Impressionism is one of the most famous movements in French painting, if not the most famous. And it originated in the late 60s and early 70s of the XIX century and largely influenced the further development of the art of that time.
Impressionism in painting
The name itself impressionism” was coined by a French art critic named Louis Leroy after visiting the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, where he criticized Claude Monet’s painting “Impression: Rising Sun” (“impression” in French sounds like “impression”).
Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Frederic Bazille are the main representatives of impressionism.
Impressionism in painting is characterized by quick, spontaneous and free strokes. The guiding principle was a realistic image of the light-air environment.
The Impressionists sought to capture fleeting moments on canvas. If at this very moment the object appears in an unnatural color, due to a certain angle of incidence of light or its reflection, then the artist depicts it that way: for example, if the sun paints the surface of a pond pink, then it will be written in pink.
Features of Impressionism
Speaking about the main features of impressionism, it is necessary to name the following:
- immediate and optically accurate image of a fleeting moment;
- doing all the work outdoors - no more preparatory sketches and finishing work in the studio;
- the use of pure color on the canvas, without pre-mixing on the palette;
- the use of splashes of bright paint, strokes of various sizes and degrees of sweeping, which visually add up to one picture only when viewed from a distance.
Russian impressionism
The reference portrait in this style is considered one of the masterpieces of Russian painting - "Girl with Peaches" by Alexander Serov, for whom impressionism, however, became just a period of passion. Russian impressionism also includes works written in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Konstantin Korovin, Abram Arkhipov, Philip Malyavin, Igor Grabar and other artists.
This affiliation is rather conditional, since Russian and classical French impressionism have their own specifics. Russian impressionism was closer to materiality, objectivity of works, gravitated towards artistic meaning, while French impressionism, as mentioned above, simply sought to depict moments of life, without unnecessary philosophy.
In fact, Russian impressionism adopted from the French only the external side of the style, the methods of its painting, but did not assimilate the very pictorial thinking embedded in impressionism.
Modern impressionism continues the traditions of classical French impressionism. In modern painting of the XXI century, many artists are working in this direction, for example, Laurent Parcelier, Karen Tarleton, Diana Leonard and others.
Masterpieces in the style of impressionism
"Terrace at Sainte-Adresse" (1867), Claude Monet
This painting can be called Monet's first masterpiece. It is still the most popular early impressionist painting. Here, too, there is a favorite theme of the artist - flowers and the sea. The canvas depicts several people relaxing on a terrace on a sunny day. On the chairs, with their backs to the audience, the relatives of Monet himself are depicted.
The whole picture is flooded with bright sunlight. Clear boundaries between earth, sky and sea are separated, ordering the composition vertically with the help of two flagpoles, however, the composition does not have a clear center. The colors of the flags are combined with the surrounding nature, emphasizing the diversity and richness of colors.
"Ball at the Moulin de la Galette" (1876), Pierre-Auguste Renoir
This painting depicts a typical Sunday afternoon in 19th-century Paris at the Moulin de la Galette, a café with an open-air dance floor, named after the windmill nearby, emblematic of Montmartre. Renoir's house was located next to this cafe; he frequented Sunday afternoon dances and enjoyed watching happy couples.
Renoir shows real talent and combines the art of group portrait, still life and landscape painting in one painting. The use of light in this composition and the smoothness of the strokes best represent the style to a wide audience. impressionism. This painting has become one of the most expensive paintings ever sold at auction.
Boulevard Montmartre at night (1897), Camille Pissarro
While Pissarro is famous for his paintings of rural life, he also painted a large number of beautiful 19th-century urban scenes in Paris. He liked to paint the city because of the play of light during the day and in the evening, because of the roads illuminated by both sunlight and street lamps.
In 1897, he rented a room on the boulevard Montmartre and painted him at different times of the day, and this work was the only work in the series captured after night fell. The canvas is filled with deep blue and bright yellow spots of city lights. In all the pictures of the "tabloid" cycle, the main core of the composition is the road that goes into the distance.
Now the painting is in the National Gallery in London, but during the life of Pissarro, she never exhibited anywhere.
