''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting is credited to Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes (1750–1819), first expounded in a treatise entitled ''Reflections and Advice to a Student on Painting, Particularly on Landscape'' (1800), where he developed the concept of landscape portraiture by which the artist paints directly onto canvas ''in situ'' within the landscape. It enabled the artist to better capture the changing details of weather and light. The invention of portable canvases and easels allowed the practice to develop, particularly in France, and in the early 1830s the

Barbizon school The Barbizon school of painters were part of an art movement towards Realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870. It takes its name f ...

of painting in natural light was highly influential. Amongst the most prominent features of this school were its tonal qualities, colour, loose brushwork, and softness of form. These were variants that were particularly relevant to the mid 19th-century

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. The paintings typically depict the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area ...

and to

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

History

Before the 19th century, artists had mixed their own paints from raw pigments that they often ground themselves from a variety of

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

. This had made for inconvenient portability and kept most painting activities confined to the studio. This changed in the 1800s when tubes of oil paint became available, allowing ''En plein air'' painting to become viable for many artists. In the 1830s, the Barbizon school in France that included

Charles-François Daubigny Charles-François Daubigny ( , , ; 15 February 181719 February 1878) was a French painter, one of the members of the Barbizon school, and is considered an important precursor of impressionism. He was also a prolific printmaker, mostly in etchin ...

and

Théodore Rousseau Étienne Pierre Théodore Rousseau (April 15, 1812December 22, 1867) was a French painter of the Barbizon school. Life Youth He was born in Paris, France in a bourgeois family. At first he received a basic level of training, but soon displaye ...

used the practice to accurately depict the changing appearance of light as weather conditions altered. In the early 1860s, four young painters:

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "R ...

Alfred Sisley Alfred Sisley (; ; 30 October 1839 – 29 January 1899) was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedicatio ...

and Frédéric Bazille, met whilst studying under the academic artist

Charles Gleyre Marc Gabriel Charles Gleyre (2 May 1806 – 5 May 1874), was a Swiss artist who was a resident in France from an early age. He took over the studio of Paul Delaroche in 1843 and taught a number of younger artists who became prominent, including H ...

. They discovered that they shared an interest in painting landscape and contemporary life, and they often ventured into the countryside together to paint in the open air. They discovered that they could paint in sunlight directly from nature, and making use of the vivid synthetic pigments that were available, they began to develop a lighter and brighter manner of painting that extended further the

Realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...

Gustave Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and t ...

and the Barbizon school. It was radical practise at its inception, but by the later decades of the 19th-century the theory had been absorbed into normal artistic practise. There were artists' colonies across France, such as the one at

Étaples Étaples or Étaples-sur-Mer (; vls, Stapel, lang; pcd, Étape) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It is a fishing and leisure port on the Canche river. History Étaples takes its name from having been a medieval ...

on the Côte d'Opal that included landscape impressionists

Eugène Chigot Eugène Henri Alexandre Chigot (1860 – 1923) was a post impressionist French painter. A pupil of his father, the military painter Alphonse Chigot, in 1881 he entered the internationally renowned École des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he was e ...

and

Henri Le Sidaner Henri Eugène Augustin Le Sidaner (7 August 1862 – 14 July 1939) who was a contemporary of the Post-impressionists, was an intimist painter known for his paintings of domestic interiors and quiet street scenes. His style contained elements o ...

. The latter artist specialised in translating

nocturne A nocturne is a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night. History The term ''nocturne'' (from French '' nocturne'' 'of the night') was first applied to musical pieces in the 18th century, when it indicated an ensembl ...

light to canvas using oil and pastel. The

Macchiaioli The Macchiaioli () were a group of Italian painters active in Tuscany in the second half of the nineteenth century. They strayed from antiquated conventions taught by the Italian art academies, and did much of their painting outdoors in order to ...

were a group of Italian painters active in Tuscany in the second half of the nineteenth century, who, breaking with the antiquated conventions taught by the Italian academies of art, did much of their painting outdoors in order to capture natural light, shade, and colour. This practice relates the Macchiaioli to the French Impressionists who came to prominence a few years later, although the Macchiaioli pursued somewhat different purposes. Their movement began in Florence in the late 1850s. In England the

Newlyn School The Newlyn School was an art colony of artists based in or near Newlyn, a fishing village adjacent to Penzance, on the south coast of Cornwall, from the 1880s until the early twentieth century. The establishment of the Newlyn School was reminis ...

was also a major proponent of the technique in the latter 19th century. There were lesser known artist colonies practising, including a loose collective at Amberley in West Sussex centred around the Paris trained

Edward Stott Edward Stott (24 April 1855 – 19 March 1918) was an English painter of the late Victorian to early twentieth century period. He trained in Paris under Carolus Duran and was strongly influenced by the Rustic Naturalism of Bastien-Lepage and ...

who produced atmospheric rural landscapes that were highly popular among some late Victorians. The movement expanded to America, starting in California then moving to other American locales notable for their natural light qualities, including the Hudson River Valley in New York. The act of outdoor painting from observation has been continually popular well into the 21st century.

