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Gustave Caillebotte was a member of the French
Impressionists but painted in a much more
realist manner than many of his compatriots. |
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I used to think so romantically about Monet, Pissarro, and the other Impressionists. Not romantic like Manet is so dreamy; romantic as in idealizing this particular group of painters—thinking they stepped outside of their studios and, snap, Impressionism just happened. Veneration can sometimes blind the mind’s eye to all the toil and planning that goes behind an elegant masterpiece. The reality is that the Impressionists were strategists, thinkers, and pioneering technicians when it came to the art they produced.
Sure, spontaneity was part of the plein air experience that these 19th-century artists were drawn to, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t work at it. Caillebotte, Gauguin, and Van Gogh are all known to have worked in a fairly traditional manner—warming up with small studies and drawing an underpainting on the surface of a large canvas to solve problems with composition and perspective. The exercises that most landscape painting workshop instructors emphasize today are the same ones the Impressionists performed in their own plein air painting situations.
Monet and others also took advantage of advancements that came along in their day and age. Tube colors that traveled well and contained vibrant pigments made it possible for them to capture a whole world of colors. They were also riding a wave of new color theory, including innovative ideas about complementary colors and broken color, or how putting two strokes of color side by side creates the illusion of a third color. These ideas haven’t been around forever, and to the Impressionists they were revolutionary.
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Depictions of "controlled nature" were a
hallmark of Monet's style. |
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I try to remind myself of all this when I feel a bit swallowed up by Impressionism intimidation. Knowing the artists used techniques that I can also acquire with a little practice and patience is comforting. I’ve learned a lot from my own research, but Workshop magazine—the Summer 2010 and Fall 2010 issues especially—has also given me so much great guidance and information about Impressionist techniques. Plus, seeing how artists like Frank Serrano, in his Plein Air in Oil DVD, have continued to keep Impressionism alive in contemporary practice makes the idea of working with my own brand of Impressionism more of a real and immediate possibility. These resources can bring the Impressionists a step closer to you, too. Enjoy!
