The Thames and Hudson Encyclopaedia of Impressionism

Citation preview

I

The Thames and Hudson

Encyclopaedia of Impressionism BERNARD DENVIR

mm

mm *F^T*3gKS*

4^

v#»

£*&#'

$^MNIVM pLVXp

m

SSrfl&i'V CcaR" 1

>->J

"

£$1

If? 11

L

1,1

gSBUSS

?i*

BOSTOISI

PUBLIC LIBRARY

Bernard Dcnvir is

documentary history

the author of a four-volume

of taste in art, architecture and design in Britain, as well as of books on Chardin, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and Fauvism. A contributor to many journals and magazines, he was head of the Department of Art History at Ravensbourne College of Art and Design, a member of the Council for National Academic Awards, and for several years President of the British section of the International Association of Art Critics. A complementary volume in the World of Art series is the author's The Impressionists at

Hand

First

WORLD

(1987).

OF ART

This famous

scries

provides the widest available

range of illustrated books on If

you would of

30

art in all

like to receive a

titles in

its

aspects.

complete

list

print please write to:

THAMES AND HUDSON Bloomsbury Street, London wcib 3QF In the

500 Fifth

United

States please write to:

THAMES AND HUDSON INC. Avenue, New York. New York,

101 10

The Thames and Hudson Encyclopaedia of

IMPRESSIONISM Bernard Denvir

245 illustrations, 1}

in color

THAMES AND HUDSON BRIGHTON

For

Any copy of this book

my family

all

by

issued

sold subject to the condition that

the publisher as a paperback shall

it

not by

way of trade

is

or

otherwise be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a

words being imposed on

similar condition including these

a

subsequent purchaser.

©1990 Thames and Hudson First

Ltd,

London

published in the United States in 1990 by

Thames and Hudson

New

Inc.,

NeW

York,

500 Fifth Avenue,

York

Library of Congress Catalog Card

No

101 10

Number

89-50636

may be any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior All Rights Reserved.

part of this publication

reproduced or transmitted

in

permission in writing from the publisher. Printed and

bound

in

Singapore

Contents

A

reader's guide to the use of this

book

6

Subject index 7

Maps 10

THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA 13

General bibliography 232

Comparative chronology 233

Gazetteer of the major Impressionist collections

238

Illustration credits

240

A

reader's guide to the use of this

Few periods in the history of art have received such intense examination over the past halfcentury as the comparatively short one which saw the flowering of Impressionism. During the past decade a great deal of revisionism has been taking place in our perception of the movement and the artists who participated in it. Much of this is to be found in recently published books such as T.J. Clark's The Painting of Modern Life (1985), John House's Monet; Nature into Art (1986), and Robert L. Herbert's Impressionism; Art, Leisure, and Parisian Society (1988);

but

much

periodicals

is

and

enshrined

also in the

in

specialist

catalogues of the

many

important exhibitions relating to the Impressionists which have recently been mounted. An inevitable consequence of this great wealth of material is that it is not always easy for the general reader to obtain convenient access to information about specific individuals, themes or related matters, without having recourse to a variety of books and periodicals, some of which are contained only in specialized libraries. An additional complication is the fact that even the most exhaustive works, such as John Rewald's History of Impressionism, do not list in their indices thematic subjects, such as patronage, politics, social

background or techniques.

The aim of the is

Encyclopaedia of Impressionism

to present a concise

compendium of informa-

based for the most part on recently published work, relating to Impressionism, its tion,

practitioners, ancillary figures such as patrons,

models, dealers and

critics, as

well as to relevant

which concern the movement as whole, covering its social, political, economic

general themes a

and general

work

historical context. Inevitably, such

bound

to be selective, but it aims to provide an accessible introduction to Impressionism in all its aspects, as well as a permanent source of reference.

a

is

To

book

enable the reader to investigate further

the necessarily concise information contained

within the text, virtually every individual entry is provided with a selected bibliography. Works which recur frequently are indicated by the author's name followed by the date of publication, e.g.

