Precursors to Impressionism, Art History Posters & Prints

PRE - IMPRESSIONISTS Karl Bodner Eugene Boudin John Constable Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot Gustave Courbet Charles-François Daubigny Honore Daumier Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Pena Charles Gleyre Johan-Bartold Jongkind Edouard Manet Jean-François Millet Adolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli Théodore Rousseau J. M. W. Turner Felix Ziem

The 'pre-impressionists' label encompasses the artists whose work, also categorized as 'realism' and 'naturalism', paved the way for the break with the French Academy as the ultimate authority of what is “ART”.

Realism, as a precuror to Impressionism, focused on the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life and was visually supported by the advent of photography celebrating the "objectively real".

Pre-impressionists are often associated with the Barbizon School, a group of painters who gathered around the French village of Barbizon.

Eugène Boudin
b. 7-12-1824; Trouville, France
d. 8-8-1898; Deauville

Eugène Boudin was a French seascape painter who was one of the first artists to paint outside, a characteristic of the Impressionists. Corot called him the 'master of the sky.'

Eugène Boudin quotes:
• "Anything painted directly, on the spot, always has a strength, a power, a lively touch that is lost in the studio. Your first impression is the right one. Stick to it and refuse to budge."
• "To steep oneself in the sky. To capture the tenderness of the clouds. To let the cloud masses float in the background, far off in the gray mist, and then make the blue blaze forth."

• more clouds in art posters

John Constable
b. 6-11-1776; Suffolk
d. 3-31-1837

John Constable, an English Romantic painter of the 19th century, sketched outside believing his paintings should come as directly as possible from nature in order to capture the changing skies and light.

John Constable quotes:
• "I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may - light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful."
• "Painting is a science and should be pursued as an inquiry into the laws of nature. Why, then, may not a landscape be considered as a branch of natural philosophy, of which pictures are but experiments?"
• "Speaking to a lawyer about pictures is something like talking to a butcher about humanity."

• Constable's Clouds: Paintings and Cloud Studies by John Constable

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
b. 7-16-1796; Paris
d. 2-22-1875

Corot was a painter and printmaker associated with the Barbizon school and also worked in the neo-classical tradition. Corot was one of the first to paint directly on the canvas in the open air.

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot quotes:
• "Art is nature as seen through a temperament."
• "Don't imitate, don't follow the others, or else you will lag behind them."
• "The most important things in a painting are Form and Value. Color comes last ...."
• "Heavens, how charming it is! There is now in the sky only the soft vaporous color of pale citron - the last reflection of the sun which plunges into the dark blue of the night, going from green tones to a pale turquoise of an unheard-of fineness and a fluid delicacy quite indescribable..."

• Corot in Teachable Moments

Gustave Courbet
b. 6-10-1891; Ornans, France
d. 12-31-1877; Switzerland

Gustave Courbet, whose work eschewed the predominant Romantic & Neoclassical schools of 19th century French painting, coined the term 'realism'. Courbet chose to work spontaneously, without refinement, which was a visual precursor to the Impressionists.

Gustave Courbet quotes:
• "Painting is the representation of visible forms. . . The essence of realism is its negation of the ideal."
• "Painting is an essentially concrete art and can only consist of the representation of real and existing things."
• "Beauty, like truth, is relative to the time when one lives and to the individual who can grasp it. The expression of beauty is in direct ratio to the power of conception the artist has acquired."

• lake posters

Charles-Francois Daubigny
b. 2-15-1817; Paris
d. 2-19-1878

Daubigny, from a family of painters, was taught by his father and uncle. In 1843 he settled in Barbizon to work outside and also turned his boat into a floating studio on the Seine and Oise Rivers.

• river posters

Honoré Daumier
b. 2-26-1808; Marseille
d. 2-10-1879; heart failure, blind & penniless

Honore Daumier, primarily known as a lithographer and caricaturist, painted in bold brush stokes that did not find much favor in the French Academy or the larger public.

Gustave Courbet quote:
• "The burdens of a woman are more than the average man could ever endure."