Equipment and challenges

It was during the mid-19th century that the 'box easel', typically known as the 'French box easel' or 'field easel', was invented. It is uncertain who developed it, but these highly portable easels with telescopic legs and built-in paint box and palette made it easier to go into the forest and up the hillsides. Still made today, they remain a popular choice (even for home use) since they fold up to the size of a

brief case A briefcase is a narrow hard-sided box-shaped bag or case used mainly for carrying papers and equipped with a handle. Lawyers commonly use briefcases to carry briefs to present to a court, hence the name. Businesspeople and other white collar p ...

and thus are easy to store. The Pochade Box is a compact box that allows the artist to keep all their supplies and palette within the box and have the work on the inside of the lid. Some designs allow for a larger canvas which can be held by clamps built into the lid. There are designs which can also hold a few wet painting canvases or panels within the lid. These boxes have a rising popularity as while they are mainly used for ''plein air'' painting, they can also be used in the studio, home, or classroom. Since pochade boxes are mainly used for painting on location, the canvas or work surface may be small, usually not more than 20 inches (50 cm). Challenges include the type of paint used to paint outdoors, animals, bugs, onlookers, and environmental conditions such as weather.

Acrylic paint Acrylic paint is a fast-drying paint made of pigment suspended in acrylic polymer emulsion and plasticizers, silicone oils, defoamers, stabilizers, or metal soaps. Most acrylic paints are water-based, but become water-resistant when dry. Depe ...

may harden and dry quickly in warm, sunny weather, and it cannot be reused. On the opposite side of the spectrum is the challenge of painting in moist or damp conditions with precipitation. The advent of ''plein air'' painting predated the invention of acrylics. The traditional and well-established method of painting ''en plein air'' incorporates the use of oil paint.

Advocates

French impressionist painters such as

Camille Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...

, and

advocated ''plein air'' painting, and much of their work was done outdoors in the diffuse light of a large white umbrella. Claude Monet was an avid en ''plein air'' artist who deduced that to seize the closeness and likeness of an outside setting at a specific moment one had to be outside to do so rather than just paint an outside setting in their studio.Kleiner, F. S., ''Gardner's Art Through the Ages (15th ed.), Boston, Cengage Learning, 1915 In the second half of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century in Russia, painters such as

Vasily Polenov Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov (Russian: Васи́лий Дми́триевич Поле́нов; 1 June 1844 – 18 July 1927) was a Russian landscape painter associated with the Peredvizhniki movement of realist artists. His contemporaries would ca ...

Isaac Levitan Isaac Ilyich Levitan (russian: Исаа́к Ильи́ч Левита́н; – ) was a classical Russian landscape painter who advanced the genre of the "mood landscape". Life and work Youth Isaac Levitan was born in a shtetl of Kibarty ...

Valentin Serov Valentin Alexandrovich Serov (russian: Валенти́н Алекса́ндрович Серо́в; 19 January 1865 – 5 December 1911) was a Russian painter and one of the premier portrait artists of his era. Life and work Youth and educ ...

Konstantin Korovin Konstantin Alekseyevich Korovin (russian: Константи́н Алексе́евич Коро́вин, first name often spelled Constantin; 11 September 1939) was a leading Russian Impressionist painter. Biography Youth and education Konstan ...

and I. E. Grabar were known for painting ''en plein air''. But enthusiasts of ''plein air'' painting were not limited to the

Old World The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by the ...

. American impressionists too, such as those of the

Old Lyme Old Lyme is a coastal town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The main street of the town, Lyme Street, is a historic district with several homes once owned by sea captains. Lyme Academy of Fine Arts is located in Old Lyme and the ...

school, were avid painters ''en plein air''. American impressionist painters noted for this style during this era included

Guy Rose Guy Orlando Rose (3 March 1867 – 17 November 1925) was an American Impressionist painter and California resident, who received national recognition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Early life and education Guy Orlando Rose was b ...

, Robert William Wood, Mary DeNeale Morgan, John Gamble, and Arthur Hill Gilbert. In Canada, the

Group of Seven The Group of Seven (G7) is an intergovernmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non-enumerated member". It is official ...

and

Tom Thomson Thomas John Thomson (August 5, 1877July 8, 1917) was a Canadian artist active in the early 20th century. During his short career, he produced roughly 400 oil sketches on small wood panels and approximately 50 larger works on canvas. His ...

are examples of ''en plein air'' advocates.