Rewald

(1973); a

key

to these

abbreviated references will be found in the

general bibliography on pp. 232-33, which also lists works dealing with the movement and its practitioners as a whole. The subject index opposite is intended to indicate the range of entries contained in the encyclopaedia and in particular to draw attention to thematic entries which might not suggest themselves alphabetically. Within each entry, subjects dealt with elsewhere are given in SMALL CAPITALS. Black and white illustrations have been specially selected to expand on information in the text, with a particular emphasis on documentary material. Where relevant illustrations appear under separate headings, rather than in the immediate vicinity of a particular entry, a page reference is given in square brackets at the end of the entry. The colour plates on pp. 4956 and 217-224 have been chosen to illuminate aspects of Impressionist painting which would not have been revealed in black and white. Maps of contemporary Paris and of sites connected with Impressionism will be found on pp. 10-12.

A sets

comparative chronology on pp. 233-37

the

movement

within

its

general historical

world gazetteer of public galleries which contain important holdings of Impressionist works can be found on pp. 23840; this is necessarily selective, and is to be complemented by reference to the subject context,

entries.

and

a

Acknowledgments

appear on

p. 240.

for the illustrations

Subject index

THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT cafes

literature

cafes-concert

music

Clemenceau, Georges dancing

Napoleon

France Franco-Prussian

politics

prices

railways

III

Nieuwerkerke, Comte

social

background

Emilien de

War

Paris

THE ARTISTIC CONTEXT AND IMPRESSIONIST TECHNIQUE Academie Academie atelier

Julian

Realism

Suisse

Salon Salon des Refuses

system

Japanese art Jongkind, Jean-Baptiste Lecoq de Boisbaudran,

Horace

colour

sculpture

and criticism drawing Ecole des Beaux-Arts

Societe

Society of French Artists

flochetage

technique

illustration

L'Union

critics

Anonyme

des

Artistes

Influences

Independants Institut de France

antecedents

plein-airisme

Barbizon Bonvin, Francois Boudin, Eugene Chevrcul, Eugene Chintrcuil, Antoinc Corot, Camille Courbet, Gustave Daubigny, Francois

Pointillism

Delacroix, Eugene

portraiture

Diaz de

music pastels

patrons and collectors peinture claire

Post-Impressionism prints

painters

Besnard, Albert

Impressionist exhibitions

Luxembourg, Musee du

photography Rousseau, Theodore

Academic

Impressionism

literature

Millet, Jean-Francois

la

Peru, Narcisse

Virgilc

Guys, Constantin

Carolus-Duran, EmilcAuguste Cormon, Fcrnand Couture, Thomas (Jerome, Jean-Leon ( rervex, Henri Gleyre, Charles

Guichard, Joseph Puvis de Chavannes, Pierre

THE ART MARKET Patrons and collectors Arosa, Gustave

Gaudibert, Louis-Joachim Gaugain, Paul-Octave, Abbe

Barnes, Alfred

Havemeyer, Henry Osborne

Georges de

Bellio,

Hecht, Albert

Berard, Paul

Hoschede, Ernest and Alice

Bruyas, Alfred Charpcntier, Georges Chocquet, Victor

Khalil

Davies Collection

Mellon, Paul Morozov, Mikhail and Ivan

Depeaux, Felix-Francois Deudon, Charles

Bey

Lane, Sir

Hugh

Percy

May, Ernest

Dealers Boussod and Valadon Durand-Ruel, Paul Gogh, Theo van Goupil, Adolphe Hotel Drouot Joyant, Maurice Latouche, Louis Manzi, Michel Martin, Pere

Murer, Eugene Pellerin, Auguste

Martinet, Louis

Ephrussi, Charles

Phillips Collection

prices

Faure, Jean-Baptiste

Proust,

Flornoy, Louis

Rouart, Henri Shchukin, Sergei

Doria,

Count Armand

Gachet,

Dr Paul

Gangnat, Maurice

Petit,

Antonin

Georges

Tanguy,

Julien, Pere

Vollard,

Ambroise

Wagram, Louis-Marie

WRITERS, CRITICS

AND

PERIODICALS

L' Artiste

Gasquet, Joachim

Mantz, Paul

Astruc, Zacharie

Gautier, Theophile

Martelli,

Baudelaire, Charles Pierre

Geffroy, Gustave

Mauclair, Camille

Blanc, Charles Burger, Wilhelm Burty, Philippe

Gill,

Maus, Octave Mirbeau, Octave Moore, George

Castagnary, Jules

Louis-Alexandre Goncourt, Edmond and Jules de Halevy, Ludovic

Champflcury, Jules Husson

Hamerton, Philip Gilbert

Riviere,

Charivari

Rashdall,

Diego

Edward

Houssaye, Arsene

Georges Rutter, Frank

Chesneau, Ernest

Huysmans, Joris-Karl

Silvestre,

Armand

Claretie, Jules

L' Impressionniste

Silvestre,

Theophile

Daudct, Alphonse Delvau, Alfred Dewhurst, Wynford Duranty, Louis Edmond Fen eon, Felix Fourcaud, Louis de

James, Henry

Stevenson, R.A.M. Venturi, Lionello

Lafenestre, Georges

Laforgue, Jules Leroy, Louis Maccoll, D.S.

