Impression : Painting Quickly in France, 1860-1890

by Richard R. Brettell

• ISBN13: 9780300084474
• ISBN10: 0300084471
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2000-12-11
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

The "point" of Impressionist art was to capture the fleeting moment, the transient effect of a certain place, person or time. Impressionist artists worked on site with speed and directness, hoping to distinguish their works with a new freshness, immediacy, and truthfulness. Yet the paintings they exhibited were in fact almost always completed in the studio later. This beautifully illustrated book investigates for the first time works that might truly be called Impressions -- paintings that appear to be rapid transcriptions of shifting subjects but were nonetheless considered finished by their makers. Renowned Impressionist scholar Richard R. Brettell identifies and discusses Impressions by some of the best-known artists of the period, including Manet, Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Morisot, Degas, Pissarro, and Caillebotte.

Author Biography

Richard R. Brettell is Professor of Aesthetic Studies in the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas

Table of Contents

Directors' foreword	7	(2)
Lenders to the exhibition	9	(2)
Preface and acknowledgments	11	(4)
Introduction	15	(6)
The Impression in 1874	21	(7)
Painting as performance: Spontaneity and its appearances in painting and the intellectual origins of the Impression	28	(40)
Edouard Manet and performative painting	68	(36)
Claude Monet and the development of the Impression	104	(48)
Berthe Morisot and Auguste Renoir: The wetness of paint and the sketch aesthetic	152	(37)
Alfred Sisley: The Impression, graphism, and automatic writing	189	(14)
Could Edgar Degas paint an Impression?	203	(9)
Gustave Caillebotte and Camille Pissarro: Impressionists without Impressions?	212	(11)
Coda: Was van Gogh an Impressionist?	223	(10)
Appendix: Laforgue's essay on Impressionism	233	(3)
Bibliographical essay	236	(1)
Checklist of exhibited paintings	237	(1)
Index	238	(2)
Picture credits	240