7 Lessons From The Impressionists

The Impressionists revolutionised painting in the 19th century, but what can they teach us today? Ravneet Ahluwalia looks at a rare collection of their work to find out

- Ravneet Ahluwalia

1 USE WARM GROUNDS

For many, the birth of Impressionism marks the dawn of modern painting as we know it. While the approach of these late 19th-century French painters has several precedents, not least in the work of pioneering British artists John Constable and JMW Turner, Impressionism nevertheless marked a turning point after which the prevailing trends in classical painting changed for good.

One of the most notable changes was the decision to paint landscapes en plein air in a bid to capture a fresher, more accurate impression of the changes in weather and light conditions. This was aided by a switch from the darker grounds (the base layer of a canvas painting) of classical painting to the lighter base coats of the Impressionists, many of whom often used Lead White tinted slightly with a colour.

That ground would also play a more visible role in the finished paintings. Alfred Sisley’s Unloading Barges at Billancourt – featured in the Royal Academy of Art’s new exhibition, Gauguin and the Impressionists – is a good example of this. Look around the edges of the painting to identify the warm, almost flesh-coloured ground on which this 1877 landscape was painted, then look closely at the sky. That same ground shows through in sections of the clouds, providing a warm contrast to the cool blues and whites, as well as helping to tie the painting together.

2 AVOID EXTRA DETAIL

The term “Impressionism” derived from Claude Monet’s early masterpiece Impression, Sunrise. The meaning of the word was instructive – the aim of these artists, perhaps as a reaction to the developing medium of photography, was to convey an impression of a subject, rather than recording everything in great detail.

Unloading Barges at Billancourt neatly demonstrates this approach.