Impressionism
Impressionism is a 19th-century art movement that
originated with a group of Paris-based artists. Their
independent exhibitions was a turning point in art culture, and
brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s. The
French community was very critical of this new art theme, and was
not popular when it first came to light. The name of the style derives
from the title of a Claude Monet work, Impression, soleil levant ,
which provoked the critic Louis Leroy to coin the term in a sarcastic
review published in the Parisian newspaper Le Charivari.
Soliel levant
Claude Monet
Early Impressionists were radicals in their time, and violated the
rules of academic painting. They constructed their pictures from freely
brushed colors that took precedence over lines and contours, following
the example of painters such as Eugène Delacroix and J. M. W. Turner.
They also painted realistic scenes of modern life, and often painted
nature scenes. Previously, still lives and portraits as well as landscapes
were usually painted in a studio. The Impressionists found that they
could capture the momentary and transient effects of sunlight by
painting en plein air. They portrayed general visual effects instead of
details, and used brush strokes of mixed and pure unmixed color - not
blended smoothly or shaded, as was customary - to achieve an effect of
intense color vibration.
Claude Monet
Claude Monet (November 14, 1840 – December 5, 1926) was a
founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and
prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's
perceptions before nature, especially as applied to en plein air landscape
painting. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his
painting Impression, soleil levant.
Monet rejected the traditional approach to landscape painting,
and instead of copying old masters, he learned from his friends and from
nature itself. Monet observed variations of color and light caused by the
daily or seasonal changes.
Water Lilies
Water Lily Pond
San Giorgio Maggiore At Dusk
Wild Poppies
Argenteuil
Water Liles in the Evening
La Promenade
The Rock Needle
The Beach at Pourville
Cliff Near Fecamp
The Costoms House Morning Effect
Impressionism in America
Soon after Americans began to collect and emulate European art,
the French Impressionists made their debut in a private exhibition in Paris in
1874. Rejecting the academics' devotion to invented subjects and
meticulous technique, Impressionist painters depicted landscapes and
intimate scenes of everyday middle-class life using natural light, rapid
brushwork, and a high-keyed palette. Young Americans in Paris in the
1870s, studying with academic teachers such as Jean-Léon Gérôme, ignored
Impressionism. The few who took note of the radical style were repelled.
Later, during the mid 1880s, French Impressionism lost its radical
edge. American collectors began to value the style, and more American
artists began to experiment with it. Exhibitions of Impressionist works were
held in American cities and sales were strong.
By the early 1890s, Impressionism was firmly established as a valid
style of painting for American artists.