Art Institute of Chicago

1. Art Institute of Chicago Impressionists in Chicago Woman bathing Her Feet in a Brook. 1894-5. Pissarro. First created 24 Mar 2019. Version 1.1 - 20 Apr 2019. Daperro. London.

2. Manet • Manet (1832-83) is regarded as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. • His painting finishing is rough, with photographic lighting, as Emile Zola described it as “simple and direct translations of reality” and “surprisingly elegant awkwardness”.

3. Manet

4. Manet • Manet saw a bullfight when he visited Spain. He made sketches to capture the excitement of the fight.

5. Manet • A contemporary subject with a rough finishing. He was able to portray the thundering lightning speed of the gallop

6. Manet • Another painting of the same series in Los Angeles. • Manet painted a series of the ‘down & out’ street vagrant on very large canvas, in c1867.

7. Degas • Double portrait was painted when Degas visited Naples. It is a portrait of his uncle Henri and his cousin Lucie.

8. Degas • The finished version of this painting is in the National Gallery of London. It is study of adolescent sexuality.

9. Degas • In this painting, the performer only played a subordinate role. It is the audience Degas was focused on, with a causal conversation at the back and a more attentive audience nearer to the stage.

10. Degas • A luminous ballet performance accompanied by musician off the stage. The lush vegetation on the ground was connected with the ballet L’Africaine. Degas saw the ballet at least nine times.

11. Degas • An usual composition for Degas to focus much of his attention to a single ballerina. • The ballet dancer was Rosita Mauri. She had very long black hair, a fine facial feature, in a elaborate dress. All these suggests the her rising stardom.

12. Degas • The painting shows a woman, possibly the shop’s hat designer examinants a hat, possibly to pin more decorations on. Other are more richly and prominently decorated hats are on displayed.

13. Cezanne • At this stage, Cezanne was exploring ideas of impressionism.

14. Cezanne • Cezanne painted this picturesque fishing village, near Marseilles. His mum had rented a holiday home here for years.

15. Cezanne • Note the inclined basket with the apples rolling off to the right, while a vertical bottle of wine tilted slightly to the left.

16. Caillebotte • Slightly off centred, umbrella composition (Artifexopere.com) • Caillebotte studied composition at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris. He painted this at the age of 29. He also organised exhibition for other impressionists. He collection formed the core holding of Musee d’Orsay. In this painting he took on an impressionist subject and painted in a style, which is contrasted with the impressionist approach.

17. Monet • Monet (1840-1926) was a leading member of the Impressionist and he was the longest practiced painter of the Impressionist style. • Cezanne is said to have described him as ‘only an eye, but my God what an eye’.

18. Monet • Monet painted Saint-Lazare on 12 canvas. Note the belching steam, the black passenger and the lampposts.

19. Monet • Monet painted this when he was in financial difficulties couple with the death of his wife, with a tablecloth landscape.

20. Monet • Note how Monet painted the foreground poppy field. Compare this with the tall trees and the hill beyond.

21. Monet • Monet moved to London in December 1870 and returned to France in 1872.

22. Monet

23. Monet • One of his late paintings at the age of 68. He painted a total of 37 paintings on Venice. Too quiet on the Grand Canal.

24. Pissarro • Pissarro painted this when he fled from the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune. At the time, the Crystal Palace the first glass glazed building in the world, to house the ‘Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations’. This is a familiar composition of Pissarro, with a foreground road dramatically recedes into the distance.

25. Pissarro • He painted this quintessentially an Impressionist subject – the bustling scene of a modern city, contrasting yellow sunlight with blue shadows.

26. Pissarro • In 1880s, Pissarro decided to paint figures rather than landscapes. Many canvas in this series depicted young peasant girls taking a break from chores. • In this the young woman was speaking to a child, identified as Pissarro’s fourth son. • The setting of the painting comprised of a well and a row of farming in the distance.

27. Renoir • A beautiful young woman playing a upright piano, with luminous white dress over a bluish underdress, suggests she was playing at home. The dress lacks details but defined by a deep blue winding band. This contrasted with the clearly painted hands and face. • This was a well furnished home, with a woman playing the piano effortlessly, in her ‘natural’ domain, to exercise her musical ability.

28. Renoir • Renoir was a good portraitist. Apart from painting Sisley, he also painted Monet. This is a thoughtful Sisley in a casual pose, handsome and well-groomed on a bamboo chair, on bare dark background. Unlike Renoir’s painting of Monet, there was no clue what is Sisley’s profession.

29. Renoir • Renoir painted this unusual double portrait two performing girls in a circus. Most of the impressionists had experience of attending the circus. • In the painting the sisters had just taken their bow to the audience, who tossed their tissue wrapped oranges into the ring. Angelina’s arms were folded with oranges.

30. Renoir • In the 1880s Renoir began to change his style and this painting marked his shift in style. This painting preceded his more famous work ‘Luncheon of the Boating Party’. His colours became more vibrant. • Renoir ensure the sisters hold our attention by painting a chromatically softer foliage and river behind. In contrast the sister were dressed in strong bright saturated colours, with hats to match. • This also marked the point when Renoir departed from classical Impressionism which pre-occupied with rendering the transient effect of lights by brush stokes.

