love of brightcolours
and
the disturbing influence ofMonet,
Renoirand
his fellow pupils, Sisley,
who
intended tocompete
for the Prix deRome,
and
Bazille, allmight
have
become
successfulestablishment painters.
In
1863
Henri Fantin-Latour, impressedby
the fluency. of Renoir's talent, first ledhim
out of the studios.'You
can
nevercopy
the masters enough,"he
told him,and
senthim
off to the Louvre.
Monet
preferred a differentavenue
of escapeand
set out with Bazille to paint in the country, at Chaillyon
theedge
oftheFontainebleau forestnear
Barbizon.In the following year
he
went
again to Chailly, this time bringing withhim
Renoirand
Sisley as well as Bazille. Thisleft Renoir:
On
the Terrace,lOOx
81cm.1879
RIGHT Sisley: L'lle de Grande-Jatte,Six
65cm, 187? «5*>rt>.,"ithe Lock. 35 x
46cm. 1873
mi i Pissarro: Lower Norwood, London.
EffectofSnow,
J5x46cm,
is70 below Pissarro: Entrance to the Villageol Voisons.
46
x 56cm. 1S72Pissarro:
Lower
Norwood,
London, Effect ofSnow
Pissarro: Entrance to the Village of Voisons Pissarro: VillagenearPontoise
Sisley: The
Chemin
de SevresDuring the Franco-Prussian
War
Pissarroand
Monet
fled to England. While
Monet
choseto paint suchfamous
places asHyde
Park, Pissarrofound inspiration in the suburb ofNorwood, where
he lived.Under
the influence of Monet, Pissarro's style developed rapidly,histechnique
became
looser and his colours lighter.On
his return to France hewent
backto Louveciennesand
his
view
of a nearby village, Voisons,shows
hisparticular delight in receding perspectives. Later in the
same
year hemoved
to Pontoise,where
the surround-ing landscapewas
to provide the inspiration formost
of his paintings in the 1870s.Sisley remained in France
and
afterthewar
settlednear Paris.
He
selected a view of Sevres very like Pissarro's. Their choice of subject can betraced toCorot,
who
had a particular preference for views of tree-lined roads.was
theirintroduction tonature, and,under
the influence ofMonet and
of Diaz, a Barbizon painter withwhom
Renoirmade
friends, theybegan
to developan
interest in land-scape.Back
in Paris itwas
thework
ofEdouard
Manet
thatexerted the greatest influence
on
theyoung
painters.Manet,
after the considerable success of his Guitar Player at thesalon of
1861
was
refused,along
with a largenumber
ofother painters, at the Salon of
186
3.The
resulting outcryled to the
opening
of the Salon des Refuses, atwhich
he
showed
a painting entitled Le Dejeuner sur I'Herbe. This,by
showing
naked
women,
not in a safely allegorical context,but
having
a picnic in thecountry
withmen
clothed incon-temporary
dress,caused
considerable scandal. 11 alsoidenti-fied
Manet
in the public'smind
as the leader of radicaltendencies in art.
right Sisley: The Chemin de Sevres,
ii/7
5cm. IS7 '>Impressionist
Painting:Pissarro
•Monet
W
The Development
ofImpressionism
Pissarro: Village near Pontoise.
nx
65cm. 1S7 3Le Dejeuner sur VHerbe interested
Monet,
not for thescandal it caused, but
because
it highlighted,although
failedto solve, the
problems
ofintegrating figures into landscapes painted in theopen
air.These problems he
set out to solve in1865
and
1866
in a series of studies for a painting towhich
he gave
thesame
title.In the late 1860s,
Monet and
Renoir
alsobecame
in-terested in painting scenes of Paris.To
an
extent these alsoreflected the influence of
Manet,
who
in theMusic
in the Tuilerieshad
provided themost
successfulanswer
yet toBaudelaire's plea for a 'painter of
modern
life'.They
alsoshow
the effect ofthework
ofphotographers
like Nadar. Forinthese cityscapes, as in photographs, scenes are taken
from
unexpected
angles,and
people are represented as stick-like figures,more
part of theurban
scenerythan
individuals.The
programme
forthe painterofmodern
life laid outby
theliterary criticswas,
however,
like allprogrammes, anathema
to the essentiallypragmatic approach
ofthe Impressionists.It
was
left to artists standing rather apartfrom
themain-stream
of Impressionism, likeManet
himselfand above
allDegas, to capture the beauty of
contemporary
Parisian life.It
was
during the yearsimmediately
beforeand
after theFranco-Prussian
war and
theCommune
thatMonet.
