What did the Impressionists aim to doTheir subject matter and their distinctive painting method - Essay Example

?What did the Impressionists aim to do? Discuss their matter and their distinctive painting method. The Impressionist movement grew out of anearlier movement called Realism which flourished in the government funded artistic salons in Paris in the middle of the 19th century. At that time painters were moving away from idealized pictures of classical scenes and began to focus more on everyday events and people drawn from real life. (Gunderson, 2008, p. 11) It is generally accepted that the Realist painter Edouard Manet (1832-1883) was a key figure in the drive to achieve a painting style that could more closely approach real life. There was a growing interest in painting people and things out of doors, and in natural light, which was a big change from the fashion of the day for interiors and portraits. One of his most influential pictures was the “Luncheon on Grass” which shocked Parisian audiences because it showed realistic people in modern clothing surrounding a naked woman in natural landscape. Gunderson points out that it was not only the daring subject matter but also the painting style that caused consternation in artistic circles: “He used broad brush strokes that relied on the juxtaposition of different colors to create depth. He did not try to hide the brushstrokes to make the image appear real: instead he believed that the viewer should see the paint on the canvas. He focused on light…” (Gunderson, 2008, p. 12) Manet was not himself a proper Impressionist but he was certainly a great influence on this group, and the one who started off the Impressionist drive to find new painting techniques that could capture natural light and a lively and accurate way. During the second half of the nineteenth century other artists took up this emerging style. France and in particular the city of Paris, city continued to provide the social background in which artists could meet together and exchange ideas with each other and with literary figures of the day. Shiff notes that the subject matter chosen by the Impressionists included the following themes “plein air subjects, views of the sea, the landscape, city streets and the vie moderne of Parisian cafes.” (Shiff, p. 15) A painter particularly known for his connection to the bright city lights of Paris is Edgar Degas (1834-1917) and he worked both in painting and in sculpture. His main theme was the world of theatre and dance, which sets him apart from most other Impressionists, but he shared many of their techniques. He belonged firmly to the Realist school in his early career, but increasingly made use of the sketchiness and more unfinished brush work of the Impressionists in his later work. Nevertheless, he consistently denied that he was part of the Impressionist movement. It is a characteristic of the Impressionists as a group that they argued and squabbled with each other about who was part of the group, and who was not. They endlessly debated one others’ works, the salon critics’ opinions, and the various techniques that they used. (Rewald, 1961, p. 543) This creative chaos produced a genuine and very fruitful era of technical experimentation which influenced many later styles and movements. It was not the work of any one artist in particular, but rather a collective effort that evolved as they competed to have their works shown in the salons and appreciated by a sceptical public. The paintings were often painted beyond Paris, however, in gardens or along the river Seine. At first the juries who decided which paintings could be displayed in public galleries were not sympathetic to the new style. It was not so much the subject matter that was hard to accept at first, but way that the artists approached their work: “For the impressionist, as the name implies, the concept of the “impression” provided the theoretical means for approaching the relation of individual and universal truth. The artists’ characteristic technical devices, such as accentuated (“spontaneous”) brushwork and bright color, are signs of their practical application of the impression.” (Shiff, 1984, p. 17) The first to experiment these ideas were Claude Monet (1840-1926) and Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919). Their techniques were similar to those of Manet, but they adapted the brush techniques still further so that it became “a method of applying paint in short strokes of color.” (Gunderson, p. 12) An example of this technique can be seen in the painting “The Skiff” by Renoir. The water and the sky have many short brush strokes which include a range of different colours, layered on to the canvas in quite visible strokes: “The Skiff” by Auguste Renoir. Source: http://www.renoirgallery.com/painting.asp?id=174 At first the public were not able to understand this style of painting because it is so different from what went before. To the untrained eye it looks unfinished and sketchy, but this immediacy is precisely the effect that the painters were trying to achieve. They were trying to break free from technically accomplished but somewhat predictable painting styles to find a fresh approach that could capture more of the true essence of the natural world. One painter who was less influenced by the Parisian scene was Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) who came from the rural south of France and preferred to paint quirky portraits and landscapes from this area. Some painters such as Claude Monet (1840-1926) and Pissarro moved to London and maintained their friendship while they were inspired by the urban scenes there. Pissarro noted: “Monet worked in the parks, whilst I, living at Lower Norwood, at that time a charming suburb, studied the effect of fog, snow and springtime. We worked from nature… we also visited the museums.” (Pissarro, quoted in Rewald, 1961, p. 258) The exposure to English artists such as Gainsborough, Lawrence, Reynolds, Turner and Constable helped the Impressionists to evolve their own particular style, taking the elements that they admired from each painter and turning them into a new way of seeing the world. Monet’s picture “The Thames Below Westminster” is a good example of how the London urban location was given the Impressionist treatment: “Thames below Westminster” by Claude Monet. Source: http://www.claudemonetgallery.org/The-Thames-Below-Westminster.html Once again the sky and the water show the Impressionist brushstrokes and this is the main focus of the painting. Buildings, boats and people are indicated in swift and sketchy outlines in the background, middle ground and foreground respectively but the overwhelming “impression” of foggy industrial London is what the picture intends to convey. The detail is less important than the overall impact of the whole scene. It is distinctive in its use of colour, showing a range of yellows and browns only, which conveys also some of the monotone lifestyles that the workers experience in urban life. The lofty and majestic of the civic buildings are muted, and the busy life of the river goes on at water level. It is the effect of the light, dimmed by the fog and famous “pea soup” smog of the city, that makes this picture so atmospheric. This is realistic in a different way than the former Realist styles, because it faithfully shows the overall mood and light effects, while skimping on the minor details. This is intended to resemble the way that humans see the world, for example when taking in a landscape we rarely notice every tree and cloud, but we automatically absorb the general tenor and mood. This calls forth an instinctive and emotional response, rather than an intellectual or analytical one, and this is a new departure for European art. Some of the painters who are included in the group commonly known as “Impressionists” also developed their work in other directions, and in so doing helped to define what the limits of impressionism are. Cezanne is a case in point, being very much a part of the Impressionist group in the early part of his career, but becoming increasingly disillusioned with the conventionality of the Parisian art scene, and breaking away to pursue his own stylistic innovations. He developed a particularly “flat” composition style, and this led his work to be classified also with primitivism and symbolism (Shiff, 1984, p.170-174): “… to the nineteenth century viewer, Cezanne’s “flat” pictorial surface indicated something very natural as well: it was “atmospheric” … that is, rendered with a uniform intensity of hue and a lack of value gradation.” (Shiff, 1984, p. 172) Overall, then, the impressionists aimed to represent reality in an emotionally truthful way, stressing the mood and the overall impression rather than an exact and detailed representation of every individual aspect of a painting. They deliberately set themselves apart from more traditional approaches to composition, and were especially inventive when it came to the use of contrasting colours and visible brush work to convey the play of light on the physical world. Although at first people reacted badly to these innovations, eventually they became very popular, and they influenced later styles such as primitivism, symbolism and cubism. References Gunderson, Jessica. Impressionism. Mankato, Minnesota: The Creative Company, 2008. Rewald, John. The History of Impressionism. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1961. Shiff, Richard. Cezanne and the end of impressionism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984. Read More