Impressionism: a painting style

Bright colours

 

 

Introduction:
The use of bright colours is one of the most distinctive characteristics of the impressionist painting style.
Renoir speaks of ‘joyeus tones’ (R2,p54)

 

The Impressionists compared with the Barbizon painters:
It makes more sense to compare the Impressionists with the Barbizon painters or other pre-impressionists, than with the Neo-Classicists. We than see that the Barbizon painters used many dark (subdued) colours*, many browns and blacks.
Still, it was Diaz who adviced Renoir in 1862 not to use bitumen black (R31,p295).
Note*: We often can see, that when paintings are cleaned, the colours are brightened up. I wonder what would happen when the paintings of the Barbizon painters are cleaned. Maybe than the differences aren’t as large anymore.

The Impressionists compared with Neo-Classicists:
In many books on Impressionism the Impressionists are compared with the Neo-Classicists. The last ones rendered themes from the Roman and Greek past, including their Myths. Themes the Impressionists abondonned, though Renoir sometimes rendered them. The Impressionists (and the Realists) rendered everyday life. In this sense there is a great difference between them. But, when we look to the use of colour, we see that the Neo-Classicists often used bright colours. One of the obsessions of the Neo-Classicists even was studying the light (R60,p70). So, the differences mustn’t be exaggerated.

The Impressionism compared with the Romantism:
Many impressionists admired Delacroix for his lively brushstroke and his use of bright colours. But when we look closely, we see that the Romantic painters often used many blacks and browns, namely in the shadows. They tried to obtain a clair-obscure effect, which emphasized the drama they wanted to depict. So, in the use of colour Néo-Classicism stands closer to Impressionism, than Romanticism.

The subdued colours of the Impressionists till around 1875:
We see that the key-Impressionists used many subdued colours untill around 1875. In that sense they painted in a more Pre-Impressionist style. And in that sense there was hardly one fully impressionist painting at the 1st ‘impressionist’ exposition in 1874.

Bright colours and grey weather:
The Impressionists tried to render the influence of weather conditions on the colours in the landscapes. So we see for example in an early painting of Monet that he used many subdued colours in rendering a rough sea at Étretat↓ (CR127). Compare this with the bright colours Courbet used (on a sunny day) at the same place and maybe in the same year.
Sisley was accused of only painting on bright days.

The Impressionists didn’t render bright sunlight:
As you can observe bright sunlight can make whole areas in your field of vision look (almost) white. Look for example at leaves in the sunlight. Constable once said ‘light dissolves colour’. And Corot knew that light bleaches colour (R61,p19). In this sense, the Impressionists didn’t render this bright sunlight. Corot introduced (since the 1840s) white to all his colours, rendering his paintings a silvery haze (R61,p19+26). In many paintings of Morisot you can discern a sort of milky haze. Still, this is something else than that a whole area that is (almost) white.

 

Sources:

Note: in the future I will add the most important sources I used.

 

Recommanded citation: “Impressionism, a painting style: Bright Colours. Last modified 2024/11/25. https://www.impressionism.nl/bright-colours/”

 

 

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