Renoir,and
Pissarro developed thatapproach
to the representationof open-air scenes that
came
to betermed
Impressionism'.Having
studied thebackground
of the participants in thisdevelopment,
it is time to turn toan examination
of thisapproach and
how
it evolved.Fundamental
to thedevelopment
of Impressionismwas
the belief that the sensation received in theopen
air, before the motif,was
ofprimary
importance,and
that towork up
a landscape in the studio
was
inevitably to dulland
even
falsify the impression obtained
on
the spot.Monet,
followingthe
example example
ofBoudin
was, aswe
have
seen, thefirst of the
group
to realize the virtues of this approach. Itwas
he
who
introduced his friends to itand
who
maintained
their faith in its value.
As
a result ofworking
in theopen
air,Monet
and
his friendsbecame
increasinglyconvinced
that thesombre
colorationand
brown shadows
sanctioned bytraditional landscapists
were untrue
to nature. Inan
effortto purify
and
brighten his coloursMonet,
following theexample
ofManet,
began
toprime
hiscanvas
with a whiteground
instead of with thesombre
base usedby
even
soMonet:
Boats atArgenteuilMonet:
VetheuilOn
his return from England,Monet
settled at Argenteuil,on
the Seine near Paris,where
he lived from1872
until 1876. There he painted
numerous
views of theriver, often from a floating studio,
which
he probablybuilt with the help of Gustave Caillebotte, a neighbour
and
boating enthusiastwho
was
tobecome
a friendand
patron of the Impressionists. Renoirand
Sisley visitedMonet
and
thework
theyproduced
marksone
of the high pointsof Impressionism. This pictureshows
the loose, freemanner and
pure, clear coloursthatManet
used to depict reflections in the dancing water. In1878
Monet
left Argenteuil for Vetheuil,where
hestayed until 1882.
He
paintedmany
views of the village from across the river, at all seasons of the year, andwhen
the river froze over, hedug
his easel intothe ice.ft
Monet: Vetheuil90x93cm,
low
Monet: Boats at Argenteuil. 58 75cm. c.1872 3V~
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'"tl.Impressionist
Painting:Monet
Renoir
WP
Monet: The Poppies, ->()x (ncm, 18/ 3
radical a painter as Courbet. Renoir, with his innatelove for
bright colours,
and
Pissarro,who
proclaimed that itwas
necessary to use only the three
primary
coloursand
theirderivatives, also
moved
towards
a brighter palette.Through
theircloseand continuous
observationofnature,Monet and
Renoirbecame aware
thatshadows
are in fact colouredby
the objectsaround them, and
inMonet's
Terrace at theSeasideand
Renoir's Use, bothof1867,
thisknowledge
is already apparent. In order to develop it they liked to
work
on
snow
scenes, forsnow
being pure white,and
thuscolour-less, has the
advantage
ofshowing
up
with particularclaritythe colours that are reflected
on
to it.In the struggle to represent nature as it is perceived,
rather
than
aswe
know
itto be.Monet,
Renoir, Pissarroand
their friends tried to be as
humble
as possible before it.They
wanted
to allow nature to speakthrough
them
ratherthan
impose
their preconceived ideason
it. Paintings must, theyfelt, record not, for example, a tree, a
winding
roadand
Renoir: The Path throuqh the Tall Grasses.
60x
74cm.1876-7
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some
rooftops, but those impressions receivedfrom them,
which
would
in turn be interpretedby
the viewer in thesame
way
thathe
would
interpret the impressions receiveddirectly
from
the scene. In the past a painter interpretedand
then painted the impressionshe
had
received as objects.Now
the painterwould
renounce
the act of interpretationand
paint only theimpression.
