Impressionism

They were interested in movement, light and bright colors, and they painted in a style that would have seemed very loose and sketchy to someone in the 19th century.

Like other Impressionists, Caillebotte found beauty in daily life in Paris and found that light could transform his subjects. Here, we see the floor of his fashionable apartment being refinished. Light pours in highlighting planks of wood.

The cafe was a frequent subject for the Impressionists. On the left, Degas depicted loneliness even within the crowds of the city. Manet’s image depicts a waitress serving a man watching a performance—one looks to the left, the other to the right.

We are surrounded by sweeping panoramas of light and color that shift as subdued morning light turns clear and sharp in the afternoon, and then showy and brilliant at sunset.

Look closely and you’ll see flowering lilypads on the surface of the water. You may make out the soft reflection of the weeping willows trees that arch over the pond. You may even see hints of the plants below the water’s surface.

We look directly down into the lily pond and blues, reds and greens seem to shift as our eyes move across this massive painting. Step closer and we’re surrounded by color and Monet’s quick brush strokes until the image dissolves entirely.

The reflection of a brilliant sunset pushes yellows against a field of pink and willow trees crowd in from the sides with deep green shadows. Like clouds, lilypads float across the pond — it’s hard to know if we are looking up or down.

The shadows of trees frame the painting. In the center, we see the blue reflection of the sky and pink, white and yellow clouds. For Monet, painting is about the changing light that the eye sees at a particular moment in time.

And as always, he is concerned with the momentary effects of light and color—but while these paintings may look like they were done quickly, there are many layers of paint, and the artist took considerable time with them.

Monet’s paintings at the Orangerie are large and immerse us in this lush garden environment. Here in this curved painted, the tree trunks are cut off at the top and bottom and we have no sense of the ground we are standing on.

Looking at this painting is like standing behind a waterfall and watching the curtain of water fall before you. We feel protected behind the weeping willow’s branches—its vertical leaves and branches are seen against the reflective surface of the pond.

The dense canopy of a willow tree fills the canvas but we can still make out a few flowering lilies. We also see lines that may be the reflection of branches or perhaps plants below the surface of the water — or maybe both.

You can clearly see the willow branches, the lilypads below and the clouds and the sky reflected in the pond. Nevertheless they are all so tightly interwoven that the leaves which are close to us and the sky which is far are inseparable.

Like the other Impressionist artists, Pissarro painted this outside. He wanted to capture the momentary interaction between a woman carrying a pail and a young boy on his way to or from school, but he was also interested in the changing effects of light.

Like Pissarro, Sisley paints his scene at a distance—he’s not interested in the faces or the specific kind of tree, instead he uses quick brushstrokes and bright colors to capture the fuller experience of a warm breezy summer day in the countryside.

As we look around the room, we see the landscapes that the Impressionist painters are mostly known for, but we also see portraits and still lives.

Monet depicts his future wife sitting beside the river. Here are the hallmarks of the Impressionist style: brilliant colors, rapid loose brushwork, scenes of leisure (not too far from Paris), and a concern for the atmosphere, and the light at a particular time of day.

Ballet was popular in Paris. The girl in the original version wore an actual bodice, tutu, ballet slippers, and silk ribbon. Degas was not interested in a perfectly beautiful ballerina but in the way a young ballerina might really stand.

It wasn’t easy for women to become artists in the nineteenth century since they were banned from the official art schools, and their lives were to be centered around the home. Cassatt is best known for her intimate images of family life, and for her bold use of color and pattern.

A woman sits in a garden chair surrounded by flowers and reading a newspaper. Her hair and skin reflect all the colors of the flowers. Even her white dress upon close examination is made of blues and yellows, pinks and greens.

Unlike Monet, Degas was interested in the human figure (not the landscape), but like many other Impressionists, light and color and the experience of modern city life are also of paramount importance.

Degas dancers are rarely shown performing. We stand among the ballerinas backstage at the Paris Opera. Behind the three figures adjusting their costumes, we see a backdrop lifted to reveal the feet of even more dancers waiting in the wings.

This little case holds three bronze sculptures of the dozens of small figurines that Degas sculpted. The figurines express Degas’s careful observation of the form, line, and movement of the human body.

Degas often painted portraits that contain a sense of emotional tension. Here, both figures wear black. The girl’s father had recently died and she was now in the care of her uncle who drops his newspaper to gaze at us.