Degas and Impressionism

By Alison Cullen

Impressionism encompasses the paintings that were produced from about 1867 to 1886 by a group of artists who were somewhat united in their techniques and styles. The artists generally classified in this group include Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Paul Cezanne, Camille Pissaro, Frederic Bazille, Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas. In its most literal and original form, the impressionist style was an attempt by an artist to capture a first impression, as in before the lens of a camera or one's eye has time to focus. The phrase is said to have been coined by a critic upon viewing Monet's "Impressionism Sunrise, Le Harve" (from http://www.hermus.com/impress.htm).

Monet, Impressionism Sunrise, Le Harve

From http://sunsite.sut.ac.jp/wm/paint/auth/monet/first/impression/sunrise.jpg

The critic remarked that these painters should be associated with " '...the new term impressionists. They are impressionist in the sense that they render not the landscape but the sensation produced by the landscape.'" (From http://sunsite.sut.ac.jp/wm/paint/auth/monet/first/impression/sunrise.jpg). In addition to this idea, many of the impressionist artists, like Monet, were very focused on the interplay between color and light. Many painted a progression of the same scene from dawn until night, exploring the different colors that were produced as a result of the varying amounts and qualities of natural light.

Monet's The Peupliers Series, from http://www.columbia.edu/~jns16/monet_html/poplars.html

For example, in Monet's"The Poplar", or "Peupliers Series", painted in 1891, he depicts the same scene at different times of the day and in different seasons. In this series, the colors of the leaves, the sky, the ground and the water all vary according to the sunlight and shadows in the scene.

The first Impressionist show in 1874, which included Degas, was greeted with negative response from most critics and the public. This was to be expected; France had recently suffered a humiliating defeat in the Franco-Prussian war. Most would have rather found comfort in a show of traditionalist style. One critic, a caricaturist in fact, suggested in one of his drawings that a pregnant woman might be liable to have a miscarriage if she viewed the new art. Another critic of the Parisian publication, "Le Patrie," wrote of the show: " '...in seeing the lot [of paintings] you burst out laughing, but with the last ones you finally get angry. And you are sorry you did not give the franc you paid to get in to a beggar.'" (From http://www.hermus.com/impress.htm).

Although the initial response to Impressionism was generally negative and skeptical, its significance later became recognized. Impressionism was largely brought to the American public by Mary Cassatt, a female impressionist who was first encouraged by Degas. Cassatt, along with another artist, Berthe Morisot, were the two female Impressionists, making this group the first since the middle ages to treat women equally with men. Today, Impressionist paintings are sold for the highest prices in the market.

Degas' art is placed in the category of Impressionism mainly because he was painting during the time period of the Impressionists. His style, however,tends to be radically different from those of the Impressionists. For example, he remained uninterested in pleine air painting. In fact, he remarked of landscape painters: " 'Don't tell me about those fellows cluttering the fields with their easels...I'd like to have a tyrant's authority to order the police to shoot down every one of them...' " (from Degas by Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge, page 9). In addition, while many Impressionists concerned themselves with natural sunlight and its interplay with colors, Degas instead chose artificial light. Although Degas did not use the general techniques and styles of Impressionism, his art is important because it focused on images the Impressionists turned away from - the nature of modern city life.

Degas Introduction| Impressionism| Relationship Between Subject and Viewer| Compositional Techniques| Depiction of Women