The terms California Impressionism and California Plein-Air Painting describe the large movement of 20th century California artists who worked out of doors (''

en plein air ''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting ...

''), directly from nature in

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 ...

, United States. Their work became popular in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

and

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

in the first three decades after the turn of the 20th century. Considered to be a regional variation on

American Impressionism American Impressionism was a style of painting related to European Impressionism and practiced by American artists in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. The style is characterized by loose b ...

, the California Impressionists are a subset of the California Plein-Air School.

History

The California Impressionist artists depicted the California landscape from the south to the north — the foothills, mountains, seashores, and deserts of the interior and coastal regions. California Impressionism reached its peak of popularity in the years before the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. The California Impressionists generally painted in a bright, chromatic palette with loose, painterly brush work that showed influence from

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

and

Post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ag ...

. These artists gathered in art colonies in places like Carmel-by-the-Sea and Laguna Beach as well as in cities like

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

, and even

Giverny Giverny () is a commune in the northern French department of Eure.Commune de Giverny (27285)< ...

. The artists associated with California Impressionism were influenced by European Impressionism, and members such as

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 ...

and

Alson Clark Alson Skinner Clark (March 25, 1876 – March 23, 1949) was an American Impressionist painter best remembered for his landscapes. He was also a photographer, ''plein aire'' painter, art educator and muralist. Early life and education On Ma ...

were educated and closely associated with European Impressionists. Organizations like the

California Art Club The California Art Club (CAC) is one of the oldest and most active arts organizations in California. Founded in December 1909, it celebrated its centennial in 2009 and into the spring of 2010. The California Art Club originally evolved out of The ...

, the Painters and Sculptors Club, San Francisco's Sketch Club, The

Carmel Art Association The Carmel Art Association (CAA) is a Not-for-profit arts organization and Art museum, gallery located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. The CAA is Carmel's oldest gallery. It features the work of many local artists living on the Monterey Peninsu ...

, The Laguna Beach Art Association and the Los Angeles Museum of History, Art and Science played a key role in popularizing the work of the California Impressionists. While impressionist-influenced painting remained popular in California well after it did in Europe or the Eastern United States, in the late 1920s impressionism was seen as old-fashioned and conservative. In the 1930s, more modern styles became accepted, and the movement fell into decline.

Artists

In the 1890s, European ideas and painting techniques finally made their way to the west coast of the United States. We call the group of artists who responded to these ideas the California Impressionists, but that is not a name that they self-applied. Charles Desmarais, director of the Laguna Art Museum, noted that this phrase "is a misnomer if it implies any but the most tenuous connections to the theory-based art born in France decades before". Patricia Trenton argued that the "common thread that binds these artists is the recognition and depiction of light through color, an interest fostered in part by the dissemination of the color theories of Michel-Eugene Chevreul and Albert Henry Munsell. But... these artists were inspired by the clarity and force of the distinctive light of Southern California and by the region's endlessly intriguing motives of hill and meadow, desert and mountain, river and ocean". Most of the Plein Air painters came from the East, the Midwest and Europe, and only a few of the early artists such as

were actually born and raised in California. Most of these artists were already trained in art when they moved to California, arriving between 1900 and the early 1920s, although many continued their education in California. These artists worked together and showed together frequently.

Northern California Tonalism and Impressionism

Many of the Northern California painters were influenced by the works of the French painters of 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 ...

, who worked in the forest south of Paris in the mid-19th century, as well as the American landscape master

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 ...

(1825–1894) and the American expatriate

James Abbott McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

(1834–1903). Northern California Tonalist landscapes can be recognized by their simplified compositions and a limited palette that gave the paintings close color harmonies. Some of the other major Northern California Tonalists were Arthur and Lucia Mathews, who led the Bay Area Arts and Crafts Movement, the moonlight painter

Charles Rollo Peters Charles Rollo Peters (April 10, 1862 – March 2, 1928) was an American oil painter of nocturnes. Early life Peters was born on April 10, 1862, in San Francisco, California. He studied at the Académie Julian and the École des Beaux-Arts in Par ...

(1862–1928), the flamboyant

Xavier Martinez Xavier or Xabier may refer to: Place * Xavier, Spain People * Xavier (surname) * Xavier (given name) * Francis Xavier (1506–1552), Catholic saint ** St. Francis Xavier (disambiguation) * St. Xavier (disambiguation) * Xavier (footballer, born ...

