Impressionism

  • 1860 – 1900
  • Main goal of artists and composers was to create an “impression”
  • Realistic attempt to portray the subject but now as seen through the eyes of the artist at a particular moment

Impressionism was also found in literature

  • Provided painters and composers poetry to inspire their works

Impressionism

  • Movement was led by a group of painters from France
  • Protest against the traditional methods
  • Unrealistic upon initial view
  • Artists simply painted what they saw under specific conditions of light & shade
  • Example: color of grass, distance, etc.

“Impression: Sunrise”
~ Monet

Relationship Between Artists & the Public

  • First impressionists were scorned by the public
  • While artists did not ignore social conditions they avoided preaching and moralizing
  • Artists began demonstrating greater independence from the public
  • Some of the previous functions of art were no longer needed
  • For example: Photography replaced the need of a painter in order to produce a portrait

Claude Monet
(1840 – 1926)

  • Once said: “I wish I could have been born blind and then gained my sight so that I could, without preconceptions, truly paint what I saw.”
  • “Banks of the Seine, Vetheuil”
  • “Rouen Cathedral”

EdouardManet
(1832 – 1883)

  • The “Father of Modern Art”
  • Paved the way for new techniques used during the Impressionistic Era & 20th Century

Pierre-Auguste Renoir
(1841 – 1919)

  • “The only painter who never produced a sad painting”

Renoir said: “There are enough troublesome things in life without inventing others”

  • “By the Seashore”
  • “Le Moulin de la Galette”

Georges Pierre Seurat
(1859 – 1891)

  • Employs a new technique called “pointillism” in which his paintings are made-up with thousands of small dots that are uniform in size & designed to merge into shapes in the eye of the viewer
  • Because Seurat’s system was so labor-intensive he finished only 7 large scale paintings in his career
  • “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”

Vincent van Gogh
(1853 – 1890)

  • Obsessed with religion
  • Thought of himself as a missionary of kindness
  • He felt his destiny was to bring humanity closer together
  • Lived a simple, humble life, giving away his meager funds to the needy
  • Ironically, he lived a very depressed life
  • He was tormented by the suffering of the human race
  • He often threw himself into a therapeutic painting frenzy producing 800 paintings and 800 drawings in only 10 years
  • He painted all day without stopping to eat and all night with rest
  • Prototype of a “suffering genius who gives himself totally to his art”
  • Unfortunate love life
  • Rejected by several women, one finally accepts him but her parents forbid their marriage
  • She then poisoned herself
  • Art became van Gogh’s only refuge
  • Although he was deeply disturbed, he painted one masterpiece after another reaching an output unmatched in the history or art
  • “Starry Night”
  • “What’s the use?”
  • After receiving a letter from his brother complaining of financial worries & fearful of becoming a burden, van Gogh ended his last letter with the words, “What’s the use?”
  • He then walked into a field with a pistol & shot himself
  • He died 2 days later; the last words he muttered: “Who would believe that life could be so sad?”
  • “Until my pictures are seen I am powerless to help….but the day will come when it will be seen that they are worth more than the price of the colors they are painted with & of my life which in general is pretty barren.”
  • In 1990 van Gogh’s :Portrait of Dr. Gachet” sold at an auction for $82.5 million

Sculpture

  • Impressionism also had an impact on sculpture
  • Two of the most famous Sculptors of this time:
  • Edgar Degas (1834 – 1917)
  • Auguste Rodin (1840 – 1917)

Impressionistic Sculptors

  • Edgar Degas (1834 – 1917)
  • His sculptures were originally created in wax and then exhibited in that form
  • Auguste Rodin (1840 – 1917)
  • He liked to leave something to the imagination of the spectator

Open Arabesque on the Right Leg
~ Edgar Degas

Hand of God ~ Auguste Rodin

Architecture

  • Architecture branched out into several directions
  • Neoclassical tradition continued to dominate public buildings such as banks, libraries, & city halls
  • New & different forms of buildings emerged

Music

  • The greatest example of impressionistic music can be heard by the works of ClaudeDebussy
  • 1862 – 1918
  • He protested against the emotionalism of Romanticism
  • Did not attempt to imitate the effects of coloristic scenes but he did suggest the same kinds of feelings in music like the painters & poets
  • Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
  • Written in 1894
  • His most popular orchestral music
  • Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937)
  • Orchestration of Mussorgsky’s set of piano pieces entitled Pictures at an Exhibition
  • Ravel’s overshadowed Mussorgsky’s for decades