Art history: Understanding impressionism

Impressionism is a movement in art that has roots going back to the mid-19th century, mostly in France. The name of the Impressionist movement is mostly based on and derived from the work of a Claude Monet painting called “Impression: Sunrise.”

There are many different characteristics that identify Impressionist artwork. Some of them include visible brushstrokes, open composition, emphasis on light and its changing qualities (many times emphasizing the effects of the passage of time), ordinary and everyday subject matter, and unusual visual angles.

In a way, Impressionists broke the rules of painting. With the styles mentioned previously, they did things that weren’t really done in artwork during that time. They also were some of the first to take painting out from the studio and out into the world, where they were able to draw inspiration. With their radical ways they inspired a lot of change in art.

There are many artists that are generally considered to be Impressionists, many of them being from France. Some of the most famous ones include Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne, Camille Pissarro, and Alfred Sisley. While there are others, these are some of the main figures in the emergence of Impressionism.

This art movement also had a big effect in other industries, inspiring movement in other types of media, which became known more as impressionist music and impressionist literature.

Art history: Understanding impressionism – Part 1

Introspective Look into Post-Impressionism

The era in art known as Post-Impressionism was contrived in direct reaction to the Impressionist era, which came just before. This new era, which emerged in 1886, strove toward recapturing the essence of Impressionism. They believed in the basic concepts of Impressionism but thought that in recent years these concepts had been overblown and traditional concepts had been discarded. The artists of Post-Impressionism accused their Impressionistic contemporaries of putting too much emphasis on the movement of color and light, instead of focusing in on the meaning and subject of the artwork. The idea of patroning art, in fact, is too amuse and entertain the viewers, and it is not an opportunity for the artist to show off his skills.

The impressionist movement, at its basic core, was a study on light and color. After a while the images became blurred out and unviewable. Inspired by Claude Monet, the artists of this era consisted of Edward Monet, Auguiste Renoir, Whistler, and Edgar Degas. The characteristics of this movement include painting in open air, meaning on the spot, capturing the shimmer and light of the open air, the use of high key and warm colors of pure tints, the use of propped images, dematerialization, and capturing the timelessness of the forms.

The Post-Impressionist movement was a reaction to and willingness to change of the Impressionist movement. It was a return to core Impressionist values. The major artists of the time included Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh, and Paul Gauguin. The characteristics of this movement include a shift towards painting more with more solidity and tradition, an appeal to intellect, the use of profound images, a return to classical style, and, “projects an inner idea without using narrative of literal symbols,” according to Janson in the book, History of Art: The Western Tradition.

Clear comparisons and contrasts, between the two movements, can be seen when looking at a work of art from each period of art. Two good examples are Claude Monet’s, Water Lilies, from Impressionism, and Paul Cezanne’s, Mont Ste-Victoire Seen from Bibemus Quarry, from Post-Impressionism. Monet’s work used the theme of water lilies but there was no true meaning or thought put into it. It is simply a study of light and patches of color. Cezanne’s work used the theme of a certain mountain view, and was supposed to be a familiar scene for the viewers. The composition of Monet’s work is static and upfront to the picture frame, much like Cezanne’s work, which lacks any sort of depth; instead it is a merger of the foreground with the middle ground. Monet used the visual effect of light and atmosphere while Cezanne’s still life paid little attention to light and instead focused on the seriousness and essence of the image. Monet’s painting allowed the viewer to see the image from any direction and regarded the actual lilies as unimportant. It is part of a technical process and the ideas of brushstroke and light particles take over. Cezanne’s painting, which is enclosed in a triangular form, is an appeal to the viewer’s intellect. It allows the spectator the feeling of being able to reach into the work. Finally the images, are a complex layout of line, shape, time, color, and texture.