art history

Time Period: 1872-1880 Painters worked in plein-air; artificial atmosphere inhibited artistic expression; artists moved out to capture the effects of atmosphere and light  Relied on the transient, the quick, and the fleeting  Impressionist brushstrokes seek to capture the effects of light  Times of day and seasons affect the appearance of objects  Spectacular color range; stark contrasts to subtle harmonies  Concentrate on landscape and still life painting  Influence of Japanese art; imitated flatness; compositional qualities Anti academic and antibourgeois  Monet most important figure

The Coiffure. Mary Cassatt. 1890–1891 C.E. Dry point and aquatint. The École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in Paris showcased an exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints. These ukiyo-e images, “pictures of the floating world,” were comprised mostly of scenes of urban bourgeois pleasure—geishas, beautiful women, sumo wrestlers, kabuki actors—and pictures of the natural beauty around Edo, such as the mists of Mount Fuji, cherry blossoms, rain showers, and surging waves along the port of Kanagawa. Ever since imperial Japan was available for Western trade in 1853, Europe had become fascinated with Japanese culture. Artists like Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh were among the many who incorporated elements of Japanese design into their work.  A woman adjusting her hair is one of the hundreds that Mary Cassatt made in her in-home studio; La Coiffure also has its art historical roots in Old Master paintings of women bathing; becomes a tightly crafted exercise in form and ...

The Saint Lazare Station . Claude Monet. 1877 C.E.Oil on canvas. Part of a series of more than a dozen Train station in Paris; Monet has been living in the city, suburban dweller; epitome of the modern, the new, the industrial.  We associate Monet with waterlilies, pastoral landscapes. Chimneys, modern railway bridges; completely embracing modernism.  Typically, in his paintings trees frame the canvas; here, it’s the modern architecture, the diagonal lines which recede and carry our eye back.  Play of light and color; entrapped space; steam plays against the sunlight above; no line or contours; we see everything dissipating; everything becomes pure light, color.  Monet chose to make an ugly location luminous, an extraordinary expression of the beauty of urban modern life. Example of impressionism.  Deep sea of steam and smoke that envelops the canvas A component in larger project of a dozen canvases which attempts to portray all facets of the Ga...