CANVASES, CARATS AND CURIOSITIES

Origin Story: Making Plein Air Possible

While painting outdoors was not unheard of before the mid-19th century, it quickly reached its heyday by the end of the century. This shift outdoors was facilitated by the invention of portable oil paint tubes and the box easel, which allowed artists to leave their studios and work directly in nature with greater ease.

To paint en plein air required not only new tools but also a modified technique. Artists working outdoors had to contend with changing light, weather and the unpredictability of their surroundings. This urgency translated into quicker, more spontaneous brushstrokes, which became a hallmark of entire movements like Impressionism. Oil paintings created outdoors often convey a sense of immediacy, with vibrant colors applied in short dabs and dashes. This technique allowed artists to layer hues and textures, capturing the interplay of light and shadow in a way that felt alive. The results were landscapes, cityscapes and scenes of everyday life that radiated an authentic sense of presence.

Plein Air Progenitors: The Barbizon School

The harbingers of this practice were the members of the Barbizon School, a group of artists who sought to break away from academic traditions, which prioritized historical and mythological themes painted in studio settings. Inspired by the natural beauty of the French countryside, particularly the Forest of Fontainebleau, these artists ventured into the landscape and depicted their environments with authenticity and emotional depth.

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, a leader of the movement, rendered poetic landscapes that blended natural observation with a lyrical sensibility, influencing generations of artists. Théodore Rousseau was known for his meticulous studies of trees and skies, often portraying nature as a powerful, almost spiritual force. Millet, meanwhile, focused on rural life, depicting peasant labor with dignity and humanity. These various approaches laid the groundwork for future movements, including Impressionism, by elevating landscape painting to a significant genre and paving the way for revolutionary approaches.

Eugène Boudin, celebrated as "the king of skies," was another pivotal figure in the emergence of en plein air painting and a precursor to Impressionism. Renowned for his seascapes and depictions of Normandy's beaches, Boudin captured the interplay of sky, water and land with a focus on natural light and atmosphere. His influence extended to mentoring a young Claude Monet, introducing him to outdoor painting, which profoundly shaped Monet’s career and the Impressionist movement. Boudin’s dedication to observing nature directly inspired a generation of artists to leave the studio and embrace the world around them, laying the groundwork for the revolutionary shift in French art.

The Rise of Plein Air: The French Impressionists

After the Barbizon artists, a later group of artistic renegades took plein air painting to new heights, making the practice a defining feature of their revolutionary movement: Impressionism. These artists sought to depict contemporary life with unprecedented authenticity and spontaneity. By painting outdoors and in bustling urban settings, artists were able to study natural light, weather and atmospheric effects in real time. This was a radical departure from the controlled environments of studios, where artificial light and static poses prevailed. It was even a dramatic shift from the Barbizon School, as the Impressionists sought to capture reality in the purest sense, rather than an idealized version of the natural world.

Impressionist painting is defined by its iconic loose brushwork, vibrant palette and focus on transient, ordinary moments—and each of the movement’s giants explored and emphasized these concepts in unique ways. Camille Pissarro focused on the tranquility of rural landscapes and their workers, while Alfred Sisley’s river views profoundly captured the ephemeral softness of water and sky.

 Berthe Morisot, one of the very few prominent women in the movement, brought a fresh perspective to domestic and garden scenes, using delicate strokes and color to convey intimacy and immediacy. Late in her career, she explored the genre of bathers and juxtaposed her nude subjects with shimmering reflections of water and the dappled light of a forest, making her most expressive and liberated work while immersed in the environs of her home in Juziers, France.

Two of the most important proponents of plein air painting were undoubtedly Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who met by chance in the studio of Professor Charles Gleyre at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1862 and quickly formed a long-lasting friendship.

Monet, more than any other Impressionist, painted en plein air prolifically, as it was the cornerstone of his artistic philosophy. Radiant landscapes such as Vue du village de Giverny were made possible through Monet’s intimate knowledge of his surroundings, gained from wandering the countryside endlessly with his canvases and paints. The artist’s own home, which he shared with Alice Hoschedé and their combined eight children, can be seen in this composition in the lower left, just beyond the first tree line. So close to his home, Monet painted this same hillside repeatedly, with this particular iteration showing an expansive bird’s eye view of his beloved Giverny.

Renoir, on the other hand, was undoubtedly the Impressionist master of portraiture. Yet his landscape paintings were integral to the development of his signature feathery brushwork and glowing palette. Immersed in nature, Renoir was at his most experimental, pushing colors and forms to their limits, as seen in the otherworldly blues and pinks and golden yellows featured in Au bord de la rivière. Without his plein air painting, Renoir may very well not have developed into the visionary we know and love today.

The Legacy of Plein Air Painting: After Impressionism

The legacy of en plein air painting extends far beyond the Impressionist movement. By prioritizing direct observation and individual perception, the practice laid the groundwork for modern art. Post-Impressionist painters like Vincent van Gogh and Georges Seurat expanded on the techniques and philosophies established by the French Impressionists, exploring new ways to interpret and represent the world. Seurat led the Pointillist movement, which used color theory to transform complex arrangements of tiny dots of paint into atmospheric landscapes and leisure scenes that bordered on abstraction.

Paul Cézanne, often considered a bridge between Impressionism and modern art, took en plein air painting to new levels. While his early works aligned with Impressionist ideals, Cézanne’s later paintings reflect a more structured approach, emphasizing form and geometry. He painted Paysage aux environs d'Aix-en-Provence entirely with his palette knife, adding incredible volume to his depiction of the Provençal countryside. His studies of Mont Sainte-Victoire, painted repeatedly in shifting light and weather conditions, illustrate his interest in immersing himself in a landscape to understand its essence rather than merely its appearance.

Cézanne’s innovations influenced countless artists who followed, including the Cubists and Fauves, extending principles of plein air painting far beyond the Impressionist movement.

In addition to influencing major artistic movements of the 19th and 20th centuries, the practice of painting outdoors encouraged artists writ large to engage more deeply with their environments. This connection to nature and the urban landscape endures as a vital aspect of artistic practice today, as artists continue to paint in the open air, finding inspiration in the same challenges and opportunities that captivated their predecessors.

See many more examples of artworks created en plein air in our incredible Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collections