The Swing

The Swing by Pierre Renoir

The impressionist movement started when Claude Monet and other artists held an exhibition in Paris in 1874. People like Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre Renoir, Camille Pissaro created their most important work between 1870 to around 1910. The critics gave the exhibition the worst reviews possible. "The critics considered Impressionist paintings an insult to viewers because they were expected to accept apparently unfinished art as a Ð''real' painting." The name was taken from Monet's Impression, Sunrise. "The artists took the name after a critic used it mockingly to describe all the exhibited works." The critics said that the paintings were "evidence of sloppy workmanship" (world book).

The Swing by Pierre Renoir shows many of the characteristics of a painting made during the impressionist movement. During the impressionist period the painters didn't care to show emotion on the characters depicted in the painting. The impressionist also tried to capture a moment in time by painting something they saw at a glance rather than think about what they knew or what they felt about the situation. For example this painting captures a moment in time by showing a woman, standing on the swing, a baby, looking up at a man, and two men, who is having a conversation with the lady against an outdoor background. The impressionist liked to work outdoors in natural light and paint rapidly rather than in a studio trying to develop what they paint. They were influenced by the scientific study of color and light at that time. This painting shows how light reflects on the people standing partly in the shade and partly in the sunlight. Some of the painters often did this by using a pure color palette rather than mixing colors. Many of the paintings contained visible brush strokes and directed the eye of the viewer to the surface and