PLEIN AIR PAINTING AND THE IMPRESSIONIST FOCUS ON THE PRESENT Colleague Sebastian Smee. The Impressionists revolutionized art by painting en plein air (outdoors), prioritizing the sincerity of what they saw in front of them over the carefully composed conventions of the studio. They sought to capture fleeting effects of light and color with directness. Berthe Morisot applied this "sincerity" to domestic and threshold spaces, using loose brushwork to convey the fragility and transience of life—a sensibility likely heightened by the recent political trauma. Interestingly, the Impressionists largely avoided painting the physical ruins of Paris, unlike conservative artists who used such imagery for political rhetoric. Instead, they engaged in a form of psychological repression or optimistic looking-forward, choosing to depict the beauty of contemporary life and the resilience of the present moment rather than dwelling on the destruction of the past. NUMBER 6
1914