Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

critics had used the term before, but only in relation to sketches. Im-

pressionist paintings do incorporate the qualities of sketches—ab-

breviation, speed, and spontaneity. This is apparent in Impression:

Sunrise, in which Monet made no attempt to disguise the brush

strokes or blend the pigment to create smooth tonal gradations and

an optically accurate scene. This concern with acknowledging the

paint and the canvas surface continued the modernist exploration

that the Realists began. Beyond this connection to the sketch,

Impressionism operated at the intersection of what the artists saw

and what they felt. In other words, the “impressions” these artists

recorded in their paintings were neither purely objective descrip-

tions of the exterior world nor solely subjective responses but the

interaction between the two. They were sensations—the artists’ sub-

jective and personal responses to nature.

In sharp contrast to traditional studio artists, Monet painted

outdoors, which sharpened his focus on the roles light and color

play in capturing an instantaneous representation of atmosphere

and climate. Monet carried the systematic investigation of light and

color further than any other Impressionist, but all of them recog-

nized the importance of carefully observing and understanding how

light and color operate. This thorough study permitted the Impres-

sionists to present images that truly conveyed a sense of the momen-

tary and transitory. Lila Cabot Perry (1848–1933), a student of

Monet’s late in his career, gave this description of Monet’s approach:

I remember his once saying to me: “When you go out to paint, try to

forget what objects you have before you—a tree, a house, a field, or

whatever. Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here an oblong

of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you,

the exact color and shape, until it gives your own naïve impression

of the scene before you.”^3

Scientific studies of light and the invention of chemically syn-

thesized pigments increased artists’ sensitivity to the multiplicity of

colors in nature and gave them new colors for their work. After scru-

tinizing the effects of light and color on forms, the Impressionists

concluded that local color—an object’s true color in white light—be-

comes modified by the quality of the light shining on it, by reflections

from other objects, and by the effects juxtaposed colors produce.

Shadows do not appear gray or black, as many earlier painters

thought, but are composed of colors modified by reflections or other

conditions. If artists use complementary colors (see “19th-Century

Color Theory,” page 832) side by side over large enough areas, the

colors intensify each other, unlike the effect of small quantities of ad-

joining mixed pigments, which blend into neutral tones. Further-

more, the “mixing” of colors by juxtaposing them on a canvas pro-

duces a more intense hue than the same colors mixed on the palette.

It is not strictly true that the Impressionists used only primary hues,

placing them side by side to create secondary colors (blue and yellow,

for example, to create green). But they did achieve remarkably bril-

liant effects with their characteristically short, choppy brush strokes,

which so accurately caught the vibrating quality of light. The fact that

their canvas surfaces look incomprehensible at close range and their

forms and objects appear only when the eye fuses the strokes at a cer-

tain distance accounts for much of the early adverse criticism leveled

at their work. Some critics even accused the Impressionists of firing

their paint at the canvas with pistols.

ROUEN CATHEDRAL Monet’s intensive study of the phe-

nomena of light and color is especially evident in several series of

paintings he made of the same subject. In one series he painted some

40 views of Rouen Cathedral, northwest of Paris (MAP31-1). For

each canvas in the series, Monet observed the cathedral from nearly

the same viewpoint but at different times of the day or under vari-

ous climatic conditions. In the painting illustrated here (FIG. 31-3),

Monet depicted the church bathed in bright light. With scientific

precision, he created an unparalleled record of the passing of time as

seen in the movement of light over identical forms. In fact, the real

subject of Monet’s painting—as the title Rouen Cathedral: The Portal

(in Sun) implies—is not the cathedral, which he shows only in part,

but the sunlight on the building’s main portal. Later critics accused

Monet and his companions of destroying form and order for fleet-

ing atmospheric effects, but Monet focused on light and color pre-

cisely to reach a greater understanding of the appearance of form.

SAINT-LAZAREMost of the Impressionists depicted scenes in

and around Paris, the heart of modern life in France. Monet’s Saint-

Lazare Train Station (FIG. 31-4) shows a dominant aspect of the

contemporary urban scene. The expanding railway network had

made travel more convenient, bringing throngs of people into Paris.

In this painting, Monet captured the energy and vitality of Paris’s

modern transportation hub. The train, emerging from the steam

824 Chapter 31 EUROPE AND AMERICA, 1870 TO 1900

31-3Claude Monet,Rouen Cathedral: The Portal (in Sun), 1894.

Oil on canvas, 3 31 – 4  2  17 – 8 . Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

(Theodore M. Davis Collection, bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915).

Monet painted some 40 views of Rouen Cathedral at different times

of day and under various climatic conditions. The real subject of this

painting is not the building but the sunlight shining on it.

1 ft.

31-2AMONET,
Bank of the
Seine,
Bennecourt,
1868.

31-2BMANET,
Monet in His
Studio Boat,
1874.