In
an
effort to rid themselves ofthetendency
to think interms of delineating objects with lines,
which
resultedfrom
the artist's pre-emptive interpretation of
what
he
saw, theImpressionists
needed
to select subjects towhich
a linearapproach
was
clearly inapplicable.As
snow
showed up
the impossibility of the colourlessshadow,
so water, mist,masses
ofblossom, or grass rippling in the breezeshowed up
that of the outline.Working
at La Grenouillere, a popular bathing placenear
Paris, and, after the war. at Argenteuil.Monet
and
Renoirgrew
close toeach
other both in styleand
subject matter, as
shown
by Renoir's La Grenouillereand
Path through the TallGrassesand Monet's
Boatsat Argenteuiland
Poppies. Increasingly, in the attempt to representever-Renoir: The Path through the Tall Grasses
Monet:
The PoppiesRenoir's Path through the TallGrasses
and
Monet's Poppies demonstratesome
of the features that unifiedthe Impressionists. Both artists have chosen a
summer's
day as their subject.
They
both useand
revel in the bright, clear, bold colours ofsummer.
They
also punctuate the rolling fields on theone hand
and the grassy path on the other with small figures, adding lifeand
movement
to the scene.Monet
was
obviously taken by the contrast ofcomplementary
coloursprovided bythe red poppies in a green field
and
Renoiradded
a bright red parasol to achieve thesame
effect in his painting.00'
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IB
Impressionist
Painting:Renoir
RIGHl Renoir: Le Moulin dt la Galette, 1 51 x ]75cm.
1875-f>
1 11 i Renoir: The
Reader,
47
x $9cm,1X74-6
changing
reflections in the ripples of thewater
they pre-ferred to use shortand
even
comma-like
brush
strokes. Using these to place small, puredabs
ofcolour side by side,they
were
able to createon canvas
the vibrant interplaybetween
different colours that direct as well as reflected lightproduces
in nature.Through
this technique theywere
ableto take as their subject not the objects themselves, but the
light
and
atmosphere
thatsurround
objects, thereby givingtheir
works
a unity thatwas
quiteindependent
ofcom-position.
The
development
of Renoir'sand Monet's
work was
ob-Renoir: The Swing. 92 x 75cm.
lS7h
Renoir: The
Reader
Renoir: Le
Moulin
de la Gal Renoir: TheSwing
Renoir: The Umbrellas
The
three earlier paintings of this groupshow
how
Renoirwas
exploring the effect of different forms oflight in the 1870s. In The
Reader
he used artificiallight to illuminate hissubject and
conveyed
itswarm
tones by highlighting the painting with dashes of red. In the
two
outdoor paintings he sought to capture theeffect of the sunlight shining through the trees,
pro-ducing a dappled effect
on
the figures below.He
painted LeMoulin
de la Galette at the publicdance
hall of that name. His friends posed for the larger figures, yet he has captured the flow
and
rhythm of thedancers
and
the gaiety ofthe occasion with the naturalsympathy
ofone
who
came
from thesame
background
as the clientele.The Umbrellas
shows
the effect of Renoir'sdis-satisfaction with Impressionism in the early 1880s.
He
worked and
reworked it over anumber
of years,placing strong emphasis
on
the linewhich
he felt he had neglected during his earlier career.Unhappy
with the rather dry effectthat this approach produced helater
abandoned
itand
returned to amore
fluid and painterly brushstroke.served
and
appreciated by their friends. After Pissarrohad
met
and
painted withMonet
inLondon
during the war. hiswork,
such
asLower Norwood,
London, Effect oj the Snow. Entry to the Village ol Voisons, Village near Pontoise,and
TheRed Roofs
moved
strongly in the direction that Monet'swork
had
taken,though
retaining a feel for constructionand
lor the solidity of things thatwas
hisown.