Mallarme, Stephane

La Vie moderne

Wedmore,

Sir Frederick

Wolff, Albert Zola, Emile

THE IMPRESSIONISTS AND THEIR CIRCLE The major

painters

Oiler y Cestero, Francisco

Cordey, Frederic

Bazille, Frederic

Pissarro, Felix

Caillebotte, Gustave

Pissarro, Julie

Desboutin, Marcellin Duret, Theodore

Mary

Cassatt,

Cezanne, Paul Degas, Edgar Fantin-Latour, Henri

Gonzales, Eva

Guillaumin,

Lucien

Pissarro,

Renoir,

Renoir family Valabregue, Antonin Valernes, Evariste de

Armand

Manet, Edouard Monet, Claude Morisot, Berthe Pissarro, Camille

Their models and Ambre, Emilie

Renoir, Pierre-Auguste Sargent, John Singer

Callias,

Walter Richard

Sickert,

Forain, Jean-Louis

Edmond

sitters

Guigou, Paul Guillemet, Antoine

Lamy,

Pierre

Lebourg, Albert-Charles Lc Coeur, Jacques Legros, Alphonse

Vicomte Henry

Lepic,

Andree, Ellen Angele

Lerolle,

Nina de Dobigny, Emma

Nittis,

Maitre,

Mery

Laurent,

Piette,

Edmond Guiseppe de Ludovic

Raffaelli,

Jean-Francois

Sisley,

Alfred

Meurent, Victorine

Schuffenecker, Emile

Tissot,

James

Perrot, Jules

Sommier, Francois-Clement

Whistler, James Abbott

McNeill

Their families and confidants Andre, Albert Baudot, Jeanne Bellelli

family

Closier,

Zoe

Emperaire, Achille Fiquet, Hortense Gasquet, Joachim Leenhoff,

Leon

Marion, Antoine Fortune

Rouviere, Philibert

Clementine

Stora,

Trehot, Lise Valadon, Suzanne

Stevens, Alfred Tillot,

Charles

Vignon, Victor

Their followers

Their close associates

Comte

Albert de Bartholome, Paul Albert Balleroy,

Bernard, Emile Denis, Maurice

Blanche, Jacques-Emile

Gauguin, Paul Van Gogh, Vincent Seurat, Georges

Braquemond,

Signac, Paul

Beliard,

Edouard

Felix and Marie Cabaner (Jean de Cabannes) Cals,

Adolphe

Felix

PLACES ASSOCIATED WITH THE IMPRESSIONISTS France

Auvers-sur-Oise Barbizon

Germany

Batignolles

La Grenouillere Honrlenr Louvecienncs

Holland

Belgium

Medan

Italy

Bougival

Montmartre

Scandinavia Spain

Boulogne

Paris

USA

Cabaret de

Aix-en-Provence

Chatou Eragny

Algiers

L'

Argenteuil

Etretat

England

Brasserie des Martyrs

Estaque

la

mere Anthony

Pontoise S.untc-Adresse Trouvillc Vetheuil Ville

d'Avray

io

jtrated Plan of Paris

ENTERED

STATIONERS

HALL

I

I

ISSY

Overleaf:

Dr

Loth's illustrated plan of Paris, published

by Scott and Ferguson of Edinburgh

for British

Exposition Universelle of 1878. Above: The environs of Paris, showing the villages along the Seine which attracted the Impressionists, from Dr Loth's map of Paris, 1878.