Notable artists (selected)

Peter Seitz Adams Peter Seitz Adams (born August 27, 1950, Los Angeles) is an American artist. His body of work focuses on landscapes and seascapes created en plein air in oil or pastel as well as enigmatic figure and still-life paintings. He is noted for his colo ...

* Frédéric Bazille * Henri Biva * Ralph Wallace Burton *

Mary Cassatt Mary Stevenson Cassatt (; May 22, 1844June 14, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker. She was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh's North Side), but lived much of her adult life in France, where she befriended Edgar De ...

Jack Cassinetto Jack Thomas Cassinetto (March 26, 1944 - January 4, 2018, Sonora, California) was a prolific California plein air artist of the tonalism movement who painted primarily Northern California landscapes such as Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, the Gold Country, ...

William Merritt Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...

* Robert Clunie *

John Constable John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romanticism, Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedha ...

Lovis Corinth Lovis Corinth (21 July 1858 – 17 July 1925) was a German artist and writer whose mature work as a painter and printmaker realized a synthesis of impressionism and expressionism. Corinth studied in Paris and Munich, joined the Berlin Se ...

William Didier-Pouget William Didier-Pouget (14 November 1864 – 12 September 1959) was a French artist known for his landscape paintings. He focused primarily on the countryside of southern France, infusing his landscapes, always painted outdoors (en plein air), wit ...

Rackstraw Downes Rackstraw Downes (born 1939) is a British-born realist painter and author. His oil paintings are notable for their meticulous detail accumulated during months of plein-air sessions, depictions of industry and the environment, and elongated compo ...

Carl Eytel Carl Eytel (September 12, 1862 – September 17, 1925) was a German American artist who built his reputation for paintings and drawings of desert subjects in the American Southwest. Immigrating to the United States in 1885, he settled in Palm Sp ...

Francesco Filippini Francesco Filippini (18 September 1853 – 6 March 1895) was an Italian painter from Lombardy. He was much influenced by Tranquillo Cremona. Life Filippini was born in Brescia, in Lombardy in northern Italy, on 18 September 1853, into a p ...

* David Gallup *

Antonio López García Antonio López García (born 6 January 1936) is a Spanish Painting, painter and Sculpture, sculptor, known for his Realism (arts), realistic style. He is criticized by some modern artists for what they consider neo-academism, but has been prais ...

* Arthur Hill Gilbert *

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2 ...

* I. E. Grabar *

George Hetzel George Hetzel (January 17, 1826 – July 4, 1899) was a French-born American artist. He is regarded as the founder of the Scalp Level School of painting, a contemporary to the French Barbizon School of Naturalist painting. He is associated wit ...

Winslow Homer Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910) was an American landscape painter and illustrator, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th-century America and a preeminent figure in ...

George Inness George Inness (May 1, 1825 – August 3, 1894) was a prominent United States, American landscape painting, landscape painter. Now recognized as one of the most influential American artists of the nineteenth century, Inness was influenced b ...

Theodore Lukits Theodore Nikolai Lukits (November 26, 1897 – January 20, 1992) was a Romanian American portrait and landscape painter. His initial fame came from his portraits of glamorous actresses of the silent film era, but since his death, his Asian-inspir ...

* The

Marvin Mangus Marvin Dale Mangus (1924–2009) was an American geologist and landscape painter. He was giving the honor of driving a purely symbolic wood stake prior to start of drilling the actual oil well by the Atlantic Richfield Corporation, his employer. ...

Frederick McCubbin Frederick McCubbin (25 February 1855 – 20 December 1917) was an Australian artist, art teacher and prominent member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. Born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, McCubb ...

Stanisław Masłowski Stanisław Masłowski, born ''Stanisław Stefan Zygmunt Ludgard Masłowski'' (3 December 1853 in Włodawa, – 31 May 1926 in Warsaw) was a Polish painter of realistic style, the author of watercolor landscapes. Biography Masłowski was bo ...

Willard Metcalf Willard Leroy Metcalf (July 1, 1858March 9, 1925) was an American painter born in Lowell, Massachusetts. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and later attended Académie Julian, Paris. After early figure-painting and ill ...

Berthe Morisot Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot (; January 14, 1841 – March 2, 1895) was a French painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. In 1864, Morisot exhibited for the first time in the highly es ...

Edgar Payne Edgar Alwin Payne (1 March 1883 – 8 April 1947) was an American painter. He was known as a Western landscape painter and muralist. Early life Payne was born near Cassville, Barry County, Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks.. Cassville is in so ...

Robert Antoine Pinchon Robert Antoine Pinchon (, 1 July 1886 in Rouen – 9 January 1943 in Bois-Guillaume) was a French Post-Impressionist landscape painter of the Rouen School (''l'École de Rouen'') who was born and spent most of his life in France. He was consist ...

