Collecting 101

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Impressionism: Rooted in Landscape

When we think about Impressionism, a certain style and subject matter may spring to mind. However, those painters we call Impressionists were unified by their independence more than anything else. Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and others had been repeatedly rejected by the French Salons and decided to strike out on their own. Naming themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors and Printmakers, they organised their own exhibition in Paris in 1874.

There was one landscape painting in this inaugural exhibition which unintentionally inspired the term Impressionism; critic Louis Leroy savaged Monet’s sketchy, unpolished Impression, Sunrise and mockingly dubbed the show ‘The Exhibition of the Impressionists’. The title stuck, and Impressionism has since become one of the most recognisable art movements of modern times. Nevertheless, the Impressionists were never a defined group: over the course of the next 12 years, a shifting set of thirty artists featured in eight Impressionist exhibitions. Only Camille Pissarro, who was something of a founding father, featured in them all. The other constant throughout the movement’s short lifespan was the spirit of independence, shared by all the artists engaged in depicting modern life in a radical new light.

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Painting en plein air

Impressionist landscapes are so established in art history that it’s easy to overlook just how radical these paintings were in their day. For the first time, artists packed up their canvases and palettes and headed out of the studio and into the countryside, seeking to capture – in real time – life as it unfolded around them.

The vibrancy of Impressionist paintings is a direct result of the conditions in which they were painted. Rejecting realism, and the arduous hours spent faithfully representing every detail, these artists worked quickly to capture everchanging landscapes. Short, broken brushstrokes and bold colours imbue each canvas with a vitality that had never been seen before.

Styles vary within Impressionism: contrast the rich, stylised impasto of Van Gogh’s Wheat Field with Cypresses (1889) with the flurry of pastel brushstrokes in Alfred Sisley’s Le chantier de Matrat à Moret sur Loing. Dated the same year as Van Gogh’s work, this painting evokes the tranquillity of a wintry riverbank, and showcases Sisley's subtle mastery of colour.

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Landscapes of Leisure

The Impressionists were ground-breaking not just in how they painted, but also in what they painted. While the paintings that lined the walls of the Salons adhered to the accepted subjects of religious or historical scenes, Impressionist artists turned their gaze to modern life.

Where better to witness modernity bursting forth than in the city of Paris? Under the direction of Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann, Paris underwent a dramatic renovation in the second half of the 18th century. The cramped and crowded medieval city was transformed into the grand, spacious capital we know today. The energy and optimism of the new city is reflected in many Impressionist works, such as Paris, la Seine by Jean Dufy.

Haussmann’s ambitious project also revolutionised transport, and new railway lines carried Parisians into the surrounding countryside to partake in rural leisure activities. This trend proved a source of artistic inspiration, notably for Monet and Auguste Renoir. In the summer of 1869, the artists visited La Grenouillère, a boating and bathing resort on the Seine, and both produced paintings of this new phenomenon.

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Towards Modernism

Part of the significance of Impressionism is its influence on modern art; it’s fascinating to trace its influence on different art movements such as Cubism and Pointillism. In the paintings of Paul Cézanne, we can see the geometric forms that foretell the birth of Cubism. Around the turn of the century, Cézanne produced his Mont Sainte-Victoire series, using parallel brushstrokes to fragment the landscape, an approach which was hugely influential for Georges Braque, the co-creator of Cubism.

The Neo-Impressionist movement of Pointillism was introduced in 1886, at was what to be the last Impressionist exhibition. This new technique was developed by young artists Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, along with Pissarro, where they took the visible brushstrokes of Impressionist painting and applied scientific colour theory to develop Pointillism. Rather than intuitive brushstrokes of the changing landscape around them, each dot of colour was meticulously placed to produce a striking optical effect.

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On the Market

When considering Impressionist landscapes, our top tip to collectors is to look for a landscape that has a personal link to the artist. Paysage (Repos sous l'arbre, Cagnes-Sur-Mer) by Renoir, is one such example as it depicts the landscape that captivated the artist in 1908, until his death in 1919. Similarly, Sisley’s Le chantier de Matrat à Moret sur Loing portrays one of the artist’s most treasured subjects - time and again, Sisley would revisit particular riverside paysages to depict the same viewpoint in all seasons.

For collectors looking to conduct research into Impressionist landscapes, two exhibition catalogues make for an excellent introduction: Monet, Renoir and the Impressionist Landscape by Shackelford, Wissman and Swanson, and In the Forest of Fontainebleau: Painters and Photographers from Corot to Monet by Jones et al.

If you find an Impressionist landscape that you love, and are not able to view it in person, our specialists are on hand to help you buy with confidence. We will happily provide information about the condition of a work, take additional photographs for you, or even present the painting in a video call.

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