visitors to the

>Etretat

de Barfleur

WIT

\6odervSm

BALE DEL A

S

E

I

/Montu'ilUws

NE

Cap de la HeveL

\-*f

A

J

LEHAVBfF^

iC^ *^ ^ mzM&l^^

'40tmi

^

ForL m%essw


Champfleury, Jules Husson his

achievement was

only

made

possible

a

by

personal one, and his

it

was

experience of main-

Impressionism. See also dewhurst, drawEMPERAIRE, CACHET, GASQUET, ILLUSTRATION, INDEPENDANTS, MARION, MEDAN, PERPLEIN-AIRISME, PHOTOGRAPHY, SPECTIVE, line

ing,

PORTRAITURE, PRINTS, SOCIAL BACK-

POLITICS,

GROUND [15, 22, 57, 84, 88, 164, 175, 218-ig] P.N. Doran (ed.), Conversations avec Cezanne (1978); Rewald (1984); Rewald (1986); L. Gowing, Cezanne the early years, Royal Academy, London, exhibition catalogue (1988) ,

Champfleury, Jules Husson (1821-89) and

man of

who was

A

staunch defender of the doctrines of realism; even though at various times he quarrelled with most critic

letters

a

of its protagonists, he was a member of the group surrounding courbet at the brasserie des martyrs. His researches into the works of the I7th-c. Le Nain brothers created a revival of interest in their paintings, and he was also the author of several novels. He became director of

Through his Eugene murer he came

A

Charivari cartoon by Cham (1874) shows the Turks using Impressionist paintings in battle.

the porcelain factory at Sevres.

friend the

patissier

into contact with

many of

the Impressionists,

whose work he

collected. [23, 62]

-J.H. Champfleury, Souvenirs et portraits de jeunesse (1872); U. Finke (ed.), French Nineteenth-century J

!if|

ROTHSCHILD,

arras. «.

m rantus-im

PARIS

CHAMPFLEURY

LES CHATS ^—

ILLUSTRE

Jekroixix

I El Valet

Charivari,

IN VOLUME

*m The

M

mm DE \0MBREISES GRAYTR&

fbix

:

5

FRANCS

front cover of Champfleurys Les Chats, published in 1869, features a lithograph by Manet.

46

Literature

(1972);

Le A

satirical

magazine founded

in

1832 by an enterprising republican journalist, Charles Philipon (1800—62), who made it an important vehicle of political propaganda and social

comment

London

(Punch's subtitle

was 'Or the

Charivari'). Utilizing the

new

tech-

It was m Charivari that Daumier presented his famous character Robert Macaire, the prototype of the spivish speculator, and that Grand-

ville

flk'Si

lot

and

nique of lithography as well as developments that had taken place in engraving processes, he employed some 20 artists to illustrate its pages.

HISTOIRE - MffiDRS - ANECDOTES

^UXCSTRE

Painting

Clark (1973b)

(1803—47)

displayed

his

imaginative

humanized animals. Charivari was very concerned with the

arts,

but tended to be slightly Its critic Louis leroy

reactionary in this sphere.

was fairly hostile, and it was in a satirical piece about the first impressionist exhibition that he gave the movement its name (see impressionism). One of the magazine's leading caricaturists Cham (Amedee de Noe, 1819—79) was especially vitriolic about the movement. See also NADAR, SALON [115, 127] -E.de Bechtel, Freedom of the Press; Philipon

Chatou

Madame Charpentier and

her children Paul

painted by Renoir in 1878. Proust compared

versus Louis Philippe (1952);

Histoire generale de

la

C. Bellanger

presse franqaise,

et al.,

vol.

2

(1969); Zeldin (1973)

Charpentier, Georges (1846— 1905) At the age of 25 he inherited a successful publishing house, the reputation of which he further enhanced, not only by his shrewd business acumen, but by his ability to pick successful authors,

whom

amongst

be included Flaubert, zola, Maupassant, daudet and the goncourts. In 1872 he married Marguerite Lemonnier (1848— 1904), who reinforced the interest in art that he had inherited from his father, Gervais - a supporter of the Romantics. The Charpentiers lived first in the Place Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois and later at 1 1 rue de Grenelle, and Madame Charpentier's salon became famous as a meeting place for writers, artists and left-wing politicians. Both of them were enthusiastic patrons and supporters of the Impressionists, and it was largely on their behalf that they founded the magazine la vie moderne and ran an

art

are

to

gallery

on

They were

premises.

its

and

in 1878 he Charpentier with her two children (Metropolitan Museum, New York) which, when it was exhibited at the salon in the following year, enhanced the

particularly close to renoir,

painted the portrait of

painter's

reputation

Madame

amongst

the

general

her knee) and Georgette, with 'Titian at his best'.