Sislcvand
Bertlic Morisot alsomoved away
from
the influenceofCoroltoward
a fully Impressionist approach, as
shown
by Sisley's L'lledeGrande-Jatte
and
TheRoad
Seen from theChemin
de Sevres,and
Morisot's Field ol L'om
and
In the Garden,and
even Manet
when
he visitedMonet
at Argenteuil in1874
followed theirexample.
The
Impressionist ExhibitionThe
greatadvances toward
anew
style ol paintingon
theone hand, ami
their increasing age (most ofthem
were
in their thirties)and
family responsibilitieson
the other,made
it
seem
more
and
more
imperative to the Impressionists thattheir
work
should hi' seen,and
preferably bought, by theImpressionist
Painting:Renoir
Renoir: The Umbrellas, 180x
115cm
(and detail opposite). 1(SS1-6public. In 1
869
and
L870, it is true, the Salon juryhad
beenelected by all those
who
had
everhad
paintings accepted at the Salon,and
in I870
all saveMonet
and Cezanne had had
at least
one
painting accepted. But a powerful reaction toany
kind ofradicalism followed the excesses oftheCommune
and
took a strong holdon
the world ol art in the early 1 8 70s. Ilie election of the jurywas
once
again restricted to thoseulio
had
won
medals,and
lourbct'sworks were
deniedexhibition
on
purely political grounds.Courbet's Pavilion de Kealisme' at the Exhibition ol 1
855
and
hisand
Monet's private exhibitions ai the Exhibition ol1
8o7
had
already givenMomt
the idea ofholdinga separateshow.
In response to an article by Paul Alexis, published inMaj
I S7i. herelaunched
the idea,and
itwas
well icceivedIn hi friends. Pissarro. as an anarchist, proposed a
compli-and
bureaucratic co-operativeon
the lines ol theUnion
ofBakers at Pontoise. This proposal Renoir, a believer in law.who
nevertheless hated rules, defeated. Instead acompany
was
formed
whose
founding
members
includedMonet, Renoir, Sislcy. Degas. Morisot
and
Pissarro.The}
decided to hold the exhibition in premises lent by the photo-grapher. Nadar. Degas, keen to ensure that thegroup
was
not seen asone
of unsuccessful, revolutionary, landscapepainters,
approached
anumber
of older artists, while Pis-sarro incurred his displeasure by inviting Cezanne. Manet,who
had
enjoyed considerable success at the Salon of1S7
3vvilh his /iii/i Bock,
and
who
believed that hisdream
ofofficial recognition might
soon
be realized, refused to partici-pate.The
exhibitionopened
on
L5th April. 1S74.Among
Monet's works
then'was
a view ofl.eHavre harbour
in themorning
mist,which he
called Impression. Sunrise.Reviewers
1CZB.
£.:*
Monet:T
Promenade, Argenteuil. 50-5x65cm.
1872
Impressionist Painting
Sisley
Monet
vbove Monet:
Snow
Effect.60
x 81cm, 1875i ii i Sisley:
Snow
at Louveciennes, 61 x SIcm.1X7S
bf.i.ow Sisley:
On
the Bunks of the Loing, 54 < 65cm. 1896
seized
on
this-
Castagnary, forexample,
wrote: 'It'one
wants
to characterizethem
with a singleword
that explainstheir efforts,
one
would have
to create thenew
term
of Impressionist.They
are Impressionists in thesense that they render not a landscape, but the sensationproduced by
alandscape.'
Other
reviewers were,on
the whole, lessfriendlyand
tended either to pass the exhibition overin silence or tomock
the efforts ofthe artists represented in it.Few
peoplecame
to see theshow,
and
fewerbought
pic-tures. In short, itwas
not a financial success.The
company
had
to bewound
up,and
the sale held toclear the debtwas
a disaster.
Those
members
of thegroup without
a privateincome
and
with a family.Monet
and
Pissarro in particular,were on
occasion so desperatelypoor
that they could noteven
afford tobuy
paint or canvas.Yet
somehow
theycontinued
towork.
