March 16, 2018

Impressionism 1872-1892

Impressionism

1872-1892

Impressionism started in Paris, with a group of artist that put on their own exhibition. This would have been radical at the time, as they rejected tradition and moved away from the fine art world. At this point in time, the only way of getting your art seen was through the Salon, which was one of the biggest art exhibitions in the western world. The Impressionist artists had been rejected by the Salon, which is way they set-up their own exhibition.

Impressionism was about brighting their colour palettes, add texture and marks from their brush's. Being loos and expressive in their art work, making the subject almost the same or less important then the painting it's self.

The Impressionism painters, painted outside on the streets instead of inside a studio. Unlike the artist that had gone before them, who's subjects meanly focused on historical or biblical moments in time. Which they would have spent years of their life working on. The Impressionism painters focused on the everyday, capturing the modern life of the people. They didn't spend years apron years working on the same painting.

"The Impressionist eye is, in short, the most advanced eye in human evolution"
Jules Laforgue, 1883.

Photography, photography change the way that people could see. Looking though the eye peace of a camera narrows your view, blocking out the things around you. The composition of Impressionism paintings are like photos (snap-shot's) their everyday scenes remind me of street photography. I went to the National Gallery of Scotland, where i seen some of the Impressionism painting in the flesh. It was interesting seeing them up close, as you got a feel for how they painted as well as being able to see the size of the work.

Edouard Vuillard: The Pink Room, 1910. French.

The subject of this painting is hard to pin down, as I'm not sure if there even is one. His painting is like a snap shot, you'd take on a camera, with some of the furniture being cropped out of the frame. The closest thing you have to a focus point in the flowers on the table. In the background of the painting there's a boy sitting on a chair, the painting is so full of colour that the boy becomes lost in the canvas. What was fascinating to me was how he'd applied the paint and the fact the he'd left some of the canvas unpainted.

Claude Monet: Poplars on the River Epte, 1891.

French.

Monet lived by this river so would have known it well. Again this painting is like a photograph, the composition draws your eye down the river, and the mirrored effect from the water splits the painting in half. The colours and brush marks he's used makes it look fluffy and fresh, the fact that he'd used purple in the shadowed areas kept the painting cool in tone.

Berthe Morisot: Woman and Child in a Garden, 1883.

French.

This painting belongs to a series of paintings he did of his daughter, Julie. It shows a female sitting against a tree, possibly and nurse. With his daughter playing in the background. My eye is naturally focused on the woman, you can see her face, were you can't see the face of the little girl. The women's purple dress stands out from the yellowy green garden, that's swirling around her. Like Vuillard, he's left parts of the canvas unpainted. Round the figures there's a orange outline, Which i think might be were he's not taken the background all the way up.

This is a studies by Edger Degas: A Group of Dancers, 1898.

French.

Degas is well known for his paintings of ballet dancers, it was nice being able to see one of his studies has it helped me understand his through process. Degas would draw the dancers quite often, to help him learn about the human figure. You could see how he'd blocked in the dancers body shape, how he'd changed the way some of them were standing. He's clearly aware of his colour theory, just like all the other Impressionism painters. He's used red and green as his mean colours.

Paul Gauguin: The Vision of the Sermon, 1888.

French.

Form looking into this painting a little bit more, I've found out that it's a Neo-Impressionism painting. The movement started in 1884-1935, the movement really focused the science behind colour. They showed that nothing is made up of a solid colour.