(at it

public. Proust described the painting at

Temps demonstrates both his

length in Le

in

retrouve

some

way

a

visual sensibility

that

and

his

snobbery. One of the most valuable things that the Charpentiers did, primarily for Renoir, but to a lesser extent for the other Impressionists, was to introduce them into a stratum of society likely to afford them patronage and support. See also patrons and collectors, portraiture M. Florisoone, 'Renoir et la famille Charpenin

tier',

L' Amour

de

I

'art

(Feb.

Robida, Le Salon Charpentier nistes

et les

1938);

M.

impression-

(1958)

Chatou

A

small village on the banks of the

Seine, greatly used

by

Parisians for

weekend which it

excursions, and one of the places about

said 'wherever there was a wretched square of grass with half a dozen rachitic trees, there

was

the proprietor

made haste

cafe-restaurant' splendeur, 1867).

(V.

to establish a ball or a

Fournel,

Paris

dans

sa

renoir worked there between and a small island facing the

1879 and 1 88 1, provided the scene for his Dejeuner des

village

(1881; Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.) and Oarsmen at Chatou (1879; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C).

canotiers

monet also

also painted there in the late 1860s. See la grenouillere, restaurant fournaise

[162]

4-

Chennevieres-Pointel, Charles-Philippe

*£#

chemistry and director of dyeing at the Gobelins tapestry factory, having published in 1823 a book on animal fats that won considerable acclaim.

But

his real

later publications,

tane

des

colores

couleurs

(1839)

application

aux

fame depended on two

De La

Loi du contraste simul-

de

V assortiment des objets

et

and Des

Couleurs

et

de

leur

arts industriels a I'aide des cercles

chromatiques (1864). His theories about divisionism and the optical combination of colours had a great influence on many painters from Delacroix onwards, even though earlier artists such as Watteau had employed the technique without understanding its theoretical basis.

who made Chevreul's theory the foundation of his own style, summed it up admirably: 'Divisionism is a method of securing the utmost luminosity, colour and harmony by (a) the use of all the colours of the spectrum and all degrees of these colours without any mixing; (b) the separation of local colours from the colour of light, reflections etc.; (c) the balance of these factors and the establishment of these relations in accordance with laws of contrast, tone and radiation; and (d) the use of a technique of dots of a size determined by the size of the picture.' See also seurat M.-E. Chevreul, De La Loi du contraste simultane des couleurs et de V assortiment des objets colores (1839), trans. C. Martel as The Principles oj Harmony and Contrast of Colours (1854); R. Rood, Professor Rood's Theories on Colour and Impressionism (1906); P. Signac, D' Eugene signac,

Renoir's picture of oarsmen was painted small island opposite

J.

Catinat,

Chatou

from

a

in 1879.

Douze grandes hemes

naissance du Vesinet (1967);

de Chatou et la Clark (1984); Her-

bert (1988)

Chennevieres-Pointel,

Marquis de (1820—99)

who was successively

Charles-Philippe,

A

government official an Inspector of Museums,

Curator of the Luxembourg and Director of Fine Arts. He was responsible for commissioning the paintings for the decoration of the Pantheon. He wrote a number of books, including Essais sur {'organisation des province (1850)

and

arts

en

Portraits inedits des artistes

francais (1853). See also

salon des refuses

Dictionnaire de biographie francaise

Delacroix au neo-impressionnisme (1899)

Chesneau, Ernest (1833-98) An

and assiduous art critic who played an important part in the French art world of the Second Empire - he was Inspector of Fine Arts from 1869 - partly through his friendship with nieuwerkerke. A friend and admirer of John Ruskin, he was deeply concerned with the relationship between art and society, and published various books on this theme. He was one of the first to recognize the merits of manet, and immediately picked up the connection between the Dejeuner sur I'herhe (1863;

active

Musee d'Orsay)

and Raphael. Initially hostile to the Impressionists, he later modified his hostility and built up a close relationship with Manet. See also salon Hamilton (1954); Boime (1986)

Chevreul, Eugene (1786-1889) chemist

A

French

who made significant discoveries about colour and our perception of it. age of 27 he became professor of

Colour (See entry on p. 59) The Impressionists'

most innovative and enduring achievement lies above all else in their use of colour. This was influenced by several factors: scientific investigations into the nature of perception and the qualities of light and colour by Bunsen and Kirchoff, Chevreul and Rood; the invention of new artificial pigments, which broadened the

vogue for which replaced the subdued

available palette range; the increasing

working

en pleiti

air,

tone of studio paintings with

more

intense, light-

suffused hues; and perhaps even the cultural shock

of exposure to the bright colours of oriental

art.

from the empirical observations of Monet or from the more

Whether they

result

theoretical experiments of Pissarro in his Pointillist

phase,

all

Impressionist paintings represent the

the nature of

desire to discover a pictorial equivalent to the rich

At the

intensity

4^

of visual experience.

