Depiction Luncheon on the Grass, Oil on canvas, 1863. Claude Monet, Impression: Sunrise, Oil on canvas, 1872, Vincent van Gogh, The Night Café, Oil on canvas, 1888.

Discussion of Three Separate Works

A. 1. Edouard Manet, Luncheon on the Grass, Oil on canvas, 1863.

2. Claude Monet, Impression: Sunrise, Oil on canvas, 1872,

3. Vincent van Gogh, The Night Café, Oil on canvas, 1888.

B. Discuss the characteristics of the style of each work

1. Manet's style is consistent with the techniques of the Realist painter. His use of light and dark is reminiscent of the baroque period - as the almost harshly lit people in the foreground are contrasted with the rest of the painting. At the time he painted this piece he was criticized for its blurriness around the edges. Critics said the work didn't seem finished properly. As you move away from the central figures and the central focus of the piece, the trees as well as the figures begin to lose clarity. Manet claimed that he was painting in true realistic fashion; that he painted just as the eye sees.

Desaturated version of the painting: note how the ...

Impression Sunrise

White House at Night

Anything not in your center of vision, in reality is not in clear focus, and this was how he painted. The size of the painting (7 feet by 8 feet 10 inches) was unheard of until the realists came along. Realists felt that important work no longer had to be only historic or Biblical in content.

2. Monet's Impression: Sunrise follows the rule of size in the Hierarchy of painting in that it is a landscape and it is not too large, only 1 foot 7 inches by 2 feet 1 inch. But that is where following the rules ends. While Realism focused on the present, Impressionism focused even more acutely on a single moment - a very fleeting moment. The term impressionism had been applied to sketches in art before, but not to paintings. But in this painting, Monet demonstrates...