Impressionism was originated in France between the 1870’s to 1880’s after began search for ways to drift away from typical fine art rules and traditions of painting known as realism. Impressionism involved trying to capture a person or landscapes emotion in the painting through various techniques such as trying to capture the lighting and feel of the environment in a scene to portray what the artist wanted the viewers to feel when viewing the work. However it was harshly criticised when introduced to the public for the first time because they seemed to feel as if it did not meet the high standards of past art that they were used to.
Impressionism adopted its own name after the term “impression” became used as an insult by an art critic by the name of Louis Leroy. However before this, Impressionism began by the establishment of “The Salon of the Rejected” by a group of artists. It was known by this name because before it there was “The Salon” which was a famous art exhibition where artists would go before the academy jury for them to determine whether or not a painting should be accepted for the show. They had very strict rules and declined Dounard Manet’s painting “The Luncheon on the Grass” because it consisted of two clothed men sitting at a picnic with a nude woman. They said that nudes were common to see in the art history however it is forbidden to show a nude in a common setting in daylight. This left Manet humiliated and began a protest of furious artists. This led to an independent group forming the Salon of the Rejected so that the public could determine for themselves whether the paintings could be considered art or not rather than the jury.
This new exhibition was originally considered a big joke where people who go to ridicule or laugh at their work however the first opening made a very big impact which quickly became popular. Art critics would hate their work, writing against them including Louis Leroy who was shocked by Claude Monet’s “Sunrise”. He coined the term Impressionism with his review called “The Exhibition of the Impressionists” as a way of insulting them by saying that their work was only an impression rather than a finished painting. He referred to “Sunset” by arguing how Monet could call it finished as it was more of a rough sketch.
Claude Monet’s “Sunrise” – The first painting to be referred to as an “Impression”:
– Used lighter brush strokes
– Bright simple colours
– Less attention to detail
However within a year, Impressionism was established as a new movement in Art history. Many other artists contributed their work to the Salon of the Rejected such as Renoir, Degas and Cezanne. Most impressionist work used unusual techniques such as the use of loose brush strokes to build up a colourful scene. Impressionists made popular the method of painting outdoors rather than in a studio as they wanted to focus on the beauty of nature around their figures as this complimented their goal of trying to create as much emotion as possible. Getting the figures exactly right to a fine level of detail was not as important as the actual setting itself. They used very small lines to show sunlight rather than smoothed out, discrete brush strokes and they focused on only using untainted colours to get a pure, brightly coloured painting.
The term “Post-Impressionism” was coined by a British artist and art critic by the name of Roger Fry in 1910 however Vincent Van Gogh and Cézanne were known as two of the most famous Post-Impressionist artists with most of the development of this movement beginning in Paris. Hokusia’s prints greatly came into play in the development by having such a great impact in Paris after the work became available for sale. Van Gogh liked to collect his work and have them on display all around his studio. This bold, abstract style greatly inspired him which led to this new Post-Impressionist style. It became known as a new form of art where the idea was to try and break away from impressionism methods of using uncontrolled brush strokes to create emotion and rather instead focus on the form itself. The artists who painted in this new style usually had deep themes of symbolism added to their work to express their own ideas. Similar to the Japanese art style, Post-Impressionism, especially Van Gogh’s work, was very bold and abstract while containing simplified colours that Impressionist artists used. This art movement helped pioneer modern art.
The Japanese Bridge by Claude Monet:
This shows Claude Monet’s Japanese style bridge that was in his garden which we often painted during different seasons of the year to paint the change in the environment. Michael Richards
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