* William Preston Phelps *

Tom Roberts Thomas William Roberts (8 March 185614 September 1931) was an English-born Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. After studying in Melbourne, he travelled to Europe i ...

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...

* Matthew Smith * Tim Solliday *

Joaquín Sorolla Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida ( va, Joaquim Sorolla i Bastida, 27 February 1863 – 10 August 1923) was a Spanish Valencian painter. Sorolla excelled in the painting of portraits, landscapes and monumental works of social and historical themes. Hi ...

Arthur Streeton Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton (8 April 1867 – 1 September 1943) was an Australian landscape painter and a leading member of the Heidelberg School, also known as Australian Impressionism. Early life Streeton was born in Mt Moriac, Victoria, sou ...

* Anthony Thieme *

Henry Scott Tuke Henry Scott Tuke (12 June 1858 – 13 March 1929), was an English visual artist; primarily a painter, but also a photographer. His most notable work was in the Impressionist style, and he is best known for his paintings of nude boys and young ...

* Andrew Winter * Robert William Wood *

Mary Agnes Yerkes Mary Agnes Yerkes, ( ; August 9, 1886 – November 8, 1989), was an American Impressionist painter, photographer and artisan. She was skilled in the media of oil, pastel and watercolor. Her professional career was cut short by the Great Depres ...

Images

File:Pigeon Point Lighthouse 2 .jpg, Artist working ''en plein air'', using a Pochade box at

Pigeon Point Lighthouse Pigeon Point Light Station or Pigeon Point Lighthouse is a lighthouse built in 1871 to guide ships on the Pacific coast of California. It is the tallest lighthouse (tied with Point Arena Light) on the West Coast of the United States. It is sti ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. File:Plein Air Painters at Long Pond, Ringwood, NJ.JPG, ''En plein air'' painters painting in

Ringwood, New Jersey Ringwood is a borough in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 11,735, a decline of 493 (−4.0%) from the 2010 census count of 12,228,Winslow Homer Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910) was an American landscape painter and illustrator, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th-century America and a preeminent figure in ...

, ''Artists Sketching in the White Mountains'', 1868, oil on panel, 24.1 × 40.3 cm,

Portland Museum of Art The Portland Museum of Art, or PMA, is the largest and oldest public art institution in the U.S. state of Maine. Founded as the Portland Society of Art in 1882. It is located in the downtown area known as The Arts District in Portland, Maine. ...

File:Camille Pissarro - Hameau aux environs de Pontoise (1872).jpg,

, 1872, ''Hameau aux environs de Pontoise'', oil on canvas, 54 × 74 cm, private collection File:Henri BIVA, ca 1905-06, Matin à Villeneuve, Salon 1906 postcard - original painting, oil on canvas, 151.1 x 125.1 cm, private collection.jpeg, Henri Biva, c.1905–06, '' Matin à Villeneuve (From Waters Edge)'', oil on canvas, 151.1 × 125.1 cm File:Claude Monet - In the Woods at Giverny- Blanche Hoschedé at Her Easel with Suzanne Hoschedé Reading - Google Art Project.jpg,

, 1887, ''In the Woods at Giverny,

Blanche Hoschedé Monet Blanche Hoschedé Monet (10 November 1865 – 8 December 1947) was a French painter who was both the stepdaughter and the daughter-in-law of Claude Monet. Early life Ernest and Alice Hoschedé Blanche Hoschedé was born in Paris, the sec ...

at Her Easel with Suzanne Hoschedé Reading'', oil on canvas, 91.4 x 97.7 cm,

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

File:Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Mount of Sainte-Victoire - 1980.12.14 - Yale University Art Gallery.jpg,

, c.1888-89 ''Mount of Sainte-Victoire'', oil on canvas, 53 x 64.1 cm,

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

File:La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue de la carrière Bibémus, par Paul Cézanne.jpg,

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...

, c.1897, ''La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue de la carrière Bibémus'', oil on canvas, 65.1 × 81.3 cm,

Baltimore Museum of Art The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is an art museum that was founded in 1914. The BMA's collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the Cone Collection of ...

File:Walkthearts mon-ste-victoire.jpg, alt=painting Montagne Sainte-Victoire with walkthearts, Painting Cézanne's mountain > Montagne Sainte-Victoire with walkthearts File:Just outside Topmast Studio at the Custom House, (built, 1805) and is located at 8 Central Street Salem, MA 01970.jpg, Topmast Studio

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...

En plein air

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

Wood carving Wood carving is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation ...

expert John Pydynkowski at his studio.

References

External links

* *The Virtual Art Academy Guide t
Pochade Boxes
an
Plein Air Easels
{{DEFAULTSORT:En Plein Air Artistic techniques Landscape art by school Painting