Monet
asalways
pursued
themost
difficultand
evanescent
effects of light,by
Sisley: The
Hood
at Port Marly. 60 x 81cm,1876
Sisley: The Floodat Port Marly
Sisley:
Snow
at LouveciennesSisley:
On
theBanks
of the LoingSome
of Sisley's greatestworks
were
painted at Port Marly doing the floods of1872 and
1876.He
hascaptured so well both the
menace
of the cloudsand
the brightness of the reflections in the waterthat here the
two
elements Impressionists revelled in most, skyand water, almost
become
one.Twenty
years later inOn
theBanks
of the Loing,Sisley's style is freer
and
looser, but it is not radically different from his earlier works.He
was, indeed, themost
consistent ofthe Impressionists, for, having been freed from an exclusivedependence on
Corot byMonet
in theearly 1870s, hewas
to remain true to thetechnique he adopted in that period tothe
end
of hiscareer.
Impressionist
Painting:Sisley
Morisot
Sisley: The Bridgeat Sevres. 53x
63cm
theriver, in thefields, orinthe
steam
risingfrom
the railwayengines, in
1877,
in theGare
St-Lazare. Renoir, besides his landscapes,found
happy
inspiration in recording thepleas-ures ofall ranks ofParisian society, asin Moulin de laGalette
and
The Swing,and
Pissarro applied himself to the effect of thechanging
seasons ofthe countrysidearound
Pontoise in paintingssuch
as Village near Pontoise, Harvest at Mont-foucault. Kitchen Garden and Trees in Blossom,and
The Red Roofs. Morisotproduced
intimate yet freelyhandled
scenes of family life,and
Sisleywas
inspired to paintsome
of themost
delicateand
poetic ofImpressionist landscapes,such
asThe Flood at Port
Marly
and
Snow
at Louveciennes.Above
all they continuedto exhibit, in1876
atthe gallery of the only dealer in theirwork,
PaulDurand-Ruel,
and
in1877,
emphasized
their anti-establishment stanceunder
thetitle. Exposition des Impressionnistes. Further exhibitions in
1879. 1881, 1882,
and
1886
even
had
a certain financial success, yet gradually themembers
of thegroup
driftedapart. Pissarro
and
Morisot,though
consistentlyloyal,found
it impossibleto
keep
the peacebetween
an
increasinglycan-tankerous
Degas and
the others.Monet,
Renoir,and
Sisley only exhibitedonce
after1879,
and
by
1886
itwas
clear thatthe collective impulsewhich had
ledto thedevelopment
of
Impressionism
was
now
a thing ofthe past.It is difficult,
even
in retrospect, to decidewhether
these exhibitions, despite their historicimportance
in pioneeringthe idea of the anti-establishment
group
in art,were
helpfulto the careers of the participants.
A
number
ofthe critics,many
ofthem
personal friends of the artists,had
discussed thenew movement
withthem
at theirevening
gatherings atthe Cafe Guerbois
and were
favourable.Among
thesewere
Edmond
Duranty.who
published La Nouvelle Peinture, thefirst
work
devoted to Impressionism, at the time of theirsecond
exhibition,and
Georges
Riviere,who
published ajournal L'lmpressionniste during their third one.
Another
critic
was
EmileZola, the great realist writer,who
had
been
aclose friend of
Cezanne
in hisyouth.On
theotherhand,
thei
Morisot: The
Cradle, 56x46cm. 1873
Morisot: Field ofCorn.
47
x 69cm. 18/5Morisot:
The CradleMorisot:
Field ofCorn
Morisot:
In theGarden
(pages 34-5)Berthe Morisot
was
introduced to Corot in1861,
and
painted with him in theopen
air.The second most
important influenceon
her artwas
Manet,whom
she met in 1868.She
posed for him anumber
oftimes,and
in1874
she married his brother Eugene.Against Manet's advice she exhibited atthe
first Impressionist exhibition
and
from thenon
showed
withthem and
not at the Salon.Her
work
introduces a touch of sentimentand
a picture of upper bourgeois family lifeinto Impressionism.
