Plein Air Painting

"Plein air" is a French expression that means the outdoors or open air, and in the arts refers to painting outdoors with the purpose of capturing the landscape or scenery as close to reality as possible. Painting outdoors was not, in itself, a novelty; artists have always painted outdoors. The plein air movement, however, was a reaction to romanticism, an artistic movement that elaborated landscapes and scenes in a studio, extracting from different scenes, and often exaggerating, the most splendid elements of a landscape. Plein air artists attempted to capture the effect of light upon nature without subsequent manipulation in the studio. Plein Air expanded even more with the inception of easy-to-carry materials. Many artists, such as J. M. W. Turner, who preceded the impressionist movement already practiced plein air, however, not all impressionists engaged in plein air strategies, many preferring to work on their landscapes in the studio.

Brief History

The plein air movement developed from the Barbizon school, also known as the Fountainbleu school, which appeared around 1830 as one of the precursors of impressionism. That movement was led by a group of French painters living in the town of Barbizon, close to the famous Fountainbleu forests, who were influenced by the work of English painter John Constable, and reacted to the romantic style prevalent at the time.

Although the plein air movement originated in France, its influence became widespread. For instance, by the 1870s, Scandinavian painters were traveling to Paris for their training, rather than Germany as had been previously customary. The Royal Academy of Stockholm soon adopted plein-airism, although in Scandinavian countries it mixed with the romantic styles popular in Scandinavia, focusing on regional traditions and scenery and linked to nationalist ideals. Alexander Christophersen of Norway and Richard Hall of Finland took the plein air form to Latin America when they immigrated to Argentina.

Plein air painters often assimilated regional trends into their work. In general, however, these artists worked outdoors and represented landscapes in a naturalistic way, copying nature faithfully and capturing the nuances of light and dark in the atmosphere. Plein air is, therefore, inherently naturalistic and luministic, striving for objectivity tempered by mood and an absence of artificial effects. Impressionism, which followed plein air, also impelled painters to look for subjects in the outdoors; however, rather than paint them naturalistically, the goal was to capture scenery through immediate impressions, using pure colors. Although their focus on light made the countryside and coasts attractive, impressionists did not limit themselves to nature, also painting urban scenes and intimate interior subjects.

Plein airism grew in popularity in the 1840s with the invention of squeezable tin tubes for oils, patented in 1841 by artist John Goffe Rand. Before that, artists had to mix their own paints on site with dry powdered pigment and linseed oil. Paints could now be carried without drying. Other timely inventions were the portable field easel and French boxed easel. These were smaller and easier to carry, with collapsible legs and carrying straps, and made it much easier for painters to carry the necessary materials with them on outdoor trips. These innovations made plein air painting more practically feasible.

Overview

The work of John Constable (1776–1837) was seminal to the artists of the Barbizon school of painting. Constable and the Barbizon painters moved away from the aesthetic of the romantic movement, which was based on a philosophy of the sublime—the terror and awe that nature inspires—and highly imaginative representations of nature.

Among the founders of the Barbizon school are Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, Charles Francois Daubigny, Jules Dupre, Jean Francoise Millet, and Theodore Rousseau, among others. Other French plein air painters included Gustave Courbet, Jules Bastien Lepage, Gustave Caillebotte, and Jean Francoise Rafaelli. Barbizon school painters became known for painting the forest of Fountainebleu and its surroundings, eventually incorporating human figures too. Nevertheless, humans often seemed incidental and nature remained the focus of plein airism.

The basic philosophy of plein air painting, which continues through the present day, includes painting outdoors without additions in the atelier, even under climatically rigorous conditions. Artists must often complete a canvas over several days, and a preferred subject is the passage of time and the changes in light through the seasons. Artists often created series of paintings showing the same scene through time. These practices were considered, at their inception, quite radical given the preference at the time for more affected or artificial representations of nature.

The 1840s marked a watershed for landscape painting, in particular for plein airism, with the invention of tube-packaged oils and portable easels. By the 1860s, Fountainebleu and the plein air movement began to attract even more artists. The 1870s were a turning point in the evolution of French painting. While many of the impressionists sought to represent nature through rapid impressions and the feeling of movement, plein air artists clung to a realist aesthetic, which advocated a slow, quiet and faithful way of looking and painting. Nevertheless, it is important to note that some Barbizon painters also created works in their ateliers or studios.

With the arrival of impressionism, plein air painting increased in popularity worldwide. For instance, a group of painters founded the American Barbizon school in the United States, following the style of the French school. Among its most noted painters in the United States are Thomas Eakins, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, William Morris Hunt, Joseph F. Cole, and Horatio Walker.

American versions of plein airism differed from the French school. Although it followed the philosophy of outdoor painting, bucolic themes, and the goal of replicating the sensations inspired by nature, it also sought to be an inherently American movement. American artists admired the poetic work of William Wordsworth and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the idea of nature infused by spirituality. Besides John Constable and Eugene Delacroix, American plein airism was also influenced by J. M. W. Turner and his sense of the sublime, as can be seen in paintings of gigantic waterfalls and mountainous panoramas. In time, however, such grand images, linked to the Hudson River school, began to appear artificial and exaggerated, and collided with an inclination towards simplicity and realism among American landscape painters.

Bibliography

Buttner, Nils, and Russell Stockman. Landscape Painting: A History. New York: Abbeville, 2006. Print.

Callen, Anthea. The Work of Art: Plein Air Painting and Artistic Identity in Nineteenth-Century France. London: Reaktion, 2015. Print.

Curtis, David, and Robin Capon. Painting on Location: Secrets to Plein Air Painting. Rohnert Park: North Light, 2013. Print.

Jones, Kimberly, Simon Kelly, Sarah Kennel, and Helga Aurisch. In the Forest of Fountainbleu: Painters and Photographers from Corot to Monet. New Haven: Yale UP, 2008. Print.

Novak, Barbara. Nature and Culture. American Landscape and Painting, 1825–1875. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.

Pendleton, Gary. 100 Plein Air Painters of the Mid-Atlantic. Schiffer, 2014. Print.

Stern, John. Masters of Light: Plein-Air Painting in California, 1890–1930. Irvine: The Irvine Museum, 2002. Print.

Thomson, David Croal. The Barbizon School of Painters: Corot, Rousseau, Diaz, Millet, and Daubigny. Rochester: Scholar’s Choice: 2015. Print.

Young, Marnin. Realism in the Age of Impressionism: Painting and the Politics of Time. New Haven: Yale UP, 2015. Print.