California Impressionism
also: California Plein-Air Painting
California Impressionism flourished between the 1890s and the 1930s as painters - many trained in France, like Guy Rose at Giverny - applied Impressionist broken color to the state's brilliant coastal and mountain light. Working en plein air in artist colonies around Carmel, Laguna Beach and Pasadena, painters such as William Wendt, Granville Redmond, Edgar Payne and Maurice Braun turned eucalyptus groves, surf, canyons and poppy fields into a distinct regional landscape art. Their canvases kept the broken brushwork and high-key palette of French Impressionism but replaced its grey-misted northern light with the hard clarity and saturated color of the Pacific coast, usually aiming at a decorative, idyllic mood that made the movement enormously popular with California collectors.
Defining characteristics
- En plein-air painting of coast, canyons, and mountains
- Broken Impressionist brushwork under bright, high-key western light
- Saturated color: violet shadows, golden hills, blue surf
- Decorative, idyllic landscape mood
- Regional signature subjects: eucalyptus, poppy fields, rocky surf, oak-studded hills
Key figures
- Guy Rose (1867-1925) — Giverny-trained painter who brought French Impressionist practice west
- William Wendt (1865-1946) — Leading plein-air landscapist of southern California
- Granville Redmond (1871-1935) — Painter of poppy fields and coastal scenes
- Edgar Payne (1883-1947) — Painter of the Sierra Nevada and harbor subjects
Sources
- California Impressionism - Wikipedia encyclopedia