•'«•
II
k
/
%
ft
f
II
\
/
1V
i^SgI
-if1
i.Impressionists
provoked
continuing violent attacksfrom
a largernumber
ofhostilecriticsand
laughterfrom
thepublic.Albert Wolff,
one
ofthemost
influential of reviewers,com-pared their
work
to that of amonkey
with abox
of paints.His review of the
second
Impressionist exhibitionwent
further
and
describedthem
as 'five or six lunatics . . .self-styled painters'
who
take canvases, colourand
brushes'and
Pissarro: The Harvest at Montfoucault
Pissarro: Kitchen
Garden
and
Trees inBlossom
Pissarro: The
Red
Roofs
'."
j, .
-;\-*
Pissarro
was
not attracted to painting river scenes in thesame
way
as Monet, Sisley and Renoir.He
was
closer in spirit tothe earth
and
its cultivation,and
believed in thedignity ofwork on
the land. This feeling is evident in Harvest at Mont-foucault,which
was
painted during a holiday he spent withLudovic Piette. In this painting as in The
Red
Roofs Pissarro's interest in construction is apparentand
this toomarked
himout from the other Impressionists. It
may
partly explain theinstinctive
sympathy
thatCezanne
felt for hiswork
when
hejoined Pissarro at Pontoise in 1872.
S
V
F
"*r.<*>. -aii.rfV-V
above Pissarro: Kitchen Garden and Trees in Blossom.
<S5x82cm. 1877
left, above Pissarro: The Harvest at Montfoucault.
65x95cm.
L876
eeet. below Pissarro: he Pont Neuf. 55x
46cm
1
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Renoir: The Bathers
Pissarro:
Woman
inan OrchardIn the early
1880s
Impressionism, or rathersome
Impres-sionist painters, suffered a crisis; it
seemed
asthough
their sense of purpose had deserted them. Pissarro as
one
of the leading theorists of the groupwas
interested in theoptical theories of Chevreul
and
thework
of Seurat.He
began
to paint in the Divisioniststyleand
in the last Impressionist exhibitionshowed
paintings in that stylenext to Seurat's work.
».
Renoir: The
Bathers. ll()x
160cm,
1918-19
ie Bathers
was
the last large canvas that Renoirpainted.
He
hadcome
through his 'sour' period to developa form of 'classicism' through
which
he sought to rejoinwhat
hesaw
as the mainstream of European art. Yet he remained a supremely natural painter delighting in theinteraction of bright colours. 'I have no rules and no
methods,' he said, 'and I
want
to be sonorous, tosound
like a bell, if it doesn'tturn out that way, I put
more
redsor other colours until I get it.'
He
never lost hisjoy inpainting and,
though
crippled,was
able towork
rightup
to his death inDecember
1919.»
<~\i
^8®|s
Pissarro: The Red Roofs,
)5x
67cm, 1X7/ Pissarro:Woman
in an Orchard, 54 - 65cm,1887
Impressionist
Painting:Degas
W-above Degas: Four Dancers on Stage, 73 x 92cm, c.1892 right Degas: The Ballet School at the Opera, 65x 50cm. c.1890Degas:
Dancer
with aBouquet
Bowing
on
StageDegas:
Dancers
in theWings
(page 40)Degas:
FourDancers
on
StageDegas:
Three RussianDancers
(page 40)Degas began
to introduce subjects from the opera and balletinto his
work
from1872 onwards
(he had painted the Orchestra of theOpera
as early as 1869
for his friend, thecellist, Dihau).
He
was
fascinated with the contrast of light andshade in the stage scenes
and
with the effect that thediscipline of ballet produced
on
the bodies ofyoung
girls.The
works
illustrated hereshow
how
hebecame
more
interested indense packed groups offigures; a
supreme example
of hisexperiments on this
theme
is the Three Russian Dancers.He
made
a largenumber
of preparatorystudies for this work, andin this version he has achieved the effect of a solid yet
dynamic
group of figures. left Degas: Dancer witli a Bouquet Bowing on Stage. 11 x 78cm. c.1876-7
39
Impressionist
Painting:Degas
throw on
afew
tones atrandom".