You can watch a video about the history and conditions of creativity of the main representatives of impressionism here:
One of the largest trends in art in the last decades of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth is impressionism, which spread throughout the world from France. Its representatives were engaged in the development of such methods and techniques of painting that would make it possible to most vividly and naturally reflect the real world in dynamics, to convey fleeting impressions of it.
Many artists created their canvases in the style of impressionism, but the founders of the movement were Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Edgar Degas, Frederic Bazille, Camille Pissarro. It is impossible to name their best works, since they are all beautiful, but there are the most famous ones, which will be discussed further.
Claude Monet: “Impression. Rising Sun"
The canvas with which to start a conversation about the best paintings of the Impressionists. Claude Monet painted it in 1872 from life in the old port of French Le Havre. Two years later, the painting was shown to the public for the first time in the former workshop of the French artist and cartoonist Nadar. This exhibition has become a life-changing event for the art world. Impressed (not in the best sense) by the work of Monet, whose original name sounds like “Impression, soleil levant”, journalist Louis Leroy first coined the term “impressionism”, denoting a new direction in painting.
The painting was stolen in 1985 along with the works of O. Renoir and B. Morisot. Discovered five years later. Currently Impression. The Rising Sun" belongs to the Marmottan Monet Museum in Paris.
Edouard Monet: Olympia
The painting "Olympia", created by the French impressionist Edouard Manet in 1863, is one of the masterpieces of modern painting. It was first presented at the Paris Salon in 1865. Impressionist artists and their paintings often found themselves at the center of high-profile scandals. However, Olympia caused the largest of them in the history of art.
On the canvas we see a naked woman, with her face and body facing the audience. The second character is a dark-skinned maid holding a luxurious bouquet wrapped in paper. At the foot of the bed there is a black kitten in a characteristic pose with an arched back. Not much is known about the history of the painting, only two sketches have come down to us. The model was, most likely, Manet's favorite model, Quiz Menard. There is an opinion that the artist used the image of Marguerite Bellanger - Napoleon's mistress.
During that period of creativity, when Olympia was created, Manet was fascinated by Japanese art, and therefore deliberately refused to work out the nuances of dark and light. Because of this, his contemporaries did not see the volume of the depicted figure, they considered it flat and rough. The artist was accused of immorality, vulgarity. Never before have Impressionist paintings caused such a stir and mockery from the crowd. The administration was forced to put guards around her. Degas compared Manet's fame through the Olympia and the courage with which he accepted criticism with Garibaldi's life story.
For almost a quarter of a century after the exhibition, the canvas was kept inaccessible to prying eyes by the master artist. Then it was exhibited again in Paris in 1889. It was almost bought, but the artist's friends collected the required amount and bought the Olympia from Manet's widow, and then donated it to the state. The painting is now owned by the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
Auguste Renoir: The Great Bathers
The painting was painted by a French artist in 1884-1887. Taking into account all the currently known Impressionist paintings between 1863 and the beginning of the twentieth century, the "Great Bathers" is called the largest canvas with nude female figures. Renoir worked on it for more than three years, and during this period many sketches and sketches were created. There was no other painting in his work that he would devote so much time to.
In the foreground, the viewer sees three naked women, two of which are on the shore, and the third is in the water. The figures are painted very realistically and clearly, which is a characteristic feature of the artist's style. Renoir's models were Alina Charigot (his future wife) and Suzanne Valadon, who in the future became a famous artist herself.
Edgar Degas: Blue Dancers
Not all of the well-known Impressionist paintings listed in the article are painted in oil on canvas. The photo above allows you to understand what the painting "Blue Dancers" is. It was done in pastel on a paper sheet measuring 65x65 cm and belongs to the late period of the artist's work (1897). He painted it with already weakened vision, so the decorative organization is of paramount importance: the image is perceived as large colored spots, especially when viewed close up. The theme of dancers was close to Degas. She repeatedly repeated in his work. Many critics believe that in terms of the harmony of color and composition, Blue Dancers can be considered the artist's best work on this topic. Currently, the painting is kept in the Museum of Art. A. S. Pushkin in Moscow.