(1869–1943), and the painter and muralist Giuseppe Cadenasso (1858–1918). While many of the Northern California tonalist painters did paint extensively out of doors, most of the works were done in their studio, stylized and poetic visions, a step away from the plein air or impressionist painting favored by the French school. After 1915 and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, which brought many French and American Impressionist masterworks to San Francisco, more Northern California painters adopted a more chromatic palette and dappled brushwork that was closer to French Impressionism and they adopted high-key midday subjects. Some of the best known Northern California painters who worked in a more impressionistic manner were the marine painter

Armin Hansen Armin Hansen (1886–1957), a native of San Francisco, was a prominent American painter of the en plein air school, best known for his marine canvases. His father Herman Wendelborg Hansen was also a famous artist of the American West. The young ...

, the coastal landscape painter Bruce Nelson and E. Charlton Fortune (1885–1969), a talented Monterey woman who gave up easel painting for ecclesiastical decoration. Joseph Raphael, a student of Arthur Mathews who lived for many years in Europe while maintaining ties to San Francisco, assayed methods of Impressionism and

, and may have been "the finest and most original of the state's Impressionists." E. Charlton Fortune helped to develop the Carmel area art colony, bringing

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. ...

there to teach. Two of the most prominent California Impressionists who lived in Carmel were William Ritschel and

Paul Dougherty Paul Dougherty (born 12 May 1966) is an English former professional soccer player and soccer coach who began his career with Wolverhampton Wanderers in England. He then moved to the United States where he became a journeyman player, bouncing ...

. Both were known for their marine subjects, and had developed national reputations long before they moved west.

Southern California Impressionism

Poppies, Antelope Valley by Benjamin Chambers Brown

developed more slowly than San Francisco, where the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

caused the rapid expansion of its wealth and art scene, so there were few artists and even fewer collectors in the years before the turn of the 20th century. As first the Painters Club (1906) and then the California Art Club (1909) were founded and the first commercial galleries opened,

began to draw artists and patrons and a bright, airy Impressionist aesthetic became dominant. This coincided with a tremendous population boom in Southern California. From early in the 20th century, Southern California painters generally worked in a much higher key then their Northern California contemporaries. This seems almost natural, for the Southland was a land of almost perpetual sunshine. The painters didn't need the earth tones that were favored by the Northern California painters and instead adopted a broad, chromatic palette that helped them to capture the brilliant light that bathed the hills and valleys of Southern California.

William Wendt William Wendt (February 20, 1865, Bentzen, Kingdom of Prussia – December 29, 1946, Laguna Beach) was a German-born American landscape painter. He was called the "Dean of Southern California landscape painters." *Bronze Medal, Buffalo Expositi ...

was a bold stylist known for his paintings of California in the springtime. The Austrian Franz Bischoff and the German-born

Jean Mannheim Jean Mannheim (November 18, 1863 – September 6, 1945) was a German-born American artist and educator, known for his California Impressionist paintings. He was active in Decatur, Illinois and Pasadena, California. About Jean Mannheim was ...

were both converts to California Impressionism.

, whose father was a leading rancher was a Los Angeles native who was trained in San Francisco and Paris and while in France he became an enthusiastic proponent of Impressionism. He only came home in 1914, after years of living in the Giverny art colony. Also Paris-trained, Benjamin Brown, whose work suggested an Impressionism reminiscent of

Childe Hassam Frederick Childe Hassam (; October 17, 1859 – August 27, 1935) was an American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressioni ...

, settled in California in the 1890s. Mid-Western born and educated

Fernand Lungren Fernand Lungren (1857–1932) was an American painter and illustrator. He was mostly known for his paintings of American South Western landscapes and scenes (in California, New Mexico, Arizona) as well as for New York and European city street sce ...

(1859-1932), after stays in Philadelphia, New York, Cincinnati and Europe, moved West to Santa Fe, New Mexico, finally settling in Santa Barbara, California, in 1906. He is especially famous for his impressionist paintings of the California desert in various seasons and time of the day; he also played a leading role in founding the Santa Barbara School of the Arts in 1920. Perhaps the most well-known Impressionist painter to settle in Southern California was Richard E. Miller. Miller came to Pasadena to teach alongside Rose, with whom he had worked in Giverny. His color and draftsmanship had a profound influence on other California artists. After studying with Chase in New York and then going to Europe,

Maurice Braun Maurice Braun (1877–1941) was an American artist who became known for his Impressionist landscapes of southern California. He was born in Hungary on October 1, 1877; however, by the age of four, young Maurice and the Braun family had migrat ...

moved to San Diego in 1909. His patterned landscapes are notable for their sparkling sunlight and subtle mysticism. For

William H. Gerdts William Henry Gerdts Jr. (January 18, 1929 – April 14, 2020) was an American art historian and professor of Art History at the CUNY Graduate Center. Gerdts was the author of over twenty-five books on American art. An expert in American Impressio ...

, Braun was "not only the finest Impressionist of the San Diego area, but arguably the most brilliant landscape artist of his generation working in California."