Others like EmilePor-cheron
were
no
kinder.'What
isan
Impressionist?* heasked,
and
went
on
'For usan
Impressionist is aman
who,
without
knowing
why,
feels theneed
to consecrate himself to the cult ofthe paletteand
who.
having
neither thetalentnor
the trainingnecessary to achieveaworthwhile
result, iscontent to give the public
canvases
which have
scarcelymore
valuethan
the frameswhich
surround
them.'Such
authoritative statementsabout
valueswere
of crucialimportance
inan
age
as obsessed asour
own
withthe idea ofpaintingas
an
investment.Durand-Ruel.
theonlymajor
dealersympathetic
to the Impressionists,had met
Monet
through
Daubigny
during the Franco-Prussian war.Through Monet
he
came
toknow
Pissarro, Renoir,Degas
Degas: Dancers in the Wings. 65x 50cm. c.1890
and
Sisley.He
bought
theirwork and
tried topush
it inLondon and
Paris.He
acted as their 'expert' at the sale in1875, and
letthem
usehisgalleries in1876.
Yetthe financialcrises that
he
suffered as a result of the depression that hitFrance
during1874-80.
and
again in1884,
made
him
periodicallyunable
to helpthem.
Further, his rival dealers,jealous of his exclusive links with so
many
painters of themodern
school, fostered theview
ofcritics like Porcheron,that Impressionist
works
were
abad
investment, funda-mentally worthlessand
likely toremain
so.Their exhibitions certainly
made
the Impressionists areputation of a kind,
and
to begin with Pissarro could saybravely, 'Our exhibition
...
is a success.The
critics aredevouring
usand
accuse us of not studying.'But
though
[iftfinqp
Degas: Three Russian Dancers, 62 x 67cm. c.1895
Impressionist
Painting:Degas
left Degas: The
Tub,
60
x 83cm.1886
right Degas:Woman
at her Toilet. 75 x 73cm. c.1903 Degas:Woman
Brushing her Hair,82x 57cm.
1886
Degas:
The TubDegas:
Woman
Brushingher HairDegas:
Woman
at her ToiletDegas:
Woman
at her ToiletAt the eighth and last Impressionist exhibition in
1886,
Degas
showed
a series of pastels, called in avery matter of fact
way
'Series of nudes,women
bathing, washing, drying themselves,
combing
orhaving their hair combed'.
He
developed thistheme
from then until his death.
He
had been trained by pupils of Ingres and their influence led himto develophisdraughtsmanship,
which
is at itsmost
masterly indealing with the female nude.
He
presents hisfigures in a strictly impersonal manner, seeking out positionsof the
body which were
boldand
unconventional.To
paint these he fitted out his studio with bath tubs andbasins and, instead of posing his
models
in thetraditional way,
watched
as theywashed
and dried themselves orcombed
each other's hair. After theyhad
gone
he painted frommemory
themore
remark-able poses that they had adopted in the course oftheir toilet.
These
studiesmark
anew
naturalism inthe treatment ofthe nude; the
women
are portrayed not as the objects of male desire,aware
of thepresence of a male observer, but as
human
animals,going about their business as if
unaware
that they arebeing observed.
they
had been
able to buildup
a smallgroup
of collectorsand
friends like Victor Choquet.Gustave
Caillebotte,and Dr
Gachet. itcame
toseem
toMonet and
Renoirthat they couldonly
overcome
public prejudiceby
breaking with the group,exhibiting separately, or
even
through
the Salon,and
sellingtheir
works
through
other dealers likeGeorges
Petit.Why
thework
ofthe Impressionists shouldhave
encoun-tered
such
an
impenetrable barrier ofhostility is difficult for us,now,
to understand.Armand
Silvestre after all, in areview oftheirfirst exhibition,
had
noted that in their paint-ings 'everything is joyousness. clarity, spring festivals,golden evenings or
blooming
apple trees. Theircanvases
. . .seem
toopen
windows on
agay
countryside...
on
acheerful
and
charming
outdoor
life'—
exactly the qualitiesthat
make
their art sopopular
today.Of
course theirtech-Degas:
Woman
at her Toilet, 96 x ] 10cm, c.1894(assatt
:
The Toilet,
Cassatt: Reading in the Garden, 89x
65cm
nique
and
subject matterwere
novel.Comparing
their can-vases tothoseofofficial painters,one can
see thattheymight
seem
unduly
brightand
quiteunfinished. Yetitisstilldifficultto
understand
the real anger,and even
hatred, that couldlead a painter like
Gerome
as late as1893
to describe Cail-lebotte's bequest of Impressionist paintings to the state as'filth'.
