Decorative Impressionism
Decorative Impressionism is the name given to the figurative painting of American expatriates who settled in Giverny, the Normandy village of Claude Monet, around the turn of the 20th century. The term was coined by the critic Christian Brinton in 1911 for the work of Frederick Carl Frieseke and revived by the historian William H. Gerdts for his Giverny companions - Richard E. Miller, Louis Ritman, Guy Rose, and others. Trained in the academies but drawn to French Impressionism, these painters kept solidly modeled figures while dissolving the setting into high-key light and patterned color. Their favorite subjects were women in languid poses amid sunlit gardens, or interiors lit through windows, the backgrounds often flattened into rich pattern in the Japanese manner. Popular from about 1905 to the mid-1920s, the style lingered through their students in California.
Defining characteristics
- Solidly drawn, academic figures set against loosely brushed Impressionist backgrounds
- High-key, sunlit palette; figures bathed in outdoor or window light
- Women in languid, elegant poses in gardens and domestic interiors
- Decoratively patterned backgrounds that flatten picture space, often with Japonisme influence
- Juxtaposed surface patterns - wallpaper, textiles, kimonos - treated as pure design
- Pastel or cool harmonies with dappled, broken brushwork
Key figures
- Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939) — Giverny painter of sunlit women and patterned gardens; subject of Brinton's 1911 coinage
- Richard E. Miller (1875-1943) — Modeled figures against backgrounds of small, patterned brushstrokes
- Guy Rose (1867-1925) — Californian figure and landscape painter, the most French of the Giverny Americans
- Louis Ritman (1889-1963) — Russian-born painter of delicate figures in interiors and gardens
- Theodore Lukits (1897-1992) — Second-generation follower who carried the style to California
Example works
- Girl with a Guitar (Daydreams) — Richard E. Miller (1916-1917)
- Oriental Harmony — Theodore Lukits (1918)
- Lady in a Garden — Frederick Carl Frieseke
Sources
- Decorative Impressionism - Wikipedia encyclopedia