Impressionism – A 19th Century Movement

Source: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art62992.asp


Introduction to Impressionism

Frederic Bazille - Bathers -

Impressionism, one of the most vividly elaborated styles of the era, was brought to prominence on the account of independent exhibitions and soon extended its impact on literary and musical media which resulted in its ongoing popularity and re-applications of the style in modern interior engineering and web design.

The Origin of the Term

The term “impressionism” was coined by Claude Monet, a spectacular artist of the movement, in an essay titled “Impression, soleil levant”. Initially, impressionism failed to garner popularity among academicians and top-notch artistic galleries which is why it relied on independent and self-financed contributions. With mixed reviews from academia, impressionism was a frequent object of satire and wasn’t recognized as a legitimate art style until years later. Its impact quickly spread from France to other European countries-most substantially to England where it became popular as an element of literary symbolism applied in the works of Virginia Woolf and Joseph Conrad, e.g.

The Methods of Impressionism

Edgar Degas - Combing Hair

Pre-occupied with how the human mind perceives the surrounding reality, impressionists privileged unusual, often intentionally misleading receptors of reality and concentrated on movement, light, and overexposition of what can only be perceived at a specific angle. The truthfulness of the representation was to be achieved thanks to painting en plein air rather than indoors and, consequently, impressionism sought representative authority via the close relationship with nature.
The Aims of Impressionism


Originating in France and not withstanding art’s position mainly as a political and social tool, impressionism sought to rectify the status of art with respect to abstraction, nature, and still life. In a way, it opened the gateway to the birth of modernist playfulness and absurd in art witnessed at the beginning of the 20th century.

Content and Methodology of Impressionism

Mary Casatt

1) Avoidance of black paint;

2) Use of colorful, diversified paints;

3) The essence of the subject re-presented on canvas is captured hastily, with intentional awkwardness and no detail is granted attention;

4) Play of light achieved thanks to painting en plein air;

5) Frivolous and everyday subjects of re-presentation included accidental captures of the landscape, meaningless still life, etc.

6) Play of light and shade giving paintings a slightly surreal touch.


A List of Impressionist Artists

Paul Cézanne

Each of the following artists will be featured in separate articles in the following weeks.

Frédéric Bazille

Gustave Caillebotte

Mary Cassatt

Paul Cézanne

Edgar Degas

Claude Monet

Armand Guillaumin

Édouard Manet

Claude Monet

Berthe Morisot

Camille Pissarro

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Alfred Sisley


POST IMPRESSIONISM

Breaking free of the naturalism of Impressionism in the late 1880s, a group of young painters sought independent artistic styles for expressing emotions rather than simply optical impressions, concentrating on themes of deeper symbolism. Through the use of simplified colors and definitive forms, their art was characterized by a renewed aesthetic sense as well as abstract tendencies. Among the nascent generation of artists responding to Impressionism, Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), Georges Seurat (1859–1891), Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), and the eldest of the group, Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), followed diverse stylistic paths in search of authentic intellectual and artistic achievements. These artists, often working independently, are today called Post-Impressionists. Although they did not view themselves as part of a collective movement at the time, Roger Fry (1866–1934), critic and artist, broadly categorized them as "Post-Impressionists," a term that he coined in his seminal exhibition Manet and the Post-Impressionists installed at the Grafton Galleries in London in 1910.

Source: Post-Impressionism
Thematic Essay
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
The Metropolitan Museum of Art