The
clue lies in the fact that the reception of theirwork
was
marginally friendlierunder
the authoritarianregime
ofNapoleon
IIIthan
under
the republicwhich
overthrew
it. In1870
and
1871
not onlywas
France
defeatedby
the Prussians,and
theEmpire
overthrown,
but Pariswas
ravaged
and
publicmonuments
were
destroyedby
herown
people,
and
some 20,000
insurgentswere
killedby
the forcesofreaction.
As
a result theendemic
divisionsand
resultanthatred
and
fear, present inFrench
societythroughout
theCassatt: In the Boat, 60x /
3cm
nineteenth century,
were
present in a particularly acuteform during
the 1870s.Fearof
change
reached
such
a pointin the artworld
that the jury ofthe18 78
Universal Exhibition excluded not onlythe Impressionists but
even
Delacroix, Milletand
Rousseau.
In this situation it is not surprising that a
group
that set out to overturn the acceptedcanons
oftaste,mocked
theestab-Cassatt: Mother and Child, 71 x
58cm
I
:
Cassatt:
Mother and
ChildCassatt:
In theBoat
Mary
Cassattwas
the daughter of a rich Pittsburgh banker.She worked
in France from 1868, and in1874
exhibited at the Salon.
Degas
became
one
of her sup-porters and shewas
verymuch
influenced by his style.The
study of linewas
important in her art,which
shedeveloped throughthe influence of
Degas
and bystudying
Japanese
prints.She
exhibited at four ofthelastfive Impressionist exhibitionsand did her bestto convince herfamily
and American
friends thattheworks
of the Impressionistswere
worth buying.roulouse-Lautrec: Jane
Avril Dancing, 86* 45cm,
right Toulouse-Lautrec: At the Funamula Circus
47x
32cm.1899
below Toulouse-Lautrec: The Clown Cha-U-Kao,
64x
49cm. 1895
\
lishment. disdainfully
opened
a separate exhibition before the Salon,and from
1877
forbade itsmembers
toshow
there,was
classed as revolutionary.The
Universal Monitor,for
example,
on
thegrounds
of a favourable review in aradical paper, noted that 'the intransigents ofart join
hands
with the intransigents of polities',adding
thatsuch
an
alliance
was
only to be expected. Yet,though
the majorityof the group, including
Manet
and Monet, were
left-wing, only Pissarrowas
positivelycommitted
torevolution, and, in the end, only Pissarro, out of politicalconviction,and
Degas, out ofprideand
disdain,remained committed
tochallengingthe system.
Monet
and
Renoir increasingly felt theneed
todissociate themselves
from
an
anti-establishment stance sothat, presenting
no
threat to society, they could at last receive recognition. Renoir indeed actuallywrote
toDurand-Ruel. before the last Impressionist exhibition
(18821
inwhich
he
participated, to say thathe
did notwish
to beassociatedwith Pissarro
on
account
ofhis political ideas,and
added
thathe
would
continue to exhibit at the Salon to 'dispel the revolutionary taint,which
frightens me'.There
was however
another
and even
more
important reason for thebreak-up
of the Impressionist group. In the1870s
they developedand
exploited their solution to theproblem
thathad
ledthem
to Impressionism.Having
done
so, they
began
to feel the force of Castagnary's criticism of their first exhibition: 'Beforemany
years.'he
had
written,'the artists
grouped
at theBoulevard
desCapucines
todaywill be divided.
The
strong . . . willhave
recognized that itthere are
some
subjects suitable foran
"impression'' . . .there are others . . .
which
are not.'He
implied that thestronger artists,