Frederic Bazille: "Pink Dress"
One of the founders of French Impressionism, Frederic Bazille was born into a bourgeois family of a wealthy winemaker. Even in the years of study at the Lyceum, he began to get involved in painting. After moving to Paris, he made acquaintance with C. Monet and O. Renoir. Unfortunately, the fate of the artist was destined for a short life path. He died at the age of 28 at the front during the Franco-Prussian War. However, his, albeit few, canvases are rightfully included in the list of “The Best Impressionist Paintings”. One of them is “Pink Dress”, written in 1864. By all indications, the canvas can be attributed to early impressionism: color contrasts, attention to color, sunlight and a stopped moment, the very thing that was called “impression”. One of the artist's cousins Teresa de Horse acted as a model. The painting is currently owned by the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
Camille Pissarro: Boulevard Montmartre. Afternoon, sunny"
Camille Pissarro became famous for his landscapes, a characteristic feature of which is the depiction of light and illuminated objects. His work had a notable influence on the genre of impressionism. The artist independently developed many of the principles inherent in him, which formed the basis of creativity in the future.
Pissarro liked to write the same place at different times of the day. He has a whole series of paintings with Parisian boulevards and streets. The most famous of them is Boulevard Montmartre (1897). It reflects all the charm that the artist sees in the seething and restless life of this corner of Paris. Looking at the boulevard from the same place, he shows it to the viewer on a sunny and cloudy day, in the morning, in the afternoon and late in the evening. In the photo below - the painting "Boulevard Montmartre at night."
This style was subsequently adopted by many artists. We will only mention which Impressionist paintings were written under the influence of Pissarro. This trend is clearly seen in the work of Monet (a series of paintings "Hacks").
Alfred Sisley: Lawns in Spring
"Lawns in the Spring" is one of the latest paintings by the landscape painter Alfred Sisley, written in 1880-1881. On it, the viewer sees a forest path along the banks of the Seine with a village on the opposite bank. In the foreground is a girl - the artist's daughter Jeanne Sisley.
The artist's landscapes convey the true atmosphere of the historical region of Ile-de-France and retain the special softness and transparency of natural phenomena characteristic of specific seasons. The artist was never a supporter of unusual effects and adhered to a simple composition and a limited palette of colors. The painting is now in the National Gallery in London.
We have listed the most famous Impressionist paintings (with titles and descriptions). These are masterpieces of world art. The unique style of painting, which originated in France, was at first perceived with derision and irony, critics emphasized the blatant carelessness of the artists in writing canvases. Now hardly anyone would dare to challenge their genius. Impressionist paintings are exhibited in the most prestigious museums in the world and are a desirable exhibit for any private collection.
The style has not sunk into oblivion and has many followers. Our compatriot Andrei Koch, French painter Laurent Parcelier, Americans Diana Leonard and Karen Tarleton are well-known modern impressionists. Their paintings are made in the best traditions of the genre, filled with bright colors, bold strokes and life. In the photo above - the work of Laurent Parcelier "In the rays of the sun."
Impressionism in painting
origins
The emergence of the name
The first important exhibition of the Impressionists took place from 15 April to 15 May 1874 in the studio of the photographer Nadar. There were presented 30 artists, in total - 165 works. Canvas Monet - “Impression. Rising Sun " ( Impression, soleil levant), now in the Musée Marmottin, Paris, written in 1872, gave birth to the term "Impressionism": the little-known journalist Louis Leroy, in his article in the magazine Le Charivari, called the group "Impressionists" to express his disdain. Artists, out of a challenge, accepted this epithet, later it took root, lost its original negative meaning and came into active use.
The name "Impressionism" is rather meaningless, in contrast to the name "Barbizon School", where at least there is an indication of the geographical location of the artistic group. There is even less clarity with some artists who were not formally included in the circle of the first impressionists, although their techniques and means are completely "impressionistic" Whistler, Edouard Manet, Eugene Boudin, etc.) In addition, the technical means of the Impressionists were known long before the XIX centuries and they were (partially, limitedly) used by Titian and Velasquez, without breaking with the dominant ideas of their era.
