The Industrial Revolution brought about many changes in the world including changes in the art world. The Industrial Revolution gave us the steam engine that changed the way people traveled… it also gave us the paint tube that changed the way artists painted. With oil pigments manufactured in tin tubes the artist could take his work afield and paint on location. The French called this painting on location “en plein aire” which literally translates in English as ‘in open air”. Eugene Boudin and Claude Monet were among the first noted artists who chose this method of painting scenes on location instead of from the comfort and restrictions of the studio. They started a tradition that still is strong today as many plein air painters (me included) prefer the open air to the studio. The furnaces of the Industrial Age also brought about the fusing of metal and mineral pigments giving artists a wide array of color choices on their palettes such as cobalt’s and cadmium's. Until the Industrial Revolution pigments were all natural… mostly minerals dug from the ground. These fused pigments gave artists high chroma colors that allowed them to go beyond tonal renderings with earth pigments to intense colorful paintings and the use of expressive color. Van Gogh was a master of expressive color. New vibrant colors, tube paints, and painting on location were the building blocks for Monet and the rest of the Impressionist artists that gave us one of the greatest art movements in history… Impressionism.
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"Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of the Wood" by John Singer Sargent 1885 |
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| My daughter Olivia and I painting en plein aire... |
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