Impressionism Quiz

Early in his career, Claude Monet lived a bohemian lifestyle of an artist, moving from place to place, and painting en plein air with his wife, _________________________________ and their son, Michel. She was the subject of many paintings by Monet, Renoir and Manet. She died of cancer in her thirties shortly after the birth of her second child.

Camile

Although Impressionist art gives the appearance of spontaneity, it often took the artist considerable time and study to get the desired effect. For example, _____________________ was known for switching between multiple canvases as the light changed. He would also paint the same subject again and again, as he did in his haystacks series shown above, to capture light at different times of day and in different seasons. Fun fact....one of the paintings from the haystacks series sold in May 2019 for more than $110 million. Sotheby's auction house says it's a world auction record for the artist and the first work of Impressionist art to cross the $100-million threshold at auction.

Claude Monet

Impression Sunrise (1872) The art critic, Louis Leroy described the painting above by _______________________________ in the French satirical newspaper Le Charivari on April 25, 1874: "Impression—I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in it ... and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape." This art critic was certainly not alone in his opinion. Initially, the art of the Impressionists sparked considerable controversy and was often criticized for looking unfinished and blurry with subjects that were too ordinary. The sarcastic and insulting description stuck and the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, Etc. eventually came to be known as the Impressionists.

Claude Monet

This Impressionist artist is best known for his many paintings and sculptures of the contemporary ballet scene in Paris in the late 19th century. Ballet, which had emerged out of the court of King Louis XIV (the Sun King) in the 17th century and was exclusively for the ancien regime for many years thereafter, had become more accessible to the middle classes by the end of the 19th century. Unlike many other Impressionists, this artist tended to work in the studio rather than "en plein air" and his brushwork tended to be more precise and less spontaneous than his contemporaries. However, his work captures the fleeting moment in a way that is characteristic of Impressionism. The angles and cropping look less like the staged compositions of the past and more like the candid snapshots of the modern world.

Edgar Degas

In 1863, the Salon des Refusés (Solon of the Refused) was set up by the government after the Salon rejected thousands of works of art earlier that year. One of the highlights of this exhibit was Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe by ________________________. This artist challenged the authority of the Salon in a number of ways. Although he never exhibited with the Impressionists, he was close friends with them. He endorsed their work and shared numerous interests and techniques.

Edouard Manet

Later in his life, after his wife died of cancer in her 30's, Claude Monet stopped moving from place to place and settled down in a country house in a village in Northern France known as ____________________________________. Claude Monet spent the remainder of his life cultivating extraordinary garden spaces and painting pictures of them. Roughly two-thirds of Monet's body of work was done during this period of Monet's life. Some of his most well known works are those of his exotic water lilies and Japanese inspired gardens and bridges.

Giverny

The Impressionists were not the first to challenge the authority of the Salon, the statesponsored art academy. Several decades earlier, the Realist artist _________________________ displayed his paintings privately in his Pavillon du Réalisme, after several of his works had been rejected from the official 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris. In one of the works exhibited at the Pavillon du Réalisme (Painter's Studio, shown above), the artist places himself in the center of the composition painting a landscape, a subject that the Salon considered less important than other subjects like history, mythology, or religion.

Gustave Courbet

In the Loge (1878) and Breakfast in Bed (1897) This Impressionist painter is best known for her images of middle class domestic life. By the end of the eighteenth century, women had expanded their role in the art world, both as artist and subject. Women were not as free to conduct themselves in public spaces as men were, so paintings by female Impressionists tended to focus more on the domestic sphere. Like their male counterparts, these artists were interested in capturing the here and now of their daily lives.

Mary Cassatt

The Slave Ship (1840) The painting above is by the English Romantic painter ___________________________. While spending time in London, Claude Monet studied the work of this Romantic artist. It's interesting to notice that this artist uses the same type of loose brushwork that becomes characteristic of the Impressionist style later that century

Turner

The following are aspects of nineteenth century culture that helped to shape the Impressionism art movement EXCEPT:

World War 1

A group of artists that would later come to be known as Impressionists exhibited for the first time on April 15, 1874 in ______________________________________________. The choice of location was emblematic of their modern approach to art. Unlike Salon exhibitions of the past, this show had no state involvement, no jury, no hierarchy of subject matter and no official manifesto. They called themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, Etc.

a photography studio on the Boulevard des Capucines.

A hallmark of Impressionist art was that many were painted outside the studio and in the world, or _______________________ as the French would say. Unlike the slow, studio-based approach of the Salon where figures were carefully modeled with multiple layers of oil paint, Impressionist art was often painted in one sitting on smaller canvases that could be easily transported. Painting outdoors also became easier once paint became available to purchase in tubes in the nineteenth century, freeing artists from the laborious task of mixing paint by hand in the studio

en plein air

The Industrial Revolution changed many aspects of life in the 19th century, including art supplies. Developments in the study of color theory as well as innovations in theway that paint was made and stored inspired Impressionist artists to do all of the following EXCEPT:

establish strict guidelines for how artists should use color in their paintings

Paintings that show everyday people doing everyday things are classified as _______________________. This type of painting ranks fairly low on the hierarchy established by the Solon, the state-sponsored art academy. It was seen as not as important as other types of art. Part of why the Impressionists were ground-breaking at the time was because they were putting more importance on ordinary people doing ordinary things.

genre paintings

One of the favorite subjects of the Impressionist is_____________________________. They try to capture this ephemeral subject it in a variety of ways - as it filters through trees and reflects off the water. The also notice how it changes at different times of the day and in different seasons and atmospheric conditions.

light

Moulin de la Galette (c. 1876) This Impressionist painter is known for his lively scenes of modern Parisian city life. This painting is characteristic of Impressionism in it's attention to light and effort to capture a fleeting moment.

pierre-auguste renoir

The Impressionists were interested in capturing the "hear and now" of their time. Impressionist art reveals a changing industrial landscape in Paris, now with trains, factories, and newly renovated city-streets, such as the famous Boulevard des Capucines (shown above on the left). Impressionist art also reveals a changing social landscape in post-Revolution France where a new type of urban lifestyle began to emerge. Unlike their agrarian ancestors, Parisian city-dwellers could enjoy the novelty of leisure time on the weekends and mixing of gender and social classes. Common subjects of Impressionist artists include all of the following EXCEPT:

royalty

The group of artists that came to be known as the Impressionists exhibited a total of eight times from 1874 to 1886. Although they did not have an official manifesto or shared mission, they all tended to share the same qualities the same qualities EXCEPT:

strict adherence to salon guidelines