There was another article (authored by Emile Cardon) and another title - "The Rebel Exhibition", absolutely disapproving and condemning. It was it that accurately reproduced the disapproving attitude of the bourgeois public and criticism towards the artists (Impressionists), which dominated for years. The Impressionists were immediately accused of immorality, rebellious moods, failure to be respectable. At the moment, this is surprising, because it is not clear what is immoral in the landscapes of Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, the everyday scenes of Edgar Degas, the still lifes of Monet and Renoir.
Decades have passed. And a new generation of artists will come to a real collapse of forms and impoverishment of content. Then both the critics and the public saw in the condemned Impressionists - realists, and a little later, the classics of French art.
The specificity of the philosophy of impressionism
French impressionism did not raise philosophical problems and did not even try to penetrate the colored surface of everyday life. Instead, impressionism focuses on the superficiality, the fluidity of the moment, the mood, the lighting, or the angle of view.
Like the art of the Renaissance (Renaissance), impressionism is built on the features and skills of perceiving perspective. At the same time, the Renaissance vision explodes with the proven subjectivity and relativity of human perception, which makes color and form autonomous components of the image. For impressionism, it is not so important what is shown in the figure, but how it is shown is important.
Their paintings represented only the positive aspects of life, not affecting social problems, including such as hunger, disease, death. This later led to a split among the Impressionists themselves.
Benefits of Impressionism
The advantages of impressionism as a trend include democracy. By inertia, art in the 19th century was considered a monopoly of aristocrats, the upper strata of the population. It was they who acted as the main customers for murals, monuments, it was they who were the main buyers of paintings and sculptures. Plots with the hard work of peasants, the tragic pages of our time, the shameful aspects of wars, poverty, social turmoil were condemned, not approved, not bought. Criticism of the blasphemous morality of society in the paintings of Theodore Gericault, Francois Millet found a response only from supporters of artists and a few experts.
The Impressionists in this matter occupied quite compromise, intermediate positions. Biblical, literary, mythological, historical plots inherent in official academicism were discarded. On the other hand, they ardently desired recognition, respect, even awards. Indicative is the activity of Edouard Manet, who for years sought recognition and awards from the official Salon and its administration.
Instead, a vision of everyday life and modernity appeared. Artists often painted people in motion, during fun or relaxation, imagined a view of a certain place in a certain light, nature was also the motive of their work. They took subjects of flirting, dancing, staying in cafes and theaters, boat trips, on beaches and in gardens. Judging by the paintings of the Impressionists, life is a series of small holidays, parties, pleasant pastimes outside the city or in a friendly environment (a number of paintings by Renoir, Manet and Claude Monet). The Impressionists were among the first to paint in the air, without finalizing their work in the studio.
Technique
The new trend differed from academic painting both technically and ideologically. First of all, the Impressionists abandoned the contour, replacing it with small separate and contrasting strokes, which they applied in accordance with the color theories of Chevreul, Helmholtz and Rude. The sunbeam splits into its components: violet, blue, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, but since blue is a variety of blue, their number is reduced to six. Two colors placed side by side reinforce each other and, conversely, when mixed, they lose their intensity. In addition, all colors are divided into primary, or primary, and dual, or derivatives, with each dual paint being additional to the first:
- Blue - Orange
- Red Green
- Yellow - Purple
Thus, it became possible not to mix paints on the palette and to obtain the desired color by correctly applying them to the canvas. This later became the reason for the rejection of black.
Then the Impressionists stopped concentrating all the work on the canvases in the workshops, now they prefer the open air, where it is more convenient to grab a fleeting impression of what they saw, which became possible thanks to the invention of steel tubes for paint, which, unlike leather bags, could be closed so that the paint did not dry out.
Also, the artists used opaque paints that do not transmit light well and are unsuitable for mixing because they quickly turn gray, this allowed them to create paintings not with " internal", A " external» light reflecting off the surface.
