Impressionism: a painting style

Don’t paint it black

use various darker colours

 

Introduction:
Characteristic for the impressionist painting style is that the ‘colour’ black is banned. Instead various colours are used to feign a black jacket or dress, such as dark blues, reds and greens.
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Renoir and black:
Auguste Renoir destroyed his ‘Esmeralda’ exhibited at the Salon of 1864 because Diaz criticised his use of bitumen (black) (R32,p11).
But, in the work La Loge, exhibited in 1874, he still seems to use (normal) black, though he used various colours for the white (M60).
In his portrait of Claude Monet standing with his painter’s palette and wearing and (probably) black jacket (M1), Renoir used blues, but also dark reds and yellows and greens for the lighter parts. About the same applies to his portrait of Sisley (M20).
In the black dress of the woman he showed at the Salon of 1878 he namely used lighter and darker blues (M132).
In the family portrait of Madame Charpentier and her children (M23), exhibited at the Salon of 1879, Renoir seems to use blacks, greys and whites for the black dress of Mme Charpentier.

 

Recommanded citation: “Impressionism, a painting style: Don’t paint it black. Last modified 2026/04/06. https://www.impressionism.nl/dont-paint-it-black/”

 

 

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