Narcisse Virgile Díaz
b. 8-25-1807; Bordeaux
d. 11-18-1876; Menton, France

Narcisse Virgile Díaz de la Peña was associated with the Barbizon school. Another painter in the Barbizon school, Theodore Rousseau, taught Diaz de la Pena how to paint trees in the Forest of Fontainebleau, near the French village of Barbizon.

Charles Gleyre
b. 5-2-1806, Switzerland
d. 5- 5-1874

Gleyer encouraged open air painting to his students Renoir, Sisley, Bazille and Monet, in his Paris studio.

Charles Gleyre quote:
• "Praxiteles borrowed the better elements of a hundred imperfect models in order to create a masterpiece."

• Charles Gleyre by William Hauptman

Johan-Bartold Jongkind
b. 6-3-1819; Netherlands
d. 2-9-1891

Johan-Bartold Jongkind was a Dutch artist whose work was admired by Claude Monet.

Edouard Manet -
b. 1-23-1832; Paris
d. 4-30-1883; Paris

Manet's body of work is evidence of the transition of seeing and expression from Realism to Impressionism. He choice of subjects from the events of the day and emphasis on the arrangement of space and form, mark the beginning of modern art.

Edouard Manet quotes:
• "You would hardly believe how difficult it is to place a figure alone on a canvas, and to concentrate all the interest on this single and universal figure and still keep it living and real."
• "It is not enough to know your craft - you have to have feeling. Science is all very well, but for us imagination is worth far more."
• "No one can be a painter unless he cares for painting above all else."
• "There are no lines in nature, only areas of colour, one against another."
• "Black is not a color."
• "The attacks of which I have been the object have broken the spring of life in me... People don't realize what it feels like to be constantly insulted."
• "This woman's work is exceptional. Too bad she's not a man."

• Manet in Impressionist poster series
• music posters
• Emile Zola portrait
• Edouard Manet at Amazon.com

Jean-François Millet
b. 10-4-1814; Paris
d. 1-20-1875

Jean-François Millet, a founder of the Barbizon school, was noted for his rural scenes paintings. His style falls into the movements of both “naturalism” and “realism”. Several of Millet's paintings are icons celebrating the working class; The Gleaners is about the practice of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been mechanically harvested or where it is not economically profitable to harvest.

Jean-François Millet quotes:
• "Art will never come except from some small disregarded corner where an isolated and inspired man is studying the mysteries of nature."
• "It is the treating of the commonplace with the feelings of the sublime that gives to art its true power."
• "I want to put strongly and completely all that is necessary, for things weakly said might as well not be said at all."

FYI - Karl Marx published the Communist Manifesto in 1848; gleaning was punishable by death in the former Soviet Union; contemporary humanitarian groups "glean" from restaurants to feed the poor.
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The African American artist, Edward Mitchell Bannister, was influenced by Millet's subject matter and style of painting.

Adolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli
b. 10-14-1824; Marseille
d. 6-29-1886

Adolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli influenced Paul Cezanne and Vincent van Gogh. He often painted with painters in the Barbizon school.

Théodore Rousseau
b. 4-15-1812; Paris
d. 12-22-1867

Rousseau was originally trained in business; when his talent was recognized his family supported his art and sympathized with him in his difficulties with the classically trained art establishment.

J. M. W. Turner -
b. 4-23-1775; London
d. 12-19-1851; London

Joseph Mallord William Turner, English painter, printmaker and watercolorist of the Romantic period, was known as the 'painter of light' and laid the foundations for Impressionism.

• J. M. W. Turner at Amazon.com

Félix Ziem
b. 2-26-1821; Burgundy, France
d. 11-10-1911

Félix Ziem was a successful artist who helped young artists over the course of his long life. He was member of the Barbizon school and a regular exhibitor in the Paris Salon.

Encampment of the Travellers on the Missouri, Giclee Print

Karl Bodmer
b. 2-6-1809; Switzerland
d. 10-30-1893

Swiss born artist Karl Bodner lived in Barbizon and became known as a painter of forest landscapes and depictions of birds and mammals. His painting and aquatints of Native Americans from his North American trip with German naturalist and explorer Prince Maximilan, were forgotten by the time of his death.