En Plein air

(noun)

En plein air is a French expression which means "in the open air", and is particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors, which is also called peinture sur le motif ("painting on the ground") in French.

Related Terms

Examples of En Plein air in the following topics:

  • Impressionism

    • The Impressionists found that they could capture the momentary and transient effects of sunlight by painting en plein air.
    • Sisley was dedicated to painting landscape en plein air and his work is known for capturing the transient effects of sunlight.

  • Europe and America from 1850–1900

    • The Impressionists argued that people do not see objects but only the light which they reflect, and therefore painters should paint in natural light (en plein air) rather than in studios and should capture the effects of light in their work .

  • German Painting in the Northern Renaissance

    • Likely the first landscape painter in Early Modern Europe, Dürer honed his landscape painting skills working en plein air at home and during his travels.

  • Post-Impressionism

    • Camille Pissarro briefly painted in a pointillist manner, and even Monet abandoned strict plein air painting.

  • Landscape Painting in the Romantic Period

    • Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Frédéric Bazille among others, practiced plein air painting and developed what would later be called Impressionism, an extremely influential movement.

  • Colonial Australian Art

    • They began an impressionistic plein air approach to the Australian landscape that remains embedded in Australia's popular consciousness, both in and outside the art world.