The

and

reflective

of water made

refractive properties

it

the perfect vehicle for the Impressionists' interest in light

and (c.

colour. In Renoir's

The

Seine

Asnieres

at

abandoned

an attempt

in

to

is

completely

capture the sensation of

open-air perception. Shadows, earth colours and black are banished in favour of pure, prismatic hues

his

Gare Saint-Lazare

series

of 1876—78

created powerful images of Paris in the age of

the Industrial Revolution. Yet his central preoccupation

iSjg) the traditional academic concern with line,

perspective and chiaroscuro shading

Overleaf: In

Monet

and an

in these

works was not the subject-matter, but

the

challenge of capturing on canvas the elusive effects of

amorphous steam-clouds

rising into the station vault.

Inspired partly by Chevreul's investigations into the properties of colour,

Monet

studied

how

colour and

extensive use of white. Rather than being applied in a

light are affected

of thin, superimposed layers, in the conventional manner, opaque paint is applied directly with a loaded

context. Exploiting his restricted palette of twelve

series

brush

to create

contrast of the

a more immediate effect. The vibrant complementary colours orange and blue

how

by moisture

in the air,

and, especially,

the effect of a colour varies according to

its

colours to the full, he creates a series of subtle

modulations across the canvas, playing blue against

provides the central focus of the image, the rich orange

white, against purple-black, and against pinkish grey;

of the boat's reflection almost overpowering the blue of the river. Where pure colours are applied wet in wet

body of the engine in the centre stands out sharply against the white of steam and daylight, but this

with repeated short brushstrokes reflections

while

-

they mingle

-

as in the foreground

to create optical

in the distance a soft

haze

is

mixtures,

created by scrubbing

colour wet over dry with a stiff brush.

The

variety of

Renoir's brushwork enlivens the paint surface, evoking a vivid sense of shimmering sunlight

and summer

heat,

the dark

is counterbalanced by the play of white steam against dark roof in the top right-hand corner. These dispersed

touches of white, blue and red, the balancing of light

and dark

areas, tie the

image together visually, and the

of colour is animated by the spontaneity of the brushwork. The bold strokes that relatively austere use

while the puff of smoke from a train on the horizon adds a touch of modern life to the rustic scene, and

economically delineate the station structure contrast

mirrors the modernity of Renoir's technique.

the steam.

vividly with the broken, almost scribbled handling of

work

Though

partly the result of Monet's need to

rapidly, the brushmarks aptly convey the sketchy,

insubstantial nature of the steam as against the emphatic solidity

of the machines.

mM

m*

Women

in the

Garden (1866-67) was Monet's

radical gesture towards plein-air painting. of this period, 'I fell in love with the

first

later said

rayon [ray of and the image clearly shadows - the

light]

and the

shows

his fascination with coloured

reflet [reflection J',

He

white dress of the woman in the foreground is dappled with blue reflected from the sky — and with the tendency

of the eye patches.

to

The

perceive reality as a pattern of coloured influence of photography

is

also evident in

the arbitrary, informal poses of the figures.

Renoir's desire

to depict light as

it is

truly perceived led

works as The Swing (1876), to create compositions in which pools of light and shade give the him,

in such

effect

of an almost decorative curtain falling over the

blurred contours of his forms. Attuned to the carefully

graduated tones of Salon paintings, firmly tied to the definition ofform,

in

which

light

critics found

Renoir's technique disturbing: G. Vassy in

L'Evenement complained

that the patches

of light

resembled 'spots of grease on the models' clothes'.

was

What

'

does the frame, the motif, matter if the effect

is

achievements was

form,

light

show how, once

to

liberated from

and colour could be studied

In

common with

the Realist writers of the nineteenth

method of

century, painters longed to discover a precise

varied?': one of the Impressionists' greatest

for their

creating an accurate representation of reality

own

scientific

-

a quasi-

system that would lend greater credibility

sake, as independent elements within a painting. These

their opposition to the long-established conventions

concerns found their purest expression in Monet's

the academic tradition.