Decline of California Impressionism

The decline of the California Plein-Air Movement was gradual. While art historians have described California Impressionism's long popularity as "the Indian Summer of American Impressionism," the movement eventually began to give way to more modern movements, both in the press and among collectors. The Great Depression hurt the art market. The economy hastened the decline of plein-air painting, and modernism began to supplant the artists of the Southland art organizations.

Revival of interest in early California Impressionism

Interest in the California Impressionists began to wane in the late 1920s. When the Southland painters of the 1920s were discussed, they were sometimes derisively called ''The Eucalyptus School''. Led by a number of pioneering art historians like Nancy Moure, then with the

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 ...

and Harvey Jones of the

Oakland Museum of California The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Cali ...

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

, writers began to recognize that a major movement of Impressionist-influenced painters had been active in California between 1900 and 1930. Interest in California's impressionist painters was aided by the historic preservation movement and interest in the Arts and Crafts Movement in California. As interest in the American Arts and Crafts Movement increased and

historic preservation Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK), is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...

became popular, young curators, art historians and art dealers began to mount exhibitions and write about the California Impressionists. By the 1980s, there was a broad interest in California Impressionism. Under the direction of Jean Stern, expert on California Impressionism, The Peterson Galleries in

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...

hosted retrospective exhibitions for Franz Bischoff and other artists of the Plein-Air school with small color catalogs, signaling that the early painters of Los Angeles were worthy of both scholarly and commercial attention. In 1977 the

Laguna Art Museum The Laguna Art Museum (LAM) is a museum located in Laguna Beach, California, on Pacific Coast Highway. LAM exclusively features California art and is the oldest cultural institution in the area. It has been known as the Laguna Beach Art Associati ...

hosted a retrospective for William Wendt, the most important figure in early Los Angeles painting, which was curated by Nancy Moure. The following year Moure released her ''Dictionary of Art and Artists in Southern California Before 1930''. Moure also curated a retrospective exhibition for the Laguna Beach Museum with illustrations of works by dozens of painters who had been active there. In 1981 in conjunction with the Los Angeles Bicentennial, an exhibition of early California painting was held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 1982 ''Plein-Air Painters of California: The Southland'' was published by Ruth Lilly Westphal. Westphal followed the first book with ''Plein-Air Painters of California: The North'', in 1986. These books are still in print and played an instrumental role in the revival of interest in these painters.

Continued Influence

The California Impressionists continue to show their influence in museum exhibits, high auction prices, and in events that continue their working methods. A posthumous 2021 exhibit at Casa Romantica highlighted Sam Hyde Harris' career as a commercial artist. In a 2022 auction, a piece by

sold for $441,375. A key component of the continued interest in the California Impressionists are the frequent ''en plein air'' exhibitions held in California that continue their artistic practice. In most of these exhibitions, the painters bring their materials and blank canvasses or panels on which to paint. Then, they have a specified number of hours or days to complete their works before an exhibition is held. This type of exhibition is largely credited to Denise Burns and the Plein-Air Painters of America and the early exhibitions that it promoted on Catalina Island. The concept was conceived of as a way to emphasize the spontaneous nature of ''en plein air'' painting, the way that paintings are executed in a number of hours, while conditions stay consistent. In addition to the popular shows on Catalina Island, the philanthropist and art collector

Joan Irvine Smith Athalie Anita Irvine, known as Joan Irvine Smith (1 July 1933 – 19 December 2019), was an American philanthropist, arts patron, horse trainer and heiress to the Irvine family fortune from their California ranch. Biography Born as Athalie Ani ...

sponsored ''en plein air'' shows that were organized by the California Art Club at Mission San Juan Capistrano. Capistrano had been a popular location for the California Impressionists of the 1920s and these exhibitions were very successful for both the artists and collectors. Other ''en plein air'' festivals were held in Carmel-by-the-Sea and Santa Ana, California.

