Degas, The Orchestra , 1868-69

1. REALISM Courbet, Stone Breakers, 1849 From lower-class, rural labor to middle-class, urban, leisure-time activities: a prelude to Impressionism Degas, The Orchestra, 1868-69

2. Claude Monet, Impression: Sunrise, 1872 The term “Impressionism” derives from derogatory comments about this painting made by an art critic.

3. Probably the most important of the Impressionists, Monet once wrote that he wished he had been born blind, but then gain his sight and be able to paint things without knowing what they were. He is also supposed to have said: “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 you your own impression of the scene before you.”

4. IMPRESSIONISM Claude Monet, Madame Monet and Child, 1875 REALISM Courbet, The Stone Breakers, 1849

5. Monet, Madame Monet and Child Note: plein air (“open air”) painting, referring to paintings done out of doors—en plein air—on the spot

6. Monet Raphael, Madonna and Child with the Infant John the Baptist

7. Madame Monet and Child Detail showing “broken color”: colors applied in spots or patches rather than the traditional method of smoothly blending them

8. Monet, Sailboats at Argenteuil, 1874 (plein air painting again) Note: Argenteuil was a village that developed in the 19th century into a rural escape for Parisians; it is now a suburb of Paris.

9. Sailboats at Argenteuil Detail (broken color again)

10. Renoir, The Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881) in the Phillips Collection, Washington

11. Renoir, The Luncheon of the Boating Party

12. Renoir, Luncheon Detail

13. Renoir, Luncheon Detail

14. Detail Broken colors . . . but probably less “broken” than Monet’s

15. Renoir, Luncheon The boatman Alphonse Fournaise, with the River Seine in the background

16. Renoir, Luncheon Renoir’s future wife, Aline Charigot

17. Renoir, Luncheon Some of Renoir’s friends

18. Renoir, Luncheon With its top-hatted upper-class gentleman (in the background), its middle-class artists and journalists, and its working-class shop girls and boatman, the painting depicts a harmonious blending of different social classes, reflecting real-life social changes at the beginning of the modern era.

19. Berthe Morisot, Summer’s Day (The Lake in the Bois de Boulogne), c. 1879 Another typical Impressionist subject: fashionable middle-class Parisians at leisure, outdoors, in the bright light of day Note again: plein air . . . broken color . . . and also Morisot’s distinctive technique of “fluttering” brushstrokes that create an atmosphere often described as “airy” or “vaporous.”

20. Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1881-82

21. Manet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1863 Manet, A Bar . . . , 1881-82 Early, pre-Impressionist work Late, Impressionist work

22. Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère Detail (including a bottle of Bass Ale)

23. Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère Another detail

24. A Bar . . . Detail of background (upper left corner)

25. How should one define her expression and demeanor? Is she disengaged? Weary? Bored? (Bored by the routine of her job? Bored by posing for Manet?). Or is she alienated? It’s been said that alienation is the common predicament of modern urban life. Detail: Suzon the barmaid

26. Degas, At the Theater, 1881 Degas, The Orchestra of the Paris Opera, 1868-69