Technical differences contributed to the achievement of other goals, first of all, the Impressionists tried to capture a fleeting impression, the smallest changes in each subject depending on the lighting and time of day, the highest embodiment was Monet's cycles of paintings "Haystacks", "Rouen Cathedral" and "Parliament of London".
In general, many masters worked in the Impressionist style, but the basis of the movement were Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Frédéric Bazille and Berthe Morisot. However, Manet always called himself an "independent artist" and never participated in exhibitions, and although Degas participated, he never painted his works en plein air.
Timeline by artists
Impressionists
Exhibitions
- First exhibition(April 15 - May 15)
- Second exhibition(April )
Address: st. Lepeletier, 11 (Durand-Ruel Gallery). Members: Basil (posthumously, the artist died in 1870), Beliar, Bureau, Debutin, Degas, Caillebotte, Cals, Lever, Legros, Lepic, Millet, Monet, Morisot, L. Otten, Pissarro, Renoir, Rouar, Sisley, Tillo, Francois
- Third exhibition(April )
Address: st. Lepelletier, 6. Members: Guillaumin, Degas, Caillebotte, Cals, Corday, Lever, Lamy, Monet, Morisot, Moreau, Piette, Pissarro, Renoir, Rouard, Cezanne, Sisley, Tillo, Francois.
- Fourth exhibition(April 10 - May 11)
Address: Opera Avenue, 28. Members: Bracquemont, Madame Bracquemont, Gauguin, Degas, Zandomeneghi, Caillebotte, Cals, Cassatt, Lebourg, Monet, Piette, Pissarro, Rouart, Somm, Tillo, Forain.
- Fifth exhibition(April 1 - April 30)
Address: st. Pyramids, 10. Members: Bracquemont, Mrs. Bracquemont, Vidal, Vignon, Guillaumin, Gauguin, Degas, Zandomeneghi, Caillebotte, Cassatt, Lebour, Lever, Morisot, Pissarro, Raffaelli, Rouart, Tillo, Forain.
- Sixth exhibition(April 2 - May 1)
Address: Boulevard des Capucines, 35 (studio of the photographer Nadar). Members: Vidal, Vignon, Guillaume, Gauguin, Degas, Zandomeneghi, Cassatt, Morisot, Pissarro, Raffaelli, Rouar, Tillo, Forain.
- Seventh exhibition(March )
Address: Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, 251 (At Durand-Ruel). Members: Vignon, Guillaume, Gauguin, Caillebotte, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley.
- Eighth exhibition(May 15 - June 15)
Address: st. Laffitt, 1. Members: Madam Braquemont, Vignon, Guillaumin, Gauguin, Degas, Zandomeneghi, Cassette, Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Lucien Pissarro, Redon, Rouart, Seurat, Signac, Tillo, Forain, Schuffenecker.
Impressionism in literature
In literature, impressionism did not develop as a separate trend, but its features were reflected in naturalism and symbolism.
First of all, it is characterized by the expression of the author’s private impression, the rejection of an objective picture of reality, the depiction of every moment, which should have entailed the absence of a plot, history and the replacement of thought with perception, and reason with instinct. The main features of the impressionist style were formulated by the Goncourt brothers in their work "Diary", where the famous phrase " Seeing, feeling, expressing - this is all art has become a central position for many writers.
In naturalism, the main principle was truthfulness, fidelity to nature, but it is subject to impression, and therefore the appearance of reality depends on each individual person and her temperament. This is most fully expressed in the novels of Emile Zola, his detailed descriptions of smells, sounds and visual perceptions.
Symbolism, on the contrary, demanded a rejection of the material world and a return to the ideal, but the transition is possible only through fleeting impressions, revealing a secret essence in visible things. A striking example of poetic impressionism is the collection of Paul Verlaine "Romances without words" (). In Russia, the influence of Impressionism was experienced by Konstantin Balmont and Innokenty Annensky.
