The subject takes control over the outdoor setting, expressing her independence in spite of limitations.
A-Level: 19th-century painting of leisure
Renoir wanted to forget everything he knew about how to paint so that he could render light as it really is.
How to recognize Renoir: The Swing
Manet turns the tables—or in this case, the bar—on how we view painting.
Édouard Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère
Though called “an Impressionist in name only,” Caillebotte is all about light and movement–just like his peers.
Gustave Caillebotte, Paris Street; Rainy Day
Seurat sought to bring science to the methods of Impressionism with new, methodical approaches to color.
Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte ...
The subject looks through opera glasses, but she herself is the object of another man’s gaze—not to mention ours.
Mary Cassatt, In the Loge
Toulouse-Lautrec invites us into the nocturnal world of the nightclub, where classes mix under the electric lights.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge
Degas is off to the races, where class issues are in the foreground.
Edgar Degas, At the Races in the Countryside
A city inhabited: Renoir’s optimistic but sketchy representation of modern life on the new boulevards of Paris.
Auguste Renoir, The Grands Boulevards
Mary Cassatt, an artist and close friend Degas, is the subject of this painting about the act of seeing.
Edgar Degas, Visit to a Museum
The subject of this painting is breaking almost as many taboos as the artist who painted it.
Édouard Manet, Plum Brandy
The greenery surrounding this couple is lush and exotic, but it’s clear that there’s trouble in paradise.
Édouard Manet, In the Conservatory
Cassatt’s subject, perhaps her sister Lydia, participates in the voyeurism of the Paris opera during intermission.
Mary Cassatt, Woman with a Pearl Necklace ...
Like a snapshot, Renoir’s flirtatious, social scene seems to represent a caught moment in time.
Auguste Renoir, Moulin de la Galette
Seurat’s informal bathers are members of the working class—not the timeless bathers of history paintings.
Georges Seurat, Bathers at Asnières
The Paris Opera was a who’s who of society, and the attendees were as much on display as the performers.
Auguste Renoir, La Loge
A waitress masters the modern art of multitasking in this lively, bustling bar scene.
Édouard Manet, Corner of a Café-Concert
Realism’s original bad boy put a naked woman in a picnic scene, and the critics were not happy about it.
Édouard Manet, Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (Luncheon ...
Reinterpreting a subject beloved by past artists like Caravaggio, Cézanne “adds a link” to the history of art.
Paul Cézanne, The Card Players
This work celebrates the leisurely lifestyle of the urban bourgeoisie, but it also shows its more somber aspects.
Browse Smarthistory images for teaching & learning!