Art History Notes Essay

Art History
Impressionism (1865 – 1900) • Depiction of everyday, leisure class life • To capture the fleeting, ever changing effects of dappled light • Style/painting approach influenced by two inventions: 1. The portable camera and 2. Paint tubes (portable) • Commercially available paint allows for painting ‘en plein air’ • Artists capture a quick impression of a scene using painterly, choppy fleeting brush strokes (evidence of the artist’s hand) • Considered messy and unfinished by critics • Colour, light and atmosphere are always changing in natural spontaneous scenes • Subject matter shows leisure class outdoors (parties etc.) and indoors (bars and cafes) • New advances in the science of colour theory and optics lead to artists’ exploration of optical colour mixing and effects • Successive Contrast: Viewer intensely regards one large field of colour and generates the complimentary colour in afterimage • Simultaneous Contrast: A colour placed adjacent to another is affected/altered by that colour. Eg: Looking at a pair of complimentaries, the viewer optically mixes the 2 colours, creating a neutral/grey brown • Some impressionists stopped using black (feeling that black does not exist in nature) • Shadows and dark colours are full of colour • Use of ‘Painters Black’ and simultaneous contrast effects

Pre/Impressionist Paintings
The Fifer – Edouard Manet 1866 • Pre – impressionism • Influenced impressionism • Character is posed • Brush strokes not super choppy • Ambiguous light source • Still using black • Setting is neutral backdrop • Everyday middle class person (subject matter common) • Colour range starting to be more pastel like • Shadows and tones (Eg: creases in pants etc.) just implied/suggested (not deep shadows, not fully detailed) • Outlines in areas (flattens tone/shape) • Background uses the technique called Scumbling • 2 colours (usually complimentaries – Eg: orange and blue) • Lightened (tone  grey OR tint  white) • Dry brushed together directly on the canvas • Results in a neutral, soft, patchy, textured background  painterly
A Bar at the Folies-Bergeres – Manet 1881-20 • Pre – Impressionism • Not outside, inside a bar • Foreground objects are detailed • NOT a reflection • Splotchy, patchy up close • Background, blotchy and blobby (gives impression of tonnes of people everywhere) • Strokes show movement • Typical impressionistic composition (cropping) • Spontaneous/ photographic • Still uses black • Captures boredom
Ballet Rehearsal – Edgar Degas 1876 • Impressionism • Liked to capture movement • Sketchy, pastel colours • Painterly, natural colours • Natural lighting, sunlight, splotchy, dappled, diffused, filtered • Scumbled floors and walls • Complimentaries • DID NOT use black • Asymmetrical balance – all dancers on left, empty space on right • Implies movement – diagonal lines • Structured composition • Cropping, seeing back
Oarsman at Chatou – Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1907 • Impressionism • Different from other paintings • Choppy, wispy brushstrokes • Background could be thought of as unfinished • Simultaneous contrast, mainly in shadows • NO BLACK • Many colour schemes (complimentary) • Typical impressionism composition
Waterlillies – Claude Monet 1920 • Unusual perspective • Impressionism • Pond in backyard • Painted at different angles, times of day etc • Into showing the ever changing effects of light, atmosphere, weather, times of day • Paintings of his pond at Giverny, France focus on his personal environment • Zooms in on the water and what it reflects • Hundreds of water lily paintings – No two are alike • Choppy, wispy strokes – an impression of the scene captured • Unconventional composition – high horizon line
Noon, Rouen Cathedral – Claude Monet 1894 • Outside his bedroom window • Another series of paintings • Façade of building •

Show More

Essay on Art History Notes

Art History Notes Essay examples

1441 Lecture1 regular rev MT 01 15 Essay

Medieval And Renaissance Art Analysis

HSight Singing Ear TrainingSolfeggio This Is Essay

Renaissance Time Capsule Essay

Summary Of C. R. Patterson

Anna: Mathematics and 01410 Adv Ceramics 1 01420 Adv Ceramics 2 Essay

School: Education and Semester Essay

Memi And Sabu Analysis