designing an art gallery

Impressionism: Introduction and Background
Known for its radical departure from traditional aesthetics in painting and the decorative arts, Impressionism was a movement deeply rooted in its ideological, cultural, political, and sociological context. The characteristic visual features of Impressionist painting include experimentation with untraditional colors and styles that signal the early transition towards non-representational forms. Subject matters in Impressionist art changed from depicting officially sanctioned people, places, and symbols towards capturing snapshots of daily life. Beyond its core aesthetics, which do vary from artist to artist, Impressionism also highlighted changing social hierarchies related to race, class, and gender. Artists no longer worked solely on commission from religious or political patrons but also from a burgeoning bourgeoisie. The diversity within Impressionism also draws attention to the ways the movement manifested differently in different geographic regions, although the movement remained firmly rooted in France, and centered in Paris. From its beginning in the 1870s until its shift towards post-Impressionism around the 1890s, Impressionism encapsulates the artistic zeitgeist of the late nineteenth century. This gallery presents six quintessential Impressionist works of art.
Edouard Manet “Olympia”
Rendered in oil on canvas, Manet’s “Olympia” signifies many of the most striking features that characterize Impressionism. As Gilman (1985) points out, “Olympia” deconstructs and confronts social hierarchies and realities by depicting a bold female courtesan waited on by her black servant. Therefore, Manet could be inadvertently commenting on white privilege as well as on female sexuality. The subject represents the modern “defiant heroine,” signalling the birth of the feminist movement (Flescher, 1985). Depicting the female nude was nothing new in the nineteenth century, but rendering her in a way that is neither idealized nor fully denigrated did mark a departure from how women had been depicted in past European paintings. The voyeurism of the “male gaze” is subverted, as the woman in Manet’s painting stares back at the viewer, aware of her power in eschewing traditional gender norms (Snow, 1989). Unlike the portraits that would have been commissioned by the wealthy, Manet’s “Olympia” is a depiction of a woman taking pleasure in her power, which could have been considered a threat to the prevailing social order.
Berthe Morisot “The Cradle”
Berthe Morisot’s “The Cradle” depicts a snapshot of female life in late nineteenth-century France that is totally different from the one Manet provides in “Olympia.” Rendered in oil on canvas, “The Cradle,” depicts a woman gazing upon her child. As Jacobus (1995) points out, not only is the theme of motherhood salient in Morisot’s work, but also the motif of mirroring and gazing. Interestingly, mirroring and gazing are also themes in Manet’s “Olympia,” as the subject in the latter painting holds a hand-held mirror while gazing directly at the viewer. In “The Cradle,” the mirroring is implied in the way the mother sees herself in her own child. The mother does not engage the viewer at all; it is as if the viewer peeks at her from behind a door, catching a glimpse of what maternal life, maternal instincts, and maternal feelings must be like. It is also important to point out that like Manet and the other Impressionists, Morisot captures the life of the bourgeois woman and not of the working class. The way the light is rendered, and Morisot’s brushwork are also categorically Impressionistic.
Mary Cassatt “The Child’s Bath”
To underscore the fact that not all Impressionist artists were from France, American artist Mary Cassatt’s painting “The Child’s Bath” is included in this gallery. Moreover, Cassatt’s oil on canvas painting bears thematic resemblance to Berthe Morisot’s “The Cradle,” showing a mother and child. In “The Child’s Bath,” the mother lovingly holds her child and washes her feet in a basin. The scene is strikingly simple and relatively mundane, showing ordinary life. Stylistically, the rich colors and the lack of attention to realism in terms of rendering forms and perspectives also makes this painting quintessentially Impressionistic while also showing how female Impressionists selected their subject matters.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir “Luncheon at the Boating Party”
One of the most iconic Impressionist artists, Pierre-Auguste Renoir renders social scenes in late nineteenth century France. In “Luncheon at the Boating Party,” Renoir shows how both genders mingle easily and effortlessly, symbolizing the emergence of a more egalitarian society. In fact, one woman even appears to be flirting with a man in a way that could have been construed as salacious behavior in a more conservative social milieu. The men are dressed casually, and yet it is obvious the viewer is looking at the life of the upper middle class—the classic bourgeoisie. This painting demonstrates how Impressionist artists like Renoir used daily life as their subject matter. Furthermore, Renoir fills every element of the canvas with light, attempting more to capture emotion and mood than to realistically render the details in his midst. The tendency to capture sensations and impressions rather than reproduce reality would allow Impressionist artists to influence the avant-garde set by introducing the concept of non-representational art.