Also, these moods touched dramaturgy (impressionist drama), passive perception of the world invades the plays, analysis of moods, states of mind, the whole composition breaks up into a number of scenes filled with lyricism, and fleeting disparate impressions are concentrated in dialogues. The drama becomes one-act, designed for intimate theatres. These signs are fully reflected in the work of Arthur Schnitzler.
Impressionism in music
Musical impressionism was one of the currents of musical modernity. It is characterized by the transmission of fleeting impressions, moods, subtle psychological nuances.
The founder of impressionism in music is the French composer Eric Satie, who published Three Melodies in 1886, and Three Sarabandes in 1887, which carry all the main features of the new style. The bold discoveries of Eric Satie five and ten years later were picked up and developed by two of his friends, the brightest representatives of impressionism, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
Literature
- Jean-Paul Crespel. Daily Life of the Impressionists 1863-1883, Moscow "Young Guard",
- Maurice Sérull and Arlette Sérull. Encyclopedia of Impressionism, Moscow "Republic",
- "Impressionism", Brodskaya. N.V. St. Petersburg, Avrora, 2002 (254 pages, 269 illustrations, 7 author's text sheets)
Links
- Impressionism, N.V. Brodskaya, ed. Aurora 2010
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Synonyms:Impressionism constituted an entire era in French art in the second half of the 19th century. The hero of the Impressionist paintings was light, and the task of the artists was to open people's eyes to the beauty of the world around them. Light and color could best be conveyed with quick, small, voluminous strokes. The impressionistic vision was prepared by the entire evolution of artistic consciousness, when movement began to be understood not only as movement in space, but as the general variability of the surrounding reality.
Impressionism - (French impressionnisme, from impression - impression), a trend in art of the last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries. It took shape in French painting in the late 1860s - early 70s. The name “impressionism” arose after the exhibition of 1874, which exhibited the painting by C. Monet “Impression. Rising Sun". At the time of the maturity of impressionism (70s - first half of the 80s), it was represented by a group of artists (Monet, O. Renoir, E. Degas, K. Pissarro, A. Sisley, B. Morisot, etc.), united for struggle for the renewal of art and overcoming the official salon academism and organized 8 exhibitions for this purpose in 1874-86. One of the creators of impressionism was E. Manet, who was not part of this group, but back in the 60s and early 70s. who performed with genre works, in which he rethought the compositional and pictorial techniques of the masters of the 16th-18th centuries. in relation to modern life, as well as scenes of the Civil War of 1861-65 in the USA, the execution of the Parisian Communards, giving them a sharp political focus.
The Impressionists depicted the surrounding world in perpetual motion, the transition from one state to another. They began to paint a series of paintings, wanting to show how the same motif changes depending on the time of day, lighting, weather conditions, etc. (cycles Boulevard Montmartre by C. Pissarro, 1897; Rouen Cathedral, 1893- 95, and "London Parliament", 1903-04, C. Monet). Artists have found ways to reflect in the paintings the movement of clouds (A. Sisley. “Louan in Saint-Mamme”, 1882), the play of glare of sunlight (O. Renoir. “Swing”, 1876), gusts of wind (C. Monet. “Terrace in Sainte-Adresse", 1866), jets of rain (G. Caillebotte. "Jer. Effect of rain", 1875), falling snow (C. Pissarro. "Opera passage. Snow effect", 1898), swift running of horses (E. Manet "Races at Longchamp", 1865).
Now that the heated debate about the meaning and role of Impressionism is a thing of the past, hardly anyone will dare to dispute that the Impressionist movement was a further step in the development of European realistic painting. “Impressionism is, first of all, the art of observing reality, which has reached unprecedented refinement.”
Striving for maximum immediacy and accuracy in the transfer of the surrounding world, they began to paint mainly in the open air and raised the importance of a study from nature, which almost supplanted the traditional type of painting, carefully and slowly created in the studio.
The Impressionists showed the beauty of the real world, in which every moment is unique. Consistently clarifying their palette, the Impressionists freed painting from earthy and brown varnishes and paints. Conditional, "museum" blackness in their canvases gives way to an infinitely diverse play of reflexes and colored shadows. They immeasurably expanded the possibilities of fine art, revealing not only the world of sun, light and air, but also the beauty of the London fogs, the restless atmosphere of the life of a big city, the scattering of its night lights and the rhythm of incessant movement.