31. Renoir • This was Renoir’s second son Jean. He had long hair that was the fashion of the day for boys. Children had always featured in his paintings. • At this period Renoir was very much appreciated the old master like Mantegna, Poussin, Rembrandt, Rubens, Titian and Velazquez.

32. Gauguin • In this painting, his principal figurers are larger and are disengaged from one another. Their posture is more difficult to interpret.

33. Gauguin • The portrait of a woman sitting in front of a still life painting by Cezanne. Gauguin had bought a few of Cezanne’s still life paintings.

34. Gauguin • Gauguin was delusion when first arrived in Tahiti, as the native is more French than savages. He wanted to get into the Tahitian culture. He met a young woman who could fulfil his expectation of rejuvenation through contact with the primitive “others”. The young woman was Tehamana. • The portrait showed her dress in a high collared dress, imposed on the native women by missionaries for propriety. Her sexual availability is suggested by the flowers in her hair the red blossom over her ear and the fragrant white franipani. The antique fan is a symbol of her superior social rank,

35. Gauguin • With a plain background, this composition echoed the traditional Madonna with Child. The older child could be St John the Baptist, but she was clearly a girl, looking warily at the viewer, while holding a yellow cat. • There was a suggestion the baby was Gauguin’s son and the woman was the grand mother.

36. Seurat • The prominent feature of the painting is it formality of rigid profile of people enjoying a sunny day along the River Seine.

37. Signag • Signag with Seurat developed the Pointilist style in which the whole painting is composed a dots of primarily colours.

38. Sisley • The painting shows workers dredging sand from the river to facilitate barge traffic. A most unusual subject for a painting.

39. Toulouse-Lautrec

40. Toulouse-Lautrec • This painting established Toulouse Lautrec’s art of the Montmartre dance halls, cafes, cabarets and brothels.

41. Toulouse-Lautrec • An iconic work of Paris night life in the final years of the 19C, with Toulouse-Lautrec sitting at the table. • Most unusually is the partial turquoise face of the dancer on the right side of the painting. It was thought that she was too disturbing to be included in the painting. Yet it was her image that define the painting.

42. Van Gogh • An early painting of Van Gogh showing his preference of using a simplified and more vibrate palette.

43. Van Gogh • In his short professional life, Van Gogh did many of his self-portraits. This one is among some of his earlier self-portraits. The brushstroke of his cloth and background is clearly visible compared to later his portrait. [see below].

44. Van Gogh • Van Gogh moved to the south of French, because he found the lights were different. He lined in the house with Gauguin.

45. Van Gogh • Madame Roulin was the wife of Van Gogh’s friend the postmaster in Arles. He did several version of Madame Roulin. • Before this painting was finished. Van Gogh mutilated himself and had to go to the hospital. He also fought with Gauguin too. • When Van Gogh resumed work on the painting again, he took comfort in the tune that “the woman rocking the cradle sang to rock the sailors to sleep.”

46. Cassatt • Marry Cassatt was born in Allegheny City Pennsylvania. In 1868, after travelling widely in Europe she settle in Paris. In 1877, she met Degas, who invited her to exhibit with the Impressionists, which she did. • She is particularly admired for her paintings of the intimate moments, between mother and her young child. • She was partly blind by 1912 and totally so at her death.

47. Edward Hopper A café bar in the middle of night without any pedestrians or even cars. The four people were isolated in the café. There was not inter-actions between the people, not even the couple who stood together, with the man looking into the distance and the woman looking at something before eating it. There is an overwhelming feeling of loneliness and isolation. The painting is a critique of the modern society.

48. Grant Wood Stern Face Gothic Window Symbolism. The trident or the fork?

49. Grant Wood America in the 1930 was experiencing profound changes. America becoming more urban than rural, with more and more people working in industry than in farming. At first glance the painting evokes feelings of unease and ambiguity. The painting showed a couple of father and daughter (not man and wife). It reflects images of Middle America, in particularly the Mid-West. My first impression of the painting is that it is showing a rather confrontational old man in his denim dungaree, obviously a working man, with stern expression, even somewhat hostile, holding not a hoe nor a spade nor a rake but a farming fork. The three pronged fork that remind me of trident of the Greek god Poseidon. He holds the fork pointing up instead of pointing down to the ground. He is saying to me that I am going to defend my home, my way of life and my values as a working man. He is looking directly at me, while his daughter is looking away, perhaps not acknowledge my presence. Others have interpreted archaic images of the painting, as mocking insults of the Midwesterner life or mildly as a satire of American provincialism. At least that was the first reactions of the people of Cedar Rapid when it was shown. Others saw the painting as an endorsement of the traditional values of Middle America confronting the economic turmoil after the stock market of 1929 and the rising threats of wars in other parts of the world. The painting is saying to them hold on to our ethics. It would take us through the trouble waters.

50. The End Music – Estrellita All rights reserved. Rights belong to their respective owners. Available free for non-commercial and personal use.