'series' pictures

of the i8gos,

motif- haystacks ever-changing

or poplars

of

effects

light

in

-

which a

single, static

acted as a focus for the

and atmosphere. Based on

relatively simple colour contrasts, the

Rouen

compositions chart the play of sunlight from ,

cathedral

dawn

to

dusk, over the neutral grey stone of the Gothic structure;

Rouen

cathedral: sunset (1894),

for

sets a warm, burnt orange against a cool greyThe underlying pattern of the facade and the tangible atmospheric enveloppe provide an overall

blue.

unity

to the

image, in which solid forms threaten

to

The

and brushstrokes seems

to

'to

fix

was powerfully convinced by

their

,

on science'. The technique was essentially derived from the discovery that light can be divided into

and

it

its

was believed

that

by

applying tiny, regular strokes of pure hues, which would blend in the eye of the viewer rather than being

mixed on the palette, the artist would be able to create more convincing reflection of the nature of perception. Pissarro' s Femme dans un clos (1887), painted at Eragny, indeed conveys vividly the sense of dazzling midday heat and light, the uniform dabs of sharp lime

point towards the

green, bright blue and

development of a purely abstract art, but Monet's aim in these works was still to represent the essence of perceived reality,

1883, he

of

and

use of non-descriptive colour

Monet's almost expressionistic

impasto brushwork.

in

Pissarro met Seurat

experimental Divisionist theories of painting describing their approach as 'a modern synthesis by methods based

constituent prismatic parts,

example,

disintegrate beneath

Signac

When

to

my

sensations'.

outlines of the forms.

warm

yellow dissolving the

a

Chintreuil, Antoine (1814-73) A follower of COROT, with whose works his own are often confused, he specialized in landscapes devoted to the countryside around Paris. He was an

on pissarro, who met him in 86 1 and was one of the signatories of a letter to

early influence 1

,

napoleon SALON DES

in praising

REFUSES.

him

for initiating the

DURANTY,

Peinture of 1876, included

in his Nouvelle

him

as

one of the

et

Voeuvre

precursors of Impressionism.

C.H.

La

Fizeliere,

La

Vie

de

Chintreuil (1874); L. Saint-Michel, L'Univers de

Corot (1974)

Chocquet, Victor (1821-91) An official in the Customs Service who had private means, Chocquet was a born collector. He started off by accumulating bric-a-brac, and then moved on to paintings and drawings, showing an early interest in the works of Delacroix. In 1875 he attended the Impressionist sale at the hotel drouot and, though he did not buy anything, he was deeply impressed by the works of renoir, seeing an affinity between his style and

of Delacroix; he immediately commissioned him to paint portraits of himself and his wife {Victor Chocquet, Fogg Art Museum, that

Cambridge, and Madame Chocquet, StaatsgaThey got on famously lerie, Stuttgart). together, and Renoir gradually introduced him to the work of his friends, taking him first to the shop of Pere tanguy to show him the works of

Cezanne's portrait ot

Chocquet was

cezanne. Chocquet commissioned a portrait from him, and Cezanne actually produced two,

one analogous to that of Renoir (1876—77; Collection of Lord Rothschild, London), the other showing him in slippered ease, seated in an armchair (c. 1877; Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Ohio). Henceforth,

Quite apart from the fact that they were attracted by the spontaneous

and anti-academic implications of the

effect

loosely executed sketch, the Impressionists' preference

for working in the open air meant that they were forced to

adopt short-hand techniques

fleeting effects of nature.

in order to capture the

Monet's Regatta

Argenteuil (1874) shows how

the thick,

at

creamy

consistency of commercially prepared tube paints could be used to cover the entire canvas with a single layer of

opaque pigment, creating an immediate

effect.

Bold slabs

of pure, unmodulated colour break up the flatness of the picture surface, while the pale ground, left uncovered in places, increases the sense of intense luminosity. Sisley's

more

lyrical version

Marly

is

reflected, in the

Floods

at

Port-

(1876), in his more fluid use of paint and the

looseness of his brushwork. the building, with insistent verticals

its

The frontal

solid black

of the

picture surface, but this

positioning of

doorway, and the

trees stress the flatness is

of the played against the receding

diagonal of the trees at the centre, and the broken,

unblended brushwork a sense of

in the

water and sky, which create

movement depth and ,

texture.

exhibited at

the 1877 Impressionist exhibition.

Chocquet became an

Impressionist addict, intent on proselytizing as

well as buying.

When he attended their exhibi-

duret recounted, 'People amused themselves by teasing him on his favourite subject. He was always ready for them, invariably finding the right words as far as his friends were concerned. He was above all else indefatigable on the subject of Cezanne, whom he counted as one of the greatest of painters. Many visitors were amused by this zeal, which they saw as a mild form of insanity.' Chocquet's already large collection was further increased as he became richer and installed himself in a large house in the rue Monsigny. After his death, his collection was sold at the Hotel Drouot, and included 32 works by Cezanne, 11 by Renoir, 11 by monet, 5 by manet and one each by pissarro and sisley, as well as works by Delacroix, corot, courbet and Daumier. See also PATRONS AND COLLECTORS [177] tions,

57

Claretie, Jules

Joets, 'Les Impressionnistes et

J

lettres inedits', in L' Amour de

Rewald

(1984);

Rewald

I

'art

Chocquet;

(April 1935);

(1985)

Jules (Jules Arsene Arnaud) (1840-19 1 3) Novelist, historian and art critic who was also keenly interested in the theatre; he was made administrator of the Comedie FranClaretie,

caise

in

1885,

Academy. As

and was

later

elected to the

the art critic of Le Temps, he had

considerable influence and was generally hostile internal information

very much on about the various feuds

and

them

to the Impressionists, relying

rivalries that beset

to

undermine

their

standing, especially in the 1880s.

Sloane (1951); Hamilton (1954) (1 841-1929) Known he was one of the dominant figures of the Third Republic and was largely

Clemenceau, Georges

as

'the Tiger',

responsible for France's success in the First

World War. A militant republican, he made his name first as a journalist and as leader of the radical Justice,

Left;

Degas took

this

photograph of himself and Zoe

Closier in the 1890s.

he was founder and editor of

leading with zola the campaign for the

rehabilitation of Colonel Dreyfus (see politics).

Defeated

at the polls in

1920, he retired into

He was

a man of many with a great enthusiasm for art and literature. In 1879 his successor on the Conseil Municipal of Paris, Gustave Manet, introduced Clemenceau to his brother Edouard, who painted two portraits of him (Clemenceau at the Tribune, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, and Clemenceau, Musee d'Orsay). But his real favourites were Rodin, and monet, whom he visited frequently at giverny. He wrote a very perceptive article about Monet's views of Rouen cathedral injustice in May 1895, and was

morose

solitude.

interests,

largely responsible for ensuring that the artist's

Nympheas were hung

in the

Orangerie. See

also

cafes [54]

G. Clemenceau, Claude Monet,

les

Nympheas

(1928); J. Martet, Clemenceau peint par lui-meme

(1929)

Zoe

Closier,

(c.

1850-c. 1920) In 1882 she

became degas' housekeeper, cook, factotum and, eventually, nurse. Her cooking was reputedly appalling, a fact which she attributed to Degas' tendency to spend money on old master drawings rather than on food. She was invaluable to him in many ways, reading to him and,

above Clemenceau,

as

seen

by Manet,

1879.

The

portrait did not appeal to the politician.

58

all,

Degas,

logue

(i
«ot remove cards from pocket.

this

^^

WORLD OF ART The Thames and Hudson Encyclopaedia of Impressionism Bernard Denvir. 245

Here, in

a single,

concise volume,

the student will ever the

illustrations,

5

in color

is all

that the art lover

and

want to know about what is undoubtedly

most popular and significant event in the history of

painting.

Some 300 entries cover not only the lives and careers

of the main participants -painters,

and

1

collectors, as well as writers

critics,

patrons, dealers

and musicians - but

also

techniques, prices and localities, while a wealth of information

on the cultural,

social

Impressionism

in context. In recent years,

and

political

and publications have stimulated the

background helps

a fresh

to set

major exhibitions

reassessment of

movement and brought into question many widely held

assumptions. Bernard Denvir's immensely useful book incorporates this

new thinking and brings the story of

Impressionism up to

date.

It

also includes a

chronology of

events, a gazetteer of the major collections and a wealth

of documentary illustrations and maps.

Thames and Hudson

ISBN D-SDD-EDE3T-7 On the cover: Claude Monet

51195

Le Bassin des nympheas 1

899

(detail)

Reproduced

by courtesy of the Trustees

The National Gallery, London Printed in Singapore

FPT$II.95

9

l

780500"202395