By virtue of the very method of working in the open air, the landscape, including the urban landscape they discovered, occupied a very important place in the art of the Impressionists.
However, it should not be assumed that the painting of the Impressionists was characterized only by a “landscape” perception of reality, for which critics often reproached them. The thematic and plot range of their work was quite wide. Interest in man, and in particular in the modern life of France, in a broad sense was inherent in a number of representatives of this direction of art. His life-affirming, basically democratic pathos clearly opposed the bourgeois world order. In this one cannot but see the continuity of impressionism in relation to the main line of development of French realistic art of the 19th century.
Depicting landscapes and forms using colored dots, the Impressionists questioned the solidity and materiality of the surrounding things. But the artist cannot be satisfied with one impression; he needs a drawing that organizes a complete picture. Beginning in the mid-1880s, a new generation of Impressionist artists associated with this art movement put more and more new experiments in their painting, as a result of which an increasing number of Impressionist movements (varieties), art groups and venues for exhibitions of their work.
The artists of the new direction did not mix different colors on the palette, but painted with pure colors. By placing a dab of one paint next to another, they often left the surface of the paintings rough. It has been observed that many colors become brighter next to each other. This technique is called the complementary color contrast effect.
Impressionist artists were sensitive to the slightest changes in the state of the weather, as they worked on nature and wanted to create an image of a landscape where the motif, colors, lighting would merge into a single poetic image of an urban or rural area. The Impressionists emphasized color and light at the expense of pattern and volume. Disappeared clear contours of objects, contrasts and chiaroscuro were forgotten. They sought to make the picture look like an open window through which the real world is visible. This new style influenced many artists of the time.
It should be noted that, like any direction in art, impressionism has its advantages and disadvantages.
Disadvantages of Impressionism:
French impressionism did not raise philosophical problems and did not even try to penetrate the colored surface of everyday life. Instead, impressionism focuses on superficiality, the fluidity of the moment, mood, lighting, or angle of view.
Like the art of the Renaissance (Renaissance), impressionism is built on the features and skills of perceiving perspective. At the same time, the Renaissance vision explodes with the proven subjectivity and relativity of human perception, which makes color and form autonomous components of the image. For impressionism, it is not so important what is shown in the figure, but how it is shown is important.
Their paintings represented only the positive aspects of life, did not violate social problems, and bypassed such problems as hunger, disease, death. This later led to a split among the Impressionists themselves.
Advantages of Impressionism:
The advantages of impressionism as a trend include democracy. By inertia, art in the 19th century was considered a monopoly of aristocrats, the upper strata of the population. It was they who acted as the main customers for murals, monuments, it was they who were the main buyers of paintings and sculptures. Plots with the hard work of peasants, the tragic pages of our time, the shameful aspects of wars, poverty, social turmoil were condemned, not approved, not bought. Criticism of the blasphemous morality of society in the paintings of Theodore Gericault, Francois Millet found a response only from supporters of artists and a few experts.
The Impressionists in this matter occupied quite compromise, intermediate positions. Biblical, literary, mythological, historical plots inherent in official academicism were discarded. On the other hand, they ardently desired recognition, respect, even awards. Illustrative is the activity of Edouard Manet, who for years sought recognition and awards from the official Salon and its administration.
Instead, a vision of everyday life and modernity appeared. Artists often painted people in motion, during fun or relaxation, imagined a view of a certain place in a certain light, nature was also the motive of their work. They took subjects of flirting, dancing, staying in cafes and theaters, boat trips, on beaches and in gardens. Judging by the paintings of the Impressionists, life is a series of small holidays, parties, pleasant pastimes outside the city or in a friendly environment (a number of paintings by Renoir, Manet and Claude Monet). The Impressionists were among the first to paint in the air, without finalizing their work in the studio.
impressionism manet painting
Many of Manet's searches were picked up and developed by a group of artists who entered the history of art under the name of the Impressionists. Impressionism, the last major artistic movement in 19th century art, originated in France in the 1860s. Its name comes from the French word impression - impression. This was the name of Claude Monet's landscape ("Impression. Sunrise", 1872), shown in 1874, together with the works of other young French artists, at the exhibition of "independent" in Nadar's photography studio in Paris. This was the first exhibition of the Impressionists, although by that time the leading representatives of Impressionism were already fully formed artists.
