Lesson 2: The Impressionist Movement
Monet and Renoir
Perhaps the most famous Impressionist painters of all are Claude Monet and August Renoir. Their homes in France are major tourist attractions and their paintings in such art museums as the Musee D'Orsay in Paris and the National Gallery in London are admired by millions.
Claude Monet (1840-1926) is probably the name most closely associated with Impressionism. His paintings are a celebration of light and landscape. Although not initially attracted to landscape (he was more interested in caricature), he was persuaded by the painter, Henri Boudin, to start working outdoors.
Monet produced many works over a long life and was the most commercially successful of the group. Towards the end of his life, he was able to create an aquatic garden world of his own at Giverny, a small town about an hour north of Paris. Today, Monet's home and gardens at Giverny are a popular pilgrimage for art lovers.
In Giverny, Monet completed the famous waterlilies series, which near the end of his life began to resemble abstract art. Here's one of the Waterlilies paintings.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) was the most flamboyantly stylized artist of all the Impressionists. His work is sensuous and glories in the beauty of color. He once told Cezanne, “They think we are nothing but makers of theories- we whose only object, like the old masters, is to paint with clear and joyous colors.”
His sun-dappled scenes of girls on swings, revelers at a party, and in his final years, Rubenesque nudes and bathers, also typifies Impressionism in the general view of the public.
Here's a picture of Le Moulin Galette, one of Renoir's most famous paintings.
For more information about Renoir and Manet, refer to pages 62-63 in Impressionist Art - A Crash Course.