References

Sources

* Moure, Nancy, Morseburg, Jeffrey, Read, Nat B., The Art of the Jonathan Club, Jonathan Art Foundation, 2010 * ''California's Landscapes and Legacy'' Burlington Center for the Arts, 2009 (CAC Exhibition Catalog) * ''California Art Club: 99th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition'', 2010 (CAC Exhibition Catalog) * ''On Location in Malibu 2009: Paintings by the California Art Club'' Exhibition Catalogue * ''California Art Club: 98th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition'', 2009 (CAC Exhibition Catalog) * ''California Art Club: 97th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition'', 2008 (CAC Exhibition Catalog) * ''California Art Club: 96th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition'', 2007 (CAC Exhibition Catalog) * ''California Art Club: 95th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition'', 2006 (CAC Exhibition Catalog * Davenport, Ray, ''Davenport's Art Reference'': The Gold Edition, 2005 (Dictionary) * ''California Art Club: 94th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition'', 2004 (CAC Exhibition Catalog) * ''California Art Club: 93rd Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition'', 2003 (CAC Exhibition Catalog) *
California Art Club: 92nd Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition
', 2002 (CAC Exhibition Catalog) * ''California Art Club: 91st Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition'', 1999 (CAC Exhibition Catalog) * Stern, Jean,''Treasures of the Sierra Nevada'', Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, California Art Club, 1998 (Exhibition Catalog) * Adams, Peter & Adams Elaine, ''East Coast Ideals, West Coast Concepts'', Carnegie Museum, Oxnard, California Introduction by Suzanne Bellah, CAC, 1997 (Exhibition Catalog) * Easton, Ellen, ''Ranchos: Santa Barbara Land Grant Ranchos'', The Easton Gallery, Santa Barbara, 1996 (Exhibition Catalog) * Landauer, Susan. “The California Art Club: A History (1909–1995).” ''American Art Review'' 8 (February–March 1996): 144–51. * Moure, Nancy Dustin Wall. "Loners, Mavericks and Dreamers; Art in Los Angeles before 1900". Laguna Beach, Calif.: Laguna Art Museum, 1993 * Trenton, Patricia & Gerdts, William, ''California Light: 1900–1930'', Laguna Beach Museum of Art, Exhibition Catalog, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1992 (Exhibition Catalog) * Westphal, Ruth Lilly, Editor, ''Plein-Air Painters of California: The North'', Westphal Publishing, Irvine, California 1986 * Westphal, Ruth Lilly, Editor, ''Plein-Air Painters of California: The South'', Westphal Publishing, Irvine, California 1984 * Morseburg, Jeffrey, ''California Painting During the Arts and Crafts Period", ''Style 1900 Magazine'', Volume 10, Number 2, 1991 * Moure, Nancy Dustin Wall. Publications in Southern California Art, 1, 2, and 3. Los Angeles: Dustin Publications, 1984. * Stern, Jean. “California Impressionism Chosen for Corporate Offices in Arizona,” ''Western Art Digest'' 12 (November–December 1985): 72–80. * Moure, Nancy Dustin Wall. Painting and Sculpture in Los Angeles, 1900–1945. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum, 1980 * Moure, Nancy Dustin Wall. William Wendt, 1865–1946. Laguna Beach, Calif.: Laguna Art Museum, 1977. * Burlingame, Margaret R. “The Laguna Beach Group.” ''American Magazine of Art'' 24 (April 1932): 259–66. * Vreeland, Francis William. “A New Art Centre for the Pacific Coast,” ''Arts and Decoration'' 28 (November 1927): 64–65. * Berry, Rose, "A Patriarch of Pasadena enjamin Brown. ''International Studio'' 81 (May 1925): 123–26. * Berry, Rose, “A Painter of California uy Rose” ''International Studio'' 80 (January 1925): 332–34, 336–37. * Robinson, W. W. “The Laguna Art Colony.” ''California Southland'' 6 (July 1924): 10. * Berry, Rose V. S. “California and Some California Painters.” ''American Magazine of Art'' 15 (June 1924): 279–91. * “California as Presented by Her Artists,” ''California Southland'' 6 (June 1924): 7–13. * Brown, Benjamin Chambers. “The Beginnings of Art in Los Angeles.” ''California Southland'' 6 (January 1924): 7–8. * “A California School of Painters.” ''California Southland'' 3 (February 1921): 10–11. * Downes, William Howe. “California for the Landscape Painter.” ''American Magazine of Art'' 11 (December 1920): 491–502. * Usher, B. D. “California Art Exhibit.” ''Holly Leaves'', April 26, 1919. * Neuhaus, Eugen. ''The Galleries of the Exposition: A Critical Review of the Paintings, Statuary, and the Graphic Arts in the Palace of Fine Arts at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition''. San Francisco. Paul Elder and Company, 1915. * “California as a Sketching Ground.” ''International Studio'' 43 (April 1911): 121–32. * Seares, Mabel Urmy. “The Spirit of California Art.” ''Sunset'' 23 (September 1909): 264–266. * Donovan, Elleen Dwyer. “California Artists and Their Work.” ''Overland Monthly'' 51 (January 1908): 25–33.

External links

California Art Club Official Site

Plein-Air Painters of America

Laguna Plein-Air Painters

The Irvine Museum, Collection of California Impressionism

The Oakland Museum of California, Large Collection of California Art

Laguna Museum of Art, Collection of California Impressionism

* ttp://www.theodorelukits.org/ Web site Devoted to the Life and Art of Thedore Lukits, CAC Life Member
Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Collection of Plein-Air Pastels including CAC Members Living and Deceased

California Impressionism lecture by collector Jean Stern on YouTube
{{Impressionism Art in California American Impressionism American art movements Landscape art by school