Impressionism - 00

Impressionism

Impressionism (French impression), a trend in modern art that appeared in the sixties of the XIX century in France, and dominated in the last decades of the XIX century and the first decade of the XX century.

Already in the period of romanticism, the principle of free, individual creation was proclaimed, which, through realism and impressionism, would put an end to the supremacy of official academic painting, burdened with classical content and traditional rules of tonal painting.

Before Impressionism and its freedom, there was restraint. A constraint imposed by the French Academy that 'determined' what and how to paint with the importance of 'line'. Color as an element was totally subjected to the form within the line. The one who completely ignored this rule was Manet. He painted forms with surfaces filled with color, which he contrasted and juxtaposed. Like Courbet, Manet rejected the older generations insistence on classical themes.

Although the Impressionists may seem old-fashioned to us now, they were true revolutionaries. Few elements or areas where we can see it are:

1 - painting 'en plein air'

2 - light, bright color foundation à primo on canvas

3 - use of light colors, opposed to dark one in practice at that time

4 - use complementary colors next to each other, and not mixed

5 - rainbow palette

6 - visible brush strokes

7 - forgetting about 'line', and just use of colors

8 - off center, unbalanced compositions

The painter Constable was the first to use the technique described by Delacroix. The paint had to be applied in small strokes, clean, unmixed, and they resembled a play of light and shadow that is caught and overflows. The impression of shape, depth, shadow and distance is obtained by the shimmer of prismatic tones on the surface of the canvas.

The Impressionist palette is called the spectral or prismatic palette. The eye of the observer connects small strokes of pure colors and blends them into the predicted final colors.

The most revolutionary thing Impressionists did was establishing their own platform for showcasing their art, apart from Academia. They organized their own exhibition. Their playground, their rules. Today it may not seem much, but it was then, it really was.

The exhibition of Societe anonyme des artistes peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs, opened April 15, 1874, and it made history. The critics and public came, and they ridiculed the painters and paintings. Critic Louis Leroy called the article 'Exhibition of the Impressionists', after the word in title of Monet's painting 'Impression, Sunrise'.

Edouard Manet, bridge between detailed, dark Realism and the bright Impressionism, has important opus of artworks in the early era of Modern art.

The second and third exhibitions of Impressionist went with not much success. The forth Impressionist exhibition opened April 10, 1879. The public came in great numbers, and although the critics reviews were still bad, they enjoyed and continued to visit.

Most important female painters in the group were Mary Cassat, Eva Gonzalès, Marie Bracquemond, and Berthe Morisot.

Other most prominent Impressionist painters were Frédéric Bazille, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Armand Guillaumin, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley.

Critic Maurice Grosser said that he never saw a bad painting of Degas, and he saw bad painintgs of other Impressionists, and of Monet too. We saw Monet's exhibition in Albertina few years ago, his most complete exhibition till today, and there was not one bad 'Monet'. This one in particular is magnetic, white and mysterious, almost ready to be transported to generative sketch.

ArtintheFridge, September 2022 / with help of GPT-2

//to be continued in Modern art, part III//

Lit.:

Impressionism by Jean Leymarie,1955

The Painter's Eye by Maurice Grosser, 1956

Enjoying Modern Art by Sarah Newmeyer, 1964

History Of Art – H. W. Janson, 1967

History of Modern Art by H.H. Arnason, 1968

ArtintheFridge, September 2022

Links to other articles:

Modern Art

https://www.fxhash.xyz/article/modern-art-00

Post-Impressionism

https://www.fxhash.xyz/article/post-impressionism-00

Fauvism

Cubism

Expressionism