Leo Martínez
The art historical term for painting outdoors is en plein air, a French term that translates to in the open air. The practice of painting en plein air is believed to have originated with the Italian painters known as the Macchiaioli in Tuscany in the mid-19th century. These artists broke with the traditional conventions taught by Italian art academies and chose to paint outdoors to capture natural light, shade, and colour. The French Impressionists, including Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, further popularised the technique in the late 19th century.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Term | En plein air |
| First recorded use of the term | 1891 |
| Purpose | To capture the natural light and colour of the outdoors |
| Historical practice | Sketching in the open air, dating back to the Renaissance |
| Artists | Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vasily Polenov, Isaac Levitan, Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin, I. E. Grabar, Leonardo da Vinci, Claude Lorrain, Diego Velázquez, Charles-François Daubigny, Théodore Rousseau, Frédéric Bazille, Pablo Picasso |
| Easels | French box easel, field easel |
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What You'll Learn
Impressionism and en plein air
The French expression "en plein air", meaning "in the open air", describes the process of painting landscapes outdoors. The phrase has also been used to refer to the works that result from this process. The first recorded use of the term was in 1891, although the practice of painting outdoors is recorded as far back as the Renaissance. However, during the Renaissance, outdoor painting was generally done in preparation for studio painting. It was only in the nineteenth century that en plein air painting came to represent the ethos of modernity and fidelity to nature that it is now associated with.
En plein air painting is closely associated with the Impressionist movement. Impressionist painters such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir were advocates of en plein air painting, and much of their work was done outdoors. Monet, for example, believed that to truly capture the likeness of an outdoor setting, one had to be outside. The Impressionists expanded the subject matter of en plein air painting, often depicting the leisure hours of the middle class.
The Impressionists' style is characterised by short, broken brushstrokes, pure unblended colours, and an emphasis on the effects of light. This loose brushwork gives an effect of spontaneity and effortlessness. The Impressionists' use of broken colour, in particular, created more vivid paintings. This technique involves leaving the paint unblended, resulting in more energetic brush strokes and "broken colour".
En plein air painting was pioneered by earlier generations of artists, including English Romantic painters such as John Constable and the Barbizon School of central France. The Barbizon School, which included Charles-François Daubigny and Théodore Rousseau, used en plein air painting in the 1830s to depict the changing appearance of light as weather conditions altered. In the 1860s, a group of young painters, including Monet, Renoir, Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille, met while studying under the academic artist Charles Gleyre. They discovered a shared interest in landscapes and scenes of contemporary life and often ventured into the countryside to paint en plein air.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, en plein air painting was also taken up by the Macchiaioli, a group of Italian painters active in Tuscany. The Macchiaioli broke with the conventions taught by the Italian academies of art, choosing to paint outdoors to capture natural light, shade, and colour. In the latter part of the century, the technique was also used by the Newlyn School in England and various lesser-known artist colonies, including a collective in West Sussex led by Edward Stott. En plein air painting was also practised in the late nineteenth century by American Impressionists, such as those of the Old Lyme school, and in Russia by painters such as Vasily Polenov, Isaac Levitan, and Valentin Serov.
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The Macchiaioli
The term "Macchiaioli" first appeared in print in a hostile review published in the journal Gazzetta del Popolo on November 3, 1862. The term mockingly implied that the artists' finished works were no more than sketches and recalled the phrase "darsi alla macchia," which means to hide in the bushes or scrubland. Indeed, the artists often painted their works in these wild areas, reflecting the traditionalists' view that this new school of artists worked outside the rules of art.
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The Barbizon School
The art historical term for painting outdoors is "en plein air". This practice is related to the French Impressionists who came to prominence in the latter half of the 19th century, although it was first pioneered by the Italian Macchiaioli in Tuscany in the same century.
Now, onto the Barbizon School.
The Barbizon painters also had a profound impact on landscape painting in the United States, with the development of the American Barbizon school by William Morris Hunt. Several artists who were part of the Hudson River School studied Barbizon paintings for their loose brushwork and emotional impact. The Barbizon painters attracted the attention of a younger generation of French artists studying in Paris, including future Impressionists Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille. These artists visited Fontainebleau Forest to paint the landscape and later developed the Impressionist movement in the 1870s, practicing plein air painting.
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The French box easel
The invention of the French box easel contributed to the practice of en plein air painting, which became popular during the 19th century. En plein air, a French term that translates to "in the open air," refers to the act of painting outdoors to capture the natural light, shade, and colours of a particular setting. This practice was advocated by French Impressionist painters such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley, who often worked outdoors under a large white umbrella to capture the diffused light.
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The influence of Claude Lorrain
The art historical term for painting outdoors is "en plein air". The French impressionist painters such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir advocated plein air painting, and much of their work was done outdoors.
Claude Lorrain, usually called Claude in English, was a French artist best known for, and one of the greatest masters of, ideal landscape painting. He is considered one of the first artists to understand the historical significance of his work and made several observations of nature while sketching outdoors. He is also referred to as "the father of outdoor painting". He often revisited the same landscape to capture the light of changing hours and seasons, and his work was widely influential.
Lorrain's work was influenced by predecessors and contemporaries such as Annibale Carracci and Nicolas Poussin. He travelled to various regions of Italy, France, and Germany, including Marseilles, Genoa, Venice, and Bavaria, to study a range of landscapes. He infused the tradition of idealized landscape painting with an unprecedented empirical accuracy. He spearheaded a new method of landscape painting, working outdoors from detailed observation, and blending classical idealism with naturalistic detail to produce work almost more beautiful than nature itself.
Lorrain's depiction of ancient ruins in his paintings has a double impact, reminding us of the passage of time and the endurance of the structures. This recalls the medieval concept of Memento Mori, a living reminder of death. His work was particularly influential in England, from the mid-18th to the mid-19th century. During the 18th and 19th centuries, picturesque artists and connoisseurs carried around devices known as Claude Glasses, small, convex, tinted mirrors, to simplify and frame natural landscapes. The influence of Claude Lorrain on British landscape painting was profound and noted by Antony Griffiths, Oxford Slade Professor of Art.
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Frequently asked questions
The art historical term for painting outdoors is "en plein air", which is French for "in the open air".
Some famous artists who practiced en plein air painting include Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille, who are also known as the French Impressionists. Another group of painters in Tuscany who valued the advantages of painting outdoors were called the Macchiaioli.
Artists started painting en plein air to capture the interplay of natural light and colour in their work. As art historian Katherine Baetjer puts it, "the artist communicates the evanescent qualities of light".
