Europe 1800 - 1900
Course: Europe 1800 - 1900 > Unit 5
Lesson 3: Impressionism- A beginner's guide to Impressionism
- What does “Impressionism” mean?
- How the Impressionists got their name
- Impressionist color
- Impressionist pictorial space
- Japonisme
- Degas, The Bellelli Family
- Degas, At the Races in the Countryside
- Degas, The Dance Class
- Degas, Visit to a Museum
- Caillebotte, The Floor Scrapers
- Gustave Caillebotte, Paris Street; Rainy Day
- Caillebotte, Man at his Bath
- Morisot, The Cradle
- A summer day in Paris: Morisot's Hunting Butterflies
- Cassatt, In the Loge
- Cassatt, Little Girl in a Blue Armchair
- Cassatt, Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge
- Cassatt, The Loge
- Cassatt, The Child's Bath
- Mary Cassatt, The Coiffure
- Cassatt, Breakfast in Bed
- How to recognize Monet: The Basin at Argenteuil
- Monet, The Argenteuil Bridge
- Painting modern life: Monet's Gare Saint-Lazare
- Monet, The Gare Saint-Lazare
- Monet, Cliff Walk at Pourville
- Monet's Wheatstacks (Snow Effect, Morning): Getty conversations
- Monet, Poplars
- Monet, Rouen Cathedral Series
- Monet, Water Lilies
- How to Recognize Renoir: The Swing
- Renoir, La Loge
- Renoir, The Grands Boulevards
- Renoir, Moulin de la Galette
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Portrait of Madame Charpentier and Her Children
- Renoir, Luncheon of the Boating Party
- Renoir, The Large Bathers
- Impressionism
Degas, The Bellelli Family
Edgar Degas, The Bellelli Family, 1858-67, oil on canvas, 78-3/4 x 98-1/2 inches, 200 x 250 cm (Musée d'Orsay, Paris) Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker.
Degas was in his mid-twenties when he painted this canvas. It depicts from left to right, the ten-year-old Giovanna, her mother, the artist's paternal aunt Laura, her younger daughter, Giula age 7, and the Baron Gennaro Bellelli. Preparatory sketches for the painting may have been made in Florence where the family was living—the Baron had been exiled from Naples. The picture may have been completed in Paris.
Want to join the conversation?
- Is Edgar Degas famos for paintings of ballerinas and dancers? I could be wrong. I have seen a beautiful ballet dance called degas and the theme around it was Edagar Degas painting ballet dancers.(8 votes)
- Yes, Degas' favorite subjects tended to be dancers/ballerinas. See the separate video on his painting called 'The Dance Class' for an example! :)(8 votes)
- The little girls look like they're wearing maid uniforms or maybe even pilgrim garment? Was this really the fashion of that time and place?(4 votes)
- Those are neither pilgrim's garments nor maid's uniforms - although they do seem to resemble both. What the two girls are wearing was actually the style of the time, although it should be mentioned that they were not the most elite, fashionable dresses of the period. Many of the wealthier class had much more decorative (and fashionable) styles, while these, though still what many of the day wore, are more simple, and better suited to the middle class in which the subjects seem to have lived.(5 votes)
- Lets discuss that oddly cropped dog in the bottom right corner. Is this our one nod in this painting to the Impressionists' struggle between photographic and traditional 19th century oil painting portraits? It's like the dog from the Arnolfini portrait got lost.(5 votes)
- Impressionists are some of the first to crop their paintings as if they are photographs. Renoir frequently does this in his cafe scenes. Post Impressionists fully embraced this concept. Lautrec is a great example of this.(3 votes)
- ok, It's Degas, who is later known for impressionism in some of his paintings, but I'm not sure what about this painting is impressionist. Realist, it is surely. He made preparatory sketches, so it wasn't painted 'live' the way impressionist landscapes were done; and it is easy to read without painterly atmospherics, so what about this painting is impressionistic?(3 votes)
- A big part of impressionism was the transition of subject matter from religious, mythical or historical paintings to contemporary scenes and landscapes. What makes it impressionist is that the subject matter is informal, although it is structured (As Renoir's work usually is) it does contain some spontaneity in that everyone is looking somewhere else, it's not a perfect portrait that they look like they posed specifically for like the Arnolfinnis. Instead the man is facing away and the girls are all looking in different directions.(1 vote)
- I think there is a lying(or dead) cat near the sitting man's chair.
Am I mistaken?
If so, what is it?
If I'm right, why is there a dead cat?(2 votes)- It's a dog. I think it may be treated as part of the family, so it was in the painting. Maybe it was just passing by, so Edgar Degas decided to put it in, too.(2 votes)
- In this video we hear that Degas often stayed with his mother's sister while in Italy, the woman in the painting, but was it not his Farther's sister?(2 votes)
- I've seen Bellelli spelled as it is here and as Belleli, can anyone confirm which is right for sure? Thanks(1 vote)
- The Musée d'Orsay, which owns the canvas, spells it as we do, The Bellelli Family.(3 votes)
- i find it fascinating how they brought up the role of asymmetrydo most artists bring the role of asymmetry into their art? or is this solely dependent on the artist? 2:15
it brings to mind the asymmetry of the family unit when i look at this painting.(2 votes) - Why was the Baron exiled from Naples? And what's with the legs, or better, the lack of them... Perhaps after the exile, the family didn't have a leg to stand on...(1 vote)
- Are there any dance videos for beginners on this site..... ones that can teach you the basics.(1 vote)