Impressionism:
Revolt against Tradition
In Europe the 19th century was an age of radical change, in which the modern world was shaped, Revolution after revolution, interrupted by counter-revolutions and reactions from the conservatives. European influence extended virtually at the ends of the earth, the formations of empires was supported by nationalism at home. The industrial revolution and the bourgeoisie (middle class) were against the impoverished masses because of economic and social struggle. The industrial revolution brought thousands to the city and sent thousands abroad, because of that there is a wide inequality between the rich and the poor. There is a liberal belief in progress that human history can be changed by thought and action, as long as people are not hindered by the higher authority. Humanity was thought, can be perfected and there is an advocacy calling for a greatest good for a greatest number in the government, in law and economy. Confusion arose over the means to do this things, this confusion brought a wide range of ideologies, this ideologies which agitated the 19th century and remain current today are the –isms; liberalism, radicalism, socialism, communism, conservatism and nationalism. Their counterpart in the art world is the romanticism, realism, impressionism and the rest. The ideologies were dissatisfied with the status quo which
the past lingered. In arts, it means debate over the relative values of the traditional and the modern. The 19th century artist had to face formidable changes in all sides. The church and the secular nobility were replaced by the triumphant middle class, the national states and national academies as sources of an artist commissions. Rejecting the authority of the prevailing taste and of the institutions backing it, these artists claimed the right to an authority of their own, they restore or recreate art (Delacroix, H., Tansey, R., & Kirkpatrick, P., 1991).
Romanticism
The traditional antagonist of Neoclassicism, pictures showing qualities opposed to the formalism, clear color, rigid composition, republicanism and collectible morality of Davidian art (Myers, B., 1959). Romanticism was a movement with a relatively wide range of subject matter which offered more thematic possibilities than Neoclassicism, its origin are found in the 18th century especially in the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In contrast with neoclassical virtues of order and clarity, Romantics believed in emotional expression and sentiment. Instead of encouraging heroism in behalf of an abstract idea, in neoclassical manner, the Romantics were partisan supporter of contemporary causes, such as individual struggle against the state. Romantics developed an interest in the mind as the site of mysterious, unexplained and possibly dangerous phenomena’s, dreams and nightmares depicted as internal events with their source in the individual, rather than as external, supernatural happenings (Adams, L., 1994). In the 19th century, Romanticism continued to center around concerns for the abolition of traditions, institutions, and privileges that were seem to have impeded human progress. Romanticism inherited the Enlightenment’s admiration of nature and the natural over convention and artifice. The emphasis on human rights in the public sphere was accompanied by the assertion of the value of feeling and emotion in private experience. Truth could be sought and found inwardly; the intensity of religious and mystical emotions associated with traditional Christianity could live on in individual with or without preference to specific creeds. On issues of the day, Romantics were on the opposing sides-progressive and conservative, democratic and monarchistic, religious and agnostic, hoping and despairing, satanic and angelic (Delacroix, H., Tansey, R., & Kirkpatrick, P., 1991). The classical and the medieval interest the Romantics, the important characteristics of Romanticism are found in emphasis of the irregular over the regular, the picturesque over the formal, the vague over the clear and the exotic over the rational. The Romantics were interested in two things: first his own emotions and thus the particular fragment of reality which caused the emotion (Myers, B., 1959). Romantic artist held the views that imagination and emotion are more valuable than reason; nature is more corrupt than civilization (Preble, D., & Preble, S., 1994). The relationship between man and nature have been one of the main subject of the Romantic movement, the smallness of the individual before the majesty of nature is a purely Romantic phenomena, man became a merely part of the universe and not a yardstick by which it is measured, this has been a negation of the supposedly increased consequence of man in post-feudal society (Myers, B., 1959). Both Neoclassicism and Romanticism had their beginnings in rebellion but the later become institutionalized, functioning instead as a conservative force in France’s artistic life (Preble, D., & Preble, S., 1994).
Realism
The miserable state of the peasantry and also the suffering of the new working class and the lower middle-class during the confusion of the first half of the century formed a background for the painting of Millet, Courbet and Daumier. They were under the Realistic banner, although profoundly stirred by the everyday world, are not only Romantic in feeling but directly stem from the tradition. The romantic painter was interested in his own emotions and then the particular fragment of reality which caused the emotion. The Realist reacted against the Romantics, insisted that the recording of this reality must be objective and plausible. The Realistic movement in art is neither widespread nor extreme. Although these men were all labeled “socialist” for their subjects they paint each represented a different level of social and political thinking. Millet was uninterested in politics and conservative in outlook. Courbet did not seem to understand too well the ideological basis of his actions. Daumier was the great and conscious social critic in the group. Their work represents the victory of the artist’s right to paint what he likes (Myers, B., 1959). Technically, realism deals with the replication of an optical field achieved by matching its color tones on a flat surface, whether or not the subject matter has or could have been seen by the artist. Iconographically, 19th century realism can be described as seen or seeable by the artist. Realists disapproved traditional and fictional subjects on the grounds that there were not real or visible and were not of the present world. The realist vision and method resulted in a modern style one by definition went off from the past. The realist position in art was strengthened by the scientific and technological achievements of the 19th century, proponents of scientific positivism asserted that only scientifically verified facts are real. The realism of Manet (which became the realism of the Impressionist), revealed a striking paradox in realism, to capture the entire optical field, artists must paint it just as they see it. However, painter must work swiftly in a sketch like execution that blurs the visual field as it increasingly emphasized the brush strokes and the blot of colors. The wholeness of the field disintegrates into a plurality of color functions. Scientists would say that these artists are not painting the world but only individual sensations of it sought so avidly was really determined by their own inescapable subjectivity. Real events were becoming subjects for artists who are willing to report or reconstruct seems in visual modes faithful to appearance, these artists produced images that invited comparison for everyday optical experience in life using simple recognition as a new criterion for judgment. Realism is the style of art that depicts ordinary circumstances without idealism, exoticism or nostalgia; Realist believed that art should deal with human experience and observation (Delacroix, H., Tansey, R., & Kirkpatrick, P., 1991).
Impressionism
Attacks on artist by an outraged public were a regular feature of the mid-19th century life. In 1863 a Salon was opened for rejected works of the official Salon, this Salon is called Salon des Refuses (Honour, H., & Fleming, J., 1986). In 1874 a group of young painter who had been denied the right to show in the official Salon of 1873 organized an independent exhibition of their work, they opposed academic doctrines and Romantic ideals, and they turned to the portrayal of ordinary life. Landscape and ordinary scenes painted outdoors in varied atmospheric conditions or seasons, and times of day were among their main subject.
They learned that light is seen as a complex reflection received by the eye and reassemble by the mind during the process of perception (Preble, D., & Preble, S., 1994). The Impressionist painters despised surface finish and had boldly exposed the anatomy of the work (Reitlinger, G., 1965).The general public accustomed to the smooth brushwork and careful finish had some difficulty in reading Impressionist paintings which looks like casual sketches (Honour, H., & Fleming, J., 1986). The name Impressionism itself was a mere accident, the chance remark a critic who, somewhat puzzled by a picture of Claude Monet, Impression: soleil levant, had used the word to describe the entire group of painters exhibiting their work at the same time (Van Loon, H., 1994).The Impressionist never completely won over the official art-world but was recognized by the cultivated individuals. They convey, the impressionist paintings, a quintessentially middle class vision of happiness, carefree and extrovert, no paintings had ever before shown such innocent unquestioning joy in the visible world. The impressionist painters believed that painters should deal only with the world around him. Landscapes or other out-of-doors subject are painted largely or entirely on the spot and not in studio. Urban nightlife and the anonymous vitality of the streets and Cafes, bar and cabarets appealed to the impressionist and the recognition of its visual for the painter is their greatest discovery (Honour, H., & Fleming, J., 1986). The Impressionist was perfecting a middle-class art, glorifying life in the big city and portraying the various aspects of nature outside the city, impressionism represents the full flower of urban art. Not only does it gives us the subject matter of the big city but represents it in a newer and most nervous manner (Myers, B., 1959). Unlike Realism, Impressionism responded rarely, if ever to political events. The impressionist were also concerned with direct observation-especially of the natural properties of light. They studied changes in light and color caused by weather conditions, times of the day and season. Reflection and shadows become the important subjects. Impressionist painters formed a distinct community; they liked to exchange ideas in more Bohemian surroundings notably the Café Guerbois in Paris. They had eight exhibitions of their work between 1847 to 1886. Despite the contemporary rejection of Impressionism it had a greater international impact in the long run than previous styles that had been readily accepted in France (Adams, L., 1994).
Manet and Impressionism
It was with Eduoard Manet (1832-1883) that the course of modern printing shifted into a new-phase, in addition to accurately recording the appearance of the physical world, it had its aim the authentic representation of color and light that reveals the world to the eye. Although the term Impressionism was coined in 1874, the battle began eleven years ago with Manet’s Luncheon in the Grass.
Manet exhibited this painting at the Salon des Refuses in Paris, the exhibit consist of a large number of works rejected by the jury of the major Academy Salon that year. Ironically it was a public seeking the avant-garde at the Salon des Refuses that was shocked by Manet’s Luncheon in the Grass originally titled simply The Bath. In the Luncheon in the Grass, Manet does not attempt to revive to revive great paintings, but tries to speak in a new voice with an authority equal to that of his celebrated “predecessors”. Nothing was heroic on the foreground, the figures were identifiable persons. The seated nude was Manet’s favorite model and the gentlemen were his brother and the sculptor Ferdinand Leenof (Delacroix, H., Tansey, R., & Kirkpatrick, P., 1991). In contrast with the earlier artist work gradually from a dark background to the highlights when necessary, Manet on the other hand, like in the Luncheon in the Grass, painted on the light areas into which half-light and darker tones was worked while light portions were still wet, in this way he could convey the feeling of a surface charged with light. Although composed of the conventional Renaissance triangle, the work violated all accepted canons of subject matter, the casual attitude of the nude was an offense to the public while the idea of eating food in this circumstances makes the situation worse. The picture is interesting as an illustration of Manet’s flat technique, the silhouetted figure of the nude emerging against the stark blackness of the young mans coat (Myers, B., 1959). In the Luncheon in the grass, Manet raised the veils of allusion and reverie and bluntly confronted the public with reality. Manet’s another masterpiece, A Bar at the Folies-Bergere was painted in 1882.This work shows both an impersonality toward the subject and Manet’s fascination with the effects of light spilling from the glass globes into the figures and the objects around them. The barmaid in Manet’s painting is primarily a compositional device automatic and non-personal. The Folies-Bergere, illustrates another quality that first made its appearance in Luncheon in the Grass and was to loom with increasing importance in the works of later painters. Manet made a radical break with tradition by defining the function of the picture surface. Ever since, the picture was conceived as a “window” which the viewer look at an illusory space, Manet force the viewer to recognize it as a flatplane covered with patches of pigments. Throughout his career, Manet suffered hostility from the critic but he still continued to seek their approval, but the doses of the real he administered in his art were to harsh.
After the mid-1860’s, Impressionist painters such as Monet, Pissarro, Renoir and Degas followed Manet’s lead in depicting since of contemporary middle class Parisian life and landscape. Their desire for a more modern expression persuaded them to work out of doors. Most of the Impressionist exhibitions held between 1874 and 1886 irritated the public but the techniques they use was less radical than it seemed at the time, they were simply developing the color theories of Leonardo da Vinci and actual practice of their predecessors. The Impressionist sought to create the illusion of forms but in light and atmosphere. This goal required an intensive study of outdoor light, the actual color of an object is usually modified by the quality of the light in which it is seen by reflections from other objects. Shadows do not appear grey or black as many early painters thought but seem to be composed of colors modified by reflections or other conditions. The juxtaposition of colors on a canvass for they eye to fuse at a distance produce a more intense hue than mixing them on the palette. Although it is not strictly true that Impressionist use only primary hues, juxtaposing them to create secondary colors they achieve remarkably brilliant effects with their characteristically short choppy brush strokes, which so accurately caught the vibrating quality of light. The fact that the surfaces of their canvasses look unintelligible at closer range and their forms and objects appear only when the eye fuses the strokes at a certain distance (Delacroix, H., Tansey, R., & Kirkpatrick, P., 1991).
Monet
Claude Monet (1840-1926) carried the color method furthest, he called color his “day-long obsession, joy and torment”. When he looked at scenes such as those found in his Cliff at Etretat, he responded to lighting and atmospheric conditions in terms of color which he applied with thick dubbing strokes caused the surface to shimmer.Monet, with a scientific precision, created an unparalleled and unexcelled record of the passing of time as seen in the movement of light over identical forms (Delacroix, H., Tansey, R., & Kirkpatrick, P., 1991). Claude Monet is the leading landscapist in Impressionism. In 1866, he began to use spots of clear color as well as complementary and unmixed tones. Although there are still people who consider Monet’s painting as scientific, this is an exaggeration in spite of the logic in color relationship and the search for transitory effects, the total effects of his landscape is gently lyrical. Monet subscribed the idea that a picture must give an accidental quality (Myers, B., 1959).
Pissarro
Camille Pissarro, like Monet sought to depict the fugitive effects of light at the particular moment, but the moment at Pissarro’s, Place du Theatre (Figure 5) is not much one of light itself as of the life of the street, achieved through a deliberate casualness in the arrangement of his figures that is related to that in early photographs of street scenes. In a letter Pissarro spoke of the Impressionist belief that what was real in nature was the light and color stimuli it revealed to the analytic eye of the modern painter (Delacroix, H., Tansey, R., & Kirkpatrick, P., 1991). The work of Camille Pissarro as more diversified that of Monet, both in the variety of media he practiced and in treatment and subject matter. Pissarro is one of the few open air painter. In landscape painting, his work is individual and distinguishable from the others. In L’ Isle Lacroix, Rouen, this slightly atmospheric picture enjoys all of the color qualities of plein–air painting. The difference between Pissarro and Monet is found in the relative solidity of the former’s work even in landscape (Myers, B., 1959).
Renoir
Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), was a specialist in the human figure, an admirer in what is beautiful and pleasurable in the simple human life. His painting Le Moulin de la Galette shows the celebration of vicious charm. It shows not like us with the tradition, that we are observing a performance, but we are part of it.
The subjects are unconscious of the observer they merely go about their business. Classical art sought to express universal and timeless qualities but Impressionism depict the incidental momentary aspect of reality (Delacroix, H., Tansey, R., & Kirkpatrick, P., 1991). His painting The Loge marked a serious advance over and earlier and more typical Impressionist efforts.
The two figures on the box here begin to show Renoir’s personal approach toward monumentability and permanence achieved through expressive colors. In Moulin de la Galette, the quite youthful joyousness is more strongly felt. The foreground is built up by a group of figures obliquely arranged and cut off at the side and bottom, although the subject prescribes moment, there is a quite suspended quality in the scene (Myers, B., 1959).
Degas
Edgar Degas (1834-1917) though sympathetic to the Impressionist, he was independent. Degas studied the infinite variety of movements and the kinesthetic qualities of bodies and motion. His Ballet Rehearsal (Adagio) Degas bring the observer into the pictorial space, the figures are accidental in arrangement and a large continuous empty space produce an illusion that we are on the scene.The cunning special projection in Ballet Rehearsal not only came from the interest of the artist in photography but inspired by 18th century Japanese woodblock prince in which line functions as lines directing the observer to the picture. Viscount Lepic and his Daughters summarize what the artist learned from photograph and Japanese print.
The clear flat pattern, the unusual viewpoint and the informal glimpse of contemporary life. Degas’ designs do not cling to the canvass as Monet’s and Manet’s but they take the viewer behind the picture plane (Delacroix, H., Tansey, R., & Kirkpatrick, P., 1991).
Cassat
Mary Cassat (1845-1926) was an American artist which was befriended and influenced by Degas and exhibit with the Impressionist. Because of many restriction, Cassat subject were primarily women and children. Her work like The Bath shows the relationship of the mother to her child.
Color binds mother, child and wash basins into one central form. Cassat’s style owed to Degas and of Japanese print but the design has originality and strength of his own (Delacroix, H., Tansey, R., & Kirkpatrick, P., 1991).
Whistler
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1839-1903) was an American who worked on the continent before settling in London. He shared the Impressionist’s interest in the contemporary life and sensations produced by color. To underscore his artistic intentions, Whistler called his paintings as “arrangements” or “nocturnes”, such as the
Nocturne in Blue and Gold (Old Battersea Bridge).
The painting was a composition in which evening light simplifies shapes in hazy silhouettes. Blue tones fill the canvass relieved only by touches of yellow and red indicating shore lights and effects of the setting sun as the heavy clouds in the sky. In the Nocturne, Whistler has taken “Impression” of what our eyes sees in nature further than any of the Impressionist (Delacroix, H., Tansey, R., & Kirkpatrick, P., 1991).
Post Impressionism
By 1886, the Impressionist were accepted as serious artists by most critics and by inner segment of the public. However, some of the painters themselves and a group of younger followers came to feel that too many traditional elements of picture making were being neglected in search for momentary sensations of light and color (Delacroix, H., Tansey, R., & Kirkpatrick, P., 1991). Although their styles are quite diverse, they are united by the fact that nearly all were influenced in one way or another by the Impressionist style. Like Impressionist, they were drawn to bright colors and visible distinctive strokes, despite that prominent stroke their forms do not dissolve into the medium as quickly as Impressionist (Adams, l., 1994).
Sources:
Preble, D., & Preble, S.,(1994) Artforms,an introduction to the visual art.(5th ed.). Harper Collins College Publisher
VanLoon, H. (1944) The arts. New York: Sinion &Schuster
Myers, B. (1959). Modern art in the making. United States of America: McGraw-Hill book Company
Reitlinger, G.(1965). The economics of taste. United States of America: Holt, Rinehart and Winston
Honuor, H., & Fleming, J.(1986). The visual arts. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall
Adams, L.(1994). A history of western art. Brown & Benchmark
DelaCroix, H., Tansey, R., & Kirkpatrick, d.,(1991). Art through the ages. (19th ed.). United States of America: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
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