Claude Monet “Poppies”
Whereas Renoir and other Impressionists focused on Parisian city life, several Impressionist artists preferred to paint outdoors in the French countryside. Claude Monet is most known for his work produced in the French countryside. “Poppies” is one of many of the prolific artist’s impressions of the ways the French bourgeois—many of whom lived in Paris and traveled to the country on holiday—passed their leisure time. In this painting, a mother and a child walk through a field of the titular wildflowers. Monet uses a technique that borders on pointillism in this oil on canvas painting, using dots of color that when viewed from afar blend together into clusters of light. A manor house appears in the distance, but other than that, the painting lacks detail and becomes almost abstract. In fact, Monet’s work has been heralded as one of the harbingers of abstraction (Seitz, 1956).
Edgar Degas “The Little Fourteen Year-Old Dancer”
The only sculpture to be included in this collection is naturally by Edgar Degas. Most Impressionists focused their energies on producing rich, dense oil paintings. While Degas did produce a vast body of oil paintings like his fellow Impressionists, he also sculpted in multimedia. Many of Degas’s paintings and sculptures focus on single themes such as ballet dancing. With the rise of the bourgeoisie in Paris, arts and culture thrived. Degas depicted flourishing dance schools, where young girls like the one in this sculpture trained. The use of mixed media is wholly unique, as Degas uses actual fabric to add texture to the dancer’s tutu. Also, her stance is firm, strong, and defiant, as if symbolizing feminism and the flattening of gender hierarchies.
Concluding Remarks
Impressionism can be described as much by what it omits as by what it depicts. None of the six works of art in this gallery include any religious theme. The reason for that is grounded in the changing attitudes French people had towards the role of religion in their lives. Since the French Revolution especially, the role of the state and of the church both faded from view as ordinary people from all walks of life comingled on the streets of Paris and throughout Europe. Impressionist art offers viewers insight into how values were changing in the modern era, how gender roles and norms changed, and also how the middle and upper middle classes flourished after the Industrial Revolution. Yet there is also an idealism that is palpable in Impressionism, which lacks the socialist critique of bourgeois life.








References
Cassatt, M. (1893). The child’s bath. Oil on canvas.
Degas, E. (1880). Little fourteen year-old dancer. Bronze, cotton, satin, and wood.
Flescher, S. (1985). More on a name: Manet’s “Olympia” and the defiant heroine in mid-nineteenth century France. Art Journal 45(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00043249.1985.10792273
Gilman, S.L. (1985). Black bodies, white bodies. Critical Inquiry 12(1): 204-242. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/448327
Jacobus, M. (1995). Berthe Morisot: Inventing the psyche. Women: A Cultural Review 6(1995): 191-199. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09574049508578235
Manet, E. (1863). Olympia. Oil on canvas. Musée d'Orsay.
Monet, C. (1873). Poppies. Oil on canvas.
Morisot, B. (1875). The Cradle. Oil on canvas.
Renoir, P.A. (1880). Luncheon of the boating party. Oil on canvas.
Samu, M. (2004). Impressionism: art and modernity. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/imml/hd_imml.htm
Seitz, W. (1956). Monet and abstract painting. College Art Journal 16(1).
Snow, E. (1989). Theorizing the male gaze. Representations 25(1989): 30-41. DOI: 10.2307/2928465