By 1864, he began exhibiting at the Salon, but recognition did not automatically follow. In 1869 he painted by the River Seine with Monet, frequently at a place where Parisians relaxed at weekends called La Grenouillère. These paintings prefigure the Impressionist style with their rapid paint marks in pure, unblended colors. In the late 1870s he achieved success as a portraitist. He participated in four of the eight Impressionist exhibitions and became one of the most prolific of the Impressionists, completing about 6,000 paintings during his career. Renoir was particularly interested in people, painting portraits, dancers, the theater, and the company of friends, as well as flowers and landscapes. By 1881 the art dealer Durand-Ruel began buying his work regularly. That year, Renoir traveled to Algeria, because of its associations with Delacroix, to Madrid to see the work of Velázquez, and to Italy to see Titian’s and Raphael’s work.
Perhaps more than any of the other Impressionists, Renoir found charm in the modern sights of Paris. He painted his figures in natural positions and surroundings, focusing on the changes to colors that occur in sunlight and shade. In the 1880s he abandoned his feathery Impressionist brushstrokes for what is often called his “dry style,” which is characterized by crisp brushmarks. Working carefully and meticulously, his colors became cooler and smoother. He later returned to vibrant, rich colors and free brushwork to portray nudes in dappled sunlight and he was one of the few Impressionists to use pure ivory black. By the turn of the 20th century, his right arm had become paralyzed by arthritis, but by now his work was in great demand, so he strapped a brush to his wrist and carried on painting.
Key Works
Little Miss Romaine Lacaux 1864, CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART, CLEVELAND, OH, US
Woman Reading 1875–6, MUSÉE D’ORSAY, PARIS, FRANCE
Madame Charpentier with Her Children 1878, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK, US
MARY CASSATT
1844–1926 • IMPRESSIONISM
The Child’s Bath
1893 OIL ON CANVAS
100.3 × 66.1 CM (39½ × 26 IN)
THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, IL, US
The unusual viewpoint, cropped forms, firm outlines and x-shaped composition was a response to the work of Edgar Degas and Japanese prints. Cassatt made the most of the restrictions she had to adhere to as a female artist—she produced many of these tender images of mothers with children without over-romanticizing the subjects, instead focusing on pattern, shape and color.
Painter and printmaker, the American artist Mary Stevenson Cassatt lived much of her adult life in France, exhibited with the Impressionists and became close friends with Degas. As a woman, many themes were not possible for her to depict, so she produced individual and personal images of the social and private lives of women and children.
Born in Pennsylvania in the US to wealthy parents, Mary Cassatt was one of seven children. As a child, she was taken on a four-year tour of Europe and learned German and French. In Paris for the Exposition Universelle in 1855, she became fascinated by the art of Ingres, Delacroix, Corot and Courbet. When she was 15, she went to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, although her father was against her artistic aspirations. In 1865, she moved to Paris with her mother to continue her artistic training. Women were not yet accepted at the École des Beaux-Arts, so she studied privately with Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904), a celebrated painter in the academic style. She also studied and copied in the Louvre.
As a woman, she could not socialize in cafés, so her visits to the Louvre doubled as social events where she met other artists. She also went to the painting classes of Charles Chaplin (1825–91), a fashionable Parisian artist, and two years later studied with Couture, who had taught Manet. In 1868, one of her paintings was accepted by the Paris Salon. During the Franco-Prussian War, Cassatt returned to the US, where her father still opposed her wish to become an artist. However, she was commissioned by the archbishop of Pittsburgh to paint two copies of paintings by Correggio in Italy. In Parma, she attracted a lot of positive attention and within months, she had successfully submitted a painting to the Paris Salon of 1872. Cassatt next traveled to Spain and in 1874, she moved permanently to France with her sister.
In 1877, Degas, by now her friend and mentor, invited her to participate in an Impressionist exhibition. She took part in four of the Impressionist exhibitions from 1879 to 1886. Her style gained a new spontaneity, with small, soft brushstrokes and a bright palette. She began capturing visits to the theater, mothers with children and ladies in relaxed situations. By the 1890s, she was creating more solid forms, with simple compositions, unusual viewpoints and blocks of pure color, inspired by an exhibition of Japanese art she had seen. After 1900, she concentrated almost exclusively on mother and child subjects, evoking sensitive and enchanting moments in time.
Key Works
Self-Portrait c.1878, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK, US
Woman Wearing a Pearl Necklace in the Loge 1879, PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART, PHILADELPHIA, PA, US
Young Girl in a Garden c.1880–2, MUSÉE D’ORSAY, PARIS, FRANCE
The Bath c.1893, ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, CHICAGO, IL, US
Maternal Kiss 1897, PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART, PHILADELPHIA, PA, US
GAUGUIN
1848–1903 • POST-IMPRESSIONISM, SYMBOLISM, PRIMITIVISM, SYNTHETISM, LES NABIS, CLOISONNISM
Tahitian Women or On the Beach
1891 OIL ON CANVAS
69 × 91.5 CM (27 × 36 IN)
MUSÉE D’ORSAY, PARIS, FRANCE
Fascinated by the indolent charm of the women of Tahiti, Gauguin used a vibrant palette and layers of flat color to create a decorative, solid image. He advised his followers: “Don’t trust the model. The simple stained glass window attracting the eye by its divisions of colors and forms is the best thing. Don’t copy from nature: art is an abstraction.”
With an unsettled and stormy life as colorful as his work, Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin originated many art movements and directions of thought. His bold experiments with color initiated Synthetism, whereby his own emotions were transposed onto canvas, and his interest in Primitive art inspired Primitivism. Categorized as a Post-impressionist, he also instigated Cloisonnism and the Nabis.
Gauguin turned away from his life as a successful, wealthy stockbroker and family man to devote his life to art. He was born in Paris, but after the death of his father, he was brought up in Peru with his mother’s family. Later, the family returned to France and lived in Orléans. At the age of 17, he became a sailor in the merchant navy. He left the service in 1872—the first known drawings by Gauguin date from that year—and he began working as a broker’s agent in Paris. At around the same time, he started to study painting at the Académie Colarossi. Gauguin also painted in the open air and in the Louvre, and mixed with other Parisian artists.
In 1874, Gauguin met Pissarro and the other Impressionists at the first exhibition of their work. With his comfortable income from the stock exchange, Gauguin was able to collect their works. From 1876, he exhibited both at the Paris Salon and with the Impressionists. But gradually, he adopted a more simplified style featuring pure, bright colors. After the economic crash of 1883, he left his job. Two years later, he also left his Danish wife and their five children.