plein-airadj.

Brit.

/pleɪnˈɛː/, U.S.

/pleɪnˈɛ(ə)r/

Forms: 1800s plain-air, 1800s– plein-air.

Origin: A borrowing from French. Etymons: French plein air, plein-air.

Etymology: < French plein air , plein-air (noun) action of painting out of doors, outside the studio (earliest in figures de plein air (1669); used of the Impressionists in the 1880s or earlier, e.g. by J.-K. Huysmans (la recherche du plein air , l' essai du plein air , both 1883) and E. Zola (l' école du plein air , 1886)), specific use of plein air the pure air out of doors, a place out of doors (although this is apparently first attested slightly later (1671 in en plein air )) < plein (see plain adj.¹ and compare plain adj.²) + air air n.¹ Compare also German Pleinair (noun) painting out of doors (1906 or earlier; earlier in sense ‘atmosphere or light like that found in paintings of the plein-air school’ (1896 or earlier)). Compare slightly earlier plein-airist adj.

Art.

Designating a style or school of impressionistic painting originating in France in the late 1860s, which sought to represent the transient effects of atmosphere and light by direct observation from nature. Also more generally: designating any painting, school, or style characterized by spontaneity of execution and featuring work painted out of doors, or representing outdoor scenes.

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society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > period, movement, or school of art > late 19th and 20th centuries > [adjective] > impressionist

impressionist1876

impressionistic1886

impressionary1889

plein-airist1890

plein-air1894

intimist1903

plein-airish1932

1887 New Englander (New Haven, Connecticut) May 453 All modelling and color are despised under the pretext of the open-air (plein-air) system, without perceiving that they are losing sight of art.]

1894 Nation (N.Y.) 14 June 444/2 Mysticism has misled M. Rochegrosse into a plein-air problem, in which the meaning of his ‘Chevalier aux Fleurs’ is less puzzling than his ignoring of all values.

1898 Daily News 15 Feb. 8/5 Another of the plain-air painters of this show.

1902 L. Bénédite in Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 443/1 The ‘plein-air’, or open-air, school.

1930 Observer 6 Apr. 13 The giant Constable, the first of the plein air moderns.

1970 Daily Tel. 9 July 12 It was as a plein air painter of sunlight on landscapes and seascapes that she first succeeded.

1988 New Yorker 26 Sept. 8/3 (advt.) Plein-air paintings of Boston and its environs.

1995 Guardian 8 Aug. ii. 6/1 His career..prepared him to break with the plein-air approach that Impressionism had made central to the art of painting.

Derivatives

plein-ˈairish adj. [compare earlier plein-airist adj.] rare Resembling or characteristic of the plein-air school of painting.

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