Late 19th century France: Impressionism, art Nouveau and the birth of cinema

Notes and research 

• The late 19 century covered a lot of different movements such as:
• Impressionism 
• Post Impressionism
• Japonisme
• Posters, Advertising and Art Nouveau
• Photography and The Invention of the Movies

• The academy of arts started giving out licences allowing people to have the title of professional artist.  
• Something called the 'establishment' were in control of all art.
• 'Gleaners'- Jean Francois Millet, 1857- 
  “These are scarecrows dressed as hags planted in a field, and, like scarecrows, they have no faces, these are replaced by homespun head-dresses. Mr Millet seems to think a mediocre technique is fit to paint the poor: his ugliness is without accent, his vulgarity without relief” (Paul de Saint-Victor)
• Mannet was rejected by the academy because he showed a naked person in a modern setting and this was seen as offensive 
• He created a 'reject gallery' to get back at the academy. It backfired at the academy for rejecting him because his gallery became more popular than there's. 

Impressionism

• Claude Monet creator/pioneer of this movement.
• Monet was obsessed with the seasons so he'd repaint the same scene over and over again. He tried to capture the different atmospheres and weathers. 
• He created at least 20 studies of Rouen Cathedral between 1892- 94.
• He also created multiple studies of some haystacks.
• He was more interested in the colours and feel that the image gave rather than the painting being 100% accurate.
• The impressionists loved the industrial revolution because of all the steam and fog- Monet.
• Renoir also very important in the impressionist movement. 
•  he was similar to Monet in the way that he used colour and light.
• he was very interested in showing the lives of people living in Paris at the time. 
• Edgar Degas was a Keen photographer and his came across clearly in his paintings because of the peculiar angles and perspectives that would usually only be caught with a photograph. 
• He used his Photographs as direct reference for his paintings.
• He drew and painted the same group of people a lot. 

Post Impressionism

• Paul Cezanne originally saw himself as an impressionist but in the 1870's decided to break out and create his own style very different from the Impressionist style.
• He used colour and texture very differently 
• Henri Matisse- part of post impressionism
• Vincent Van Gogh moved to Paris and  was very impressed with this movement and decided to become part of it. His work changed dramatically. 
• Van Gogh started using more vibrant colours and the movement eventually started leaning towards a more abstract look. 

Japonisme

• Impressionists and post impressionists were very inspired by Japanese art.
• Japan was cut off for 200 years but opened its borders in 1858.
• people in Europe became obsessed with Japanese art in the late 19th century this is referred to as Japonisme
• Van Gogh was inspired by this and created a series of Japanese style paintings- Portrait of Pere Tanguy, 1887-8
• Hiroshige 1857 inspired Van Gogh in 1887
• The influence in obvious in his paintings from this time. 
•  Hokusai 1830's- Van Gogh in 1889
• Henri Rousseau was fascinated with eastern prints he recreated them but with more realistic detail than the originals. 
• Paul Gauguin Traveled to the east (not japan though) after Gogh's death and drew the culture and experienced it first hand. His paintings show how he saw the culture. 
• Monet painted haystacks in different weathers and atmospheres as Hokusai did in 1830- 1832 with mount Fuji. 
• Hokusai Manga- Women at Public Bath 1820 heavily influenced Edgar Degas with The Tub 1886.
• Japanese art also greatly inspired art nouveau.

Art Nouveau 

• Both Japanese art and art nouveau used very similar compositions in their images.
• Pierre Bonnard 1891 influenced by Hokusai the great wave 1830-1832
• Henri De Toulouse Lautrec Lithograph 1893 composition inspired by Kitagawa Utamaro – Woodblock c. 1794
• layout- Henri De Toulouse Lautrec 1893 inspired by Utagawa Hiroshige, Woodblock Print 1858
• In Britain the influence of japan was also evident.
• Aubrey Beardsley’s illustration next to a stereotypical (overly literal) ‘Japanese’ look typeface. 1894.
• Art Nouveau was used a lot in packaging because it gave the product an element of luxury.
• Alfonse Mucha one of the main artists of this movement. 

Photography and film 

• 1900 Eastman introduced the box brownie- small camera
• Kodak made it affordable to middle class people it had 6 exposures and the chemist would develop them.
• the Zoetrope was invented and it became a popular toy started the idea of creating moving photographs (film)
• Thomas Edison and the Lumier brothers created film around the same time 

Research task 

Research Examples of Art Nouveau in Illustration and Graphics. I also decided to include research on impressionism, post impressionism and japonisme because they are relevant to my essay question and i feel it will benefit me more.

 

Impressionism began in the 1860's Monet was the main pioneer of this movement. A lot of the impressionist art was highly influenced from Japanese art. Monet's work shows particular influence from the work of Hokusai as they both created series of images. Hokusai created the print series entitled 36 views of my Fuji, Monet created a few different series one showing different paintings of haystacks (figure1). They are not only similar because they are both series but they are also similar because of the way they were painted. They were both painted focussing on the same subject but showing it in different atmospheres, weather, angles and surroundings. 

 “I was painting some haystacks which had caught my eye and which made a terrific group, just a short distance from here. One day I noticed that my light had changed. I said to my step daughter go to the house and get me another canvas, if you don’t mind.” (Monet)[1]

This quote shows Monets obsession with painting the same subject in every possible way that he could.  

(figure 1) Monet, Haystacks, Snow morning

Edgar Degas was also part of the impressionist art movement. Like Monet he was inspired by the art of japan particularly the way that Hokusai represented women in 'women at public bath.' (figure2) The reason why Degas was so inspired by this wood block print is because of how differently the women were posed compared to the traditional positions often shown in classical paintings.

Degas, after a classical training with an emphasis on purity of form, found welcome relief from western idealisation of  'the female from divine' in Hokusai's vibrant studies of life in the public baths.[2]

(figure 2) Katsushika Hokusai, Women at public bath, c.1820. Colour woodblock

 Degas took great influence from Hokusai and this is shown in his painting 'The tub.' (Figure 3) The position of the female in this image is an echo of the positions used in Hokusai's 'women at public bath.'

(figure 3) Edgar Degas, The Tub, 1886. Pastel on paper. 

Van Gogh was part of the postimpressionism movement. He also created a lot of Japanese inspired paintings after going to japan and being impressed by it. A few of his paintings for example 'The bridge in the rain' (figure 4) were direct copies of Japanese woodblock prints.

Theres that one that Van Gogh has copied 'after Hiroshige' he called it - but i couldn't see anything but just an oil painting of this print. [3]

(Figure 4) Vincent Van Gogh, The bridge in the rain (after Hiroshige), 1887

 Art Nouveau Is a french art movement that was all about showing glamour and luxury with their lavish over the top designs in their image's. It might not be an obvious link to begin with but a lot of art nouveau pieces were inspired by Japanese art, particularly in the ares of colour, layout and perspective. A lot of posters used for advertisement were created at the time of art Nouveau. A lot of thought was put into the design of the posters that they made. Japanese art had a natural, organic layout that was very pleasing to the eye and the artists of the art Nouveau movement seemed to pick up on this, it seemed to work well within the art Nouveau period.

Take any representative Japanese print- a book illustration, a broadsheet or a theatre bill- and it will be fond to embody all that a good poster should. one dominant idea is presented graphically, beautifully, the detail does not weaken, but actually enforces the motif.[4]

The influence of Japanese art is very apparent in the layout of 'Divan Japonis' by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (figure 5.) You can see that the piece has been influenced by the dark outlines, shadows and use of a woman as the main subject in 'Servant on the verandah' by Kitagawa Utamaro (figure 6).

(figure 5) Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Divan Japonais, 1893. Colour lithograph

(Figure 6) Kitagawa Utamaro, Servant on the verandah, c.1795. Colour woodblock

[1]Brodskaia, N. (2005) Impressionism. Kent: Grange Books.

[2] L Lambourne, ‘Japan and the painters’ in Japonisme, Phaidon press limited, London, 2005, p 41.
[3] L Lambourne, ‘Japan and the painters’ in Japonisme, Phaidon press limited, London, 2005, p 44.
[4] L Lambourne, ‘The poster and the Japanese print’ in Japonisme, Phaidon press limited, London, 2005, p 56.