Editing En plein air (section)

== History ==
[[File:Sargent MonetPainting.jpg|thumb|''[[Claude Monet]] Painting by the Edge of a Wood'' (1885) by [[John Singer Sargent]]. Oil on canvas. 54.0 × 64.8&nbsp;cm. [[Tate Gallery]], London.]]

Before the 19th century, artists had mixed their own paints from raw pigments that they often ground themselves from a variety of [[List of artistic media#Painting|media]]. This had made for inconvenient portability and kept most painting activities confined to the studio. However, in the 1830s, the Barbizon school in France that included [[Charles-François Daubigny]] and [[Théodore Rousseau]] used the practice of ''en plein air'' to depict the changing appearance of light accurately as weather conditions altered.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Auricchio |first=Laura |date=October 2004 |title=The Transformation of Landscape Painting in France |journal=Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History |url= https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/lafr/hd_lafr.htm}}</ref>

This situation improved later in the 1800s when tubes of oil paint became available, allowing ''En plein air'' painting to become viable for more artists. This was in part because of the invention of the collapsible paint tube in 1841 by American portraitist [[John G. Rand]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bird |first1=Michael |title=A Real Squeeze: Paint in Tubes |url=https://www.christies.com/features/14-Art-Media-Paint-in-Tubes-5840-1.aspx#:~:text=A%20real%20squeeze%3A%20Paint%20in%20tubes&text=In%201841%20an%20American%20portraitist,them%20instead%20from%20specialist%20colourmen. |website=Christie's |publisher=Christie's |access-date=20 April 2023}}</ref> 

In the early 1860s, four young painters: [[Claude Monet]], [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir]], [[Alfred Sisley]] and [[Frédéric Bazille]], met whilst studying under the academic artist [[Charles Gleyre]]. They discovered that they shared an interest in painting landscape and contemporary life, and they often ventured into the countryside together to paint in the open air.<ref>Harrison C White, Cynthia A. White (1993). Canvases and Careers: Institutional Change in the French Painting World. University of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|0226894878}}</ref> They discovered that they could paint in sunlight directly from nature, and making use of the vivid synthetic pigments that were available, they began to develop a lighter and brighter manner of painting that extended further the [[Realism (arts)|Realism]] of [[Gustave Courbet]] and the Barbizon school.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Malafronte |first=Allison |date=October 2009 |title=The History of the ''Plein Air'' Movement |journal=American Artist |pages=20–24 |url= http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/43929615/history-plein-air-movement}}{{dead link|date=November 2020|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> It was radical practise at its inception, but by the later decades of the 19th-century the theory had been absorbed into normal artistic practise.

There were artists' colonies across France, such as the one at [[Étaples]] on the Côte d'Opal that included landscape impressionists [[Eugène Chigot]] and [[Henri Le Sidaner]]. The latter artist specialised in translating [[nocturne (painting)|nocturne]] light to canvas using oil and pastel.<ref>Antoine Descheemaeker- Colle (2008), Eugène Chigot, Sa Vie, Son Oevre Peint, Editions Henri, France. {{ISBN|9782917698020}}</ref>

The [[Macchiaioli]] were a group of Italian painters active in Tuscany in the second half of the nineteenth century, who, breaking with the antiquated conventions taught by the Italian academies of art, did much of their painting outdoors in order to capture natural light, shade, and colour. This practice relates the Macchiaioli to the French Impressionists who came to prominence a few years later, although the Macchiaioli pursued somewhat different purposes. Their movement began in Florence in the late 1850s.

In England the [[Newlyn School]] was also a major proponent of the technique in the latter 19th century.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/newlyn-school.htm |title=Newlyn School, Landscape Painting Artist Colony, Cornwall: History, Artists, Stanhope Forbes, Frank Bramley |publisher=Visual-arts-cork.com |access-date=20 August 2010}}</ref> There were lesser known artist colonies practising, including a loose collective at Amberley in West Sussex centred around the Paris trained [[Edward Stott]] who produced atmospheric rural landscapes that were highly popular among some late Victorians.<ref>Valerie Webb (2018), Edward Stott (1855 – 1918):A Master of Colour and Atmosphere, Sansom & Company, Bristol, England. {{ISBN|9781911408222}}</ref>

The movement expanded to America, starting in California then moving to other American locales notable for their natural light qualities, including the Hudson River Valley in New York.

The act of outdoor painting from observation has been continually popular well into the 21st century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.adn.com/2010/06/05/1309330/artists-who-work-en-plein-air.html |title=Artists who work ''en plein air'' share their motivations: Arts |publisher=adn.com |date=6 June 2010 |access-date=20 August 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100808223036/http://www.adn.com/2010/06/05/1309330/artists-who-work-en-plein-air.html |archive-date=8 August 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://painting.about.com/od/landscapes/a/plein_air_paint.htm |title=Plein Air Painting - Painting Outside Plein Air |publisher=Painting.about.com |date=16 August 2010 |access-date=20 August 2010 |archive-date=2 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302002449/http://painting.about.com/od/landscapes/a/plein_air_paint.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>