Although artists have long painted out of doors to create preparatory landscape sketches or studies, before the nineteenth century finished pictures would not have been made in this way.
The plein air approach was pioneered by John Constable in Britain c.1813–1, but from about 1860 it became fundamental to impressionism. The popularity of painting en plein air increased in the 1870s with the introduction of paints in tubes (resembling modern toothpaste tubes). Previously, painters made their own paints by grinding and mixing dry pigment powders with linseed oil, a much more laborious and messy process.
En plein air painting was an important technical approach in the development of naturalism. Subsequently it became extremely widespread and part of the practice of rural naturalists – for example the Newlyn School which was a major proponent of the technique in the later nineteenth century. Painting out of doors was sometimes taken to extremes e.g. by Stanhope Forbes of whom there exists a photograph of him painting on a beach in high wind with canvas and easel secured by guy ropes.
Further resource
Watch this short film which looks how Sargent created his famous work Lily, Lily, Rose, which involved painting everyday at twilight in plein air.
En plein air is a French expression meaning “in the open air”, and refers to the act of painting outdoors with the artist's subject in full view. Plein air artists capture the spirit and essence of a landscape or subject by incorporating natural light, color and movement into their works.
Plein air painting is the act of painting outside, and it came to prominence in the 18th Century, when paint makers began to manufacture tubes of oil paint. This facilitated a greater ease in taking painting gear outdoors in order to capture the ever changing light across the landscape.
En plein air, a French phrase meaning "in the open air," describes the process of painting a landscape outdoors, though the phrase has also been applied to the resulting works.
noun. circus [noun] an open space in a town etc where several roads meet. place [noun] (often abbreviated to Pl. when written) a word used in the names of certain roads, streets or squares.
Van Gogh wrote often about painting en plein air, roaming the French countryside and capturing the idyllic views with his keen eye for color. In a letter to his brother, Van Gogh remarked, “I painted a study on the beach. There are some sea walls or breakwaters…
Plein air painters and studio painters both paint landscapes or any other subject. Plein Air painting offers the artist a better ability to see the light and colors in a scene since they are right there on location.
By the mid-1880s, Monet had largely moved away from the Impressionist practice of finishing a painting from nature, instead preferring to complete his paintings in the studio. In the instance of this painting, it is thought that Monet began painting en plein air, before adding the final touches of detail in his studio.
French impressionist painters such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir advocated plein air painting, and much of their work was done outdoors in the diffuse light of a large white umbrella.
It presented a few technical challenges he wished to confront—namely the use of contrasting color and the complications of painting en plein air (outdoors) at night—and he referenced it repeatedly in letters to family and friends as a promising if problematic theme.
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