Impressionism is a complex artistic phenomenon that often causes conflicting assessments to this day. This is partly due to the fact that artists with a pronounced individuality, often with very dissimilar creative quests, were associated with him. However, some important common features make it possible to unite a number of masters of French fine arts (as well as literature and music) into a single movement.
Impressionism arose in the depths of French realistic art. Young representatives of this trend called themselves followers of Courbet. Like the realism of the middle of the 19th century, impressionism, especially in the early stages of its development, opposed official academic art with hostility. Impressionist artists were rejected by the Salon, their art met with fierce attacks from official criticism.
Following the masters of realism of the middle of the century, the Impressionists opposed the deathly, divorced from the life of academic art. Their main task, they considered the image of modern reality in its various individual manifestations. They tried to capture the simplest motifs of modern life and nature, which had rarely attracted the attention of artists before. Protesting against the dryness and abstractness of academic art, against its conditional stamps and schemes, the Impressionists sought to convey all the freshness of their direct impressions of reality, the colorful richness of the visible world, its diversity and variability. Hence - the search for a new creative method, characteristic of impressionism, the development of some new means of artistic expression. First of all, this is a peculiar understanding of the composition, free, direct, as if accidental, interest in the transfer of the dynamics of the surrounding world, and finally, special attention to pictorial problems, to the transfer of light and air. Putting forward as an obligatory requirement to work on the player, the Impressionists enriched painting with many coloristic achievements, overcame the conventions of the colorful range, characteristic of most of their predecessors, achieved great success in conveying the light-air medium, the effect of light on color. All this gives the painting of the Impressionists freshness and colorful richness.
However, while paying tribute to the indisputable realist achievements of the Impressionists, one cannot fail to note the limitations of their worldview and method. The very approach of the Impressionists to the depiction of reality was fraught with the danger of slipping over the surface of phenomena, of rejecting great life and, even more so, social generalizations. Seeking, first of all, to most directly convey the world around them, the Impressionists attach leading importance to the visual impression. The fixation of fleeting, fleeting visual sensations in their work reaches amazing authenticity, but sometimes it replaces a deep and comprehensive knowledge of the world. Therefore, although the art of impressionism is enriched with new subjects and motifs, it no longer solves big topics of high social significance. The Impressionists perfectly conveyed nature, filled with sun and air, iridescent shimmer of colors and play of light; they captured on their canvases the captivating brilliance and dynamics of modern life; they discovered the artistic value of many motifs of reality; but they proved unable to express the advanced democratic ideals of their time. Social, and sometimes even psychological problems cease to interest these artists, and their art loses the active social significance that progressive romanticism and democratic realism had in France. Therefore, already in connection with impressionism, one can speak of the elements of the crisis of realistic art, which is deprived of a truly democratic content and critical sharpness.
The ideological limitations of this trend was the main reason for the short duration of its heyday. The rise of Impressionism dates back to the 1870s and early 1880s. In 1886, the last exhibition of the Impressionists took place, but already before it there were significant differences in the group. And although in the future many prominent masters of impressionism still continue to work, they either depart from the principles of this trend, experiencing dissatisfaction with its limitations (Renoir), or no longer create anything fundamentally new. For the crisis that impressionism has been experiencing since the mid-1880s, it is significant, in particular, that many of the achievements of this trend, taken to extremes, turn into their opposite. At this time, some artists, more and more indifferent to the content of their art, give all their strength to pictorial and technical quests, often combining them with decorative trends (C. Monet). The desire to convey the sunlight as accurately as possible leads them to excessive brightening of the palette, the desire to capture the vibration of the air - