The Impressionist Movement In Art

The 19th century art movement, Impressionism originated by a group of artists who rejected the official, government endorsed exhibitions. In 1863, a large number of artist were not accepted into the most important event of the art world, The Official Salon. To which they responded by creating an exhibition known of their own, known as the Salon de Refuses which consisted of work by artists who had been refused acceptance to the official salon. The Impressionists aimed to capture the fleeting moment of a scene, which turned away from the fine finish and detail that majority of artists aimed for in their day. They wanted to capture the effects of light, to convey the difference of time, changes in weather, and other differences in the atmosphere,

Impressionism is a way of painting which depicts objects using strokes and dabs of primary unmixed colours in order to simulate reflections of light. This style of painting was completely different and new at the time and both Seurat and Monet used these methods to become pivotal impressionist artists in the early 1870s.

Both groups painted contemporary pieces, inspired by landscapes and modern life. Impressionists focused on the lighting, and the natural movement of the setting they were painting. They painted things en Plein air (in open air). In order to truly capture the essence of an image, they believed that you must be experiencing it firsthand. They started to break away from the Realist perspective, with the lack of dimension and modeling. Impressionist had a particular interest in capturing transitory moments in time. They used unique angles and thinner brush strokes to capture the visual element of being in motion. There was a bigger emphasis on the use of color in impressionist works. They used a technique in which they applied color to already wet paint, to develop the colors of the painting. This style of painting was a gateway for post- impressionism.

Impressionism can be considered the first distinctly modern movement in painting. Developing in Paris in the 1860s, its influence spread throughout Europe and eventually the United States. Impressionism was a style of representational art that did not necessarily rely on realistic depictions. The Impressionists loosened their brushwork and lightened their palettes to include pure, intense colors.

Claude Monet sparked the beginning of the Impressionist movement and began to paint “en plein air” as suggested by a friend. Monet focused on the creation of a modern painting instead of subjects on social commentary that the artists (the “Realists”) before him depicted. He explored personal impressions of light and color throughout his career, mainly focusing on the way light played across a surface. He would change the appearance of a painting the more the natural light changed throughout the day, “capturing the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere” (Stokstad 989). This is shown in his painting Impression: Sunrise; even though, this painting, and technique, were criticized. Critics ridiculed his fast, open brushstrokes, and calling it “unfinished” (Stokstad 987). However, this was the intention of Impression: Sunrise and that of his future paintings as well.

This group included Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro,Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley and Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec whom all worked together, influenced each other, and exhibited together and independently. A major fact that tied the group together was that they were exhilarated by contemporary developments in the color theory which helped their search for a more exact analysis of the effects of color and light in nature. They did not believe the shadows of objects were made up from its color with some brown or black added like it portrays. Instead they believed in greater depth that the shadow of an object was broken up with dashes of its complementary color, which is found to be very interesting. Impressionism is based on modernity, meaning faster pace and various improvements in the quality of daily life (Gersh-Nesic, n.d.). The key characteristics of Impressionism were light and its reflection, quickly painted surfaces, dots, dashes, separation of colors and letting the eye's perception mix them, commas and other short brushstrokes. These artists are known to jot down things faster and were called impressionists and their paintings eventually became known as Impressionism. The word "impressionist" in 1874 typically meant no skill but the group did not give up on the art they believed in, although they were rejected by academic institutions such as the French academy of fine arts and the Salon. By then end of the impressionist period artist no longer listened to the strict rules and did not care about the opinion of the salon, they were free to paint how they wanted and began to pursue their own ideas. This led to a growing revolution in art and is looked upon by many artists

The impressionist movement was a leap away from traditional art and a innovative style that would capture the hearts of many. Although, the elimination on detail and lines would be seen as blasphemous to true art to some. The new style of using light ground and working up with dark colors would breed some brilliant work. For instance, Vincent Van Gogh's painting entitled, "Starry Night" makes you really just want to sit and marvel in its beauty. Van Gogh's paintings seemed to be painted in quick passionate and precise strokes which effortlessly create unique and breathtaking pieces of art. Although, they were painted in passion I was blown away when I heard of the amount of detail and sketching that went into a lot of Van Gogh's work. I appreciate

1.How did Gericault talk about particular conditions of human life in his art work? Gericault was Romantic artist who painted scenes of suffering. Typically, the suffering was connected to war. Nonetheless his painting displayed a sense of insanity regarding war. These paintings were caught in the public’s eye giving them a visual of what occurs during battle. In addition, Gericault work was influencing regarding suffering of human life.

Prominent members of the group included Monet, Renoir, Pissarro and Degas. Typical characteristics of paintings from the Impressionist artists might include landscapes and urban scenes with bright colours, long thin visible brushstrokes and a focus on accurately portraying light. The early group were inspired by artists like J.M.W. Turner and his use of colour. Like Turner, impressionists often let the colour guide their painting. A core idealism of the movement was to trying to capture light at a particular moment. To do this they often decided to paint en plein air, they found this gave the paintings a sense of freshness. Multiple techniques were combined from artists like Velásquez, Constable and Turner. These techniques included impasta, making grey and dark tones from complementary colours and an emphasis on natural light. By combining these techniques of the past they created a new creative style of painting. Another common technique among the artists included the use of complementary colours as this was thought to bring out deeper and brighter colours with the paintings. One of the core ideas of impressionism linked to the same idea of spontaneity is to show an experience and to think about what the mind would see. For example not painting in all the faces in the background, only the ones in the interest of the painting and the audience.

The Impressionist paintings usually had as its subject the outdoors, with figures enjoying their leisure time. Although one might argue that this subject had been common in French painting since Medieval Times, The Impressionists shifted the subjects matter from the Ancient Regime’s scenes depicting the high classes, to “scenes of bourgeois domesticity and of more risqué forms of urban entertainment”. The Haussmannization of Paris, the egalitarian mindset born from the revolutions, and the facilitation of transportation made the bourgeoisie able to engage in outdoor activities like “boating, strolling”, and luncheons, which before were exclusive to the elites. Because of this, The Impressionists, lead my Monet who picked up from the Realist and Naturalist Schools, began depicting trivial activities of leisure, popular destinations surrounding

Art has been a part of history before Christ was born and along the flow of time different styles and movements revolutionized what art means to the creator and audience. On the flow of time one of the branches that stood out in style, color, and expression through repetition was Impressionism. An artist that helped revolutionize Impressionism in his time was Oscar-Claude Monet, but the piece that stood out was the “Mouth of the Seine at Honfleur.”

The 1800’s were a time when art merely showed our three-dimensional world on a two- dimensional plane. Claude Monet, a famous French impression painter, sought to change these Victorian standards that he so resented with his Impressionist ideals. During an art exhibition in 1874, Monet debuted his painting Impression, Sunrise which was critiqued by many other artists. One artist acridly dubbed it the title of Impression in that it did not focus on the scene at hand but instead favored lighting. However, Monet did not let this get to him and in fact, let it drive him to push for change in the art community. Monet used colors, technique, and impressionism ideals on to convey the new way that he believed art should be created.

During the Modern Era of the late 19th century and the early 20th century, many artists were turning away from the idea of painting realistic images. Photography, having just been developed for public use a few decades earlier, made artists of the day focus less on painting as an precise copy of what is seen, as had been done for centuries. Since the Middle Ages, most artists painted exact representations of life. Starting in the late 1800s, though, many artists were starting to embrace the theory of art as an impression of what is seen. Impressionism, the art movement that began in the 1870s in France, was the first real development of this new concept of painting. Impressionists, such as Claude Monet, sought to put on canvas how they

Impressionism in its simplest form is characterized as an artist’s impression of an actual scene, using smaller than average painting strokes to help

There are many different painters that painted while they began as impressionist. I guess you could say that some of the characteristics that are considered with some of the paintings of Post-Impressionism would be that they all have some unique brushstrokes and a bright palette of colors. If you look at some of the art work under post impressionism you can see each of them has a different type of brushstrokes. Some might have a line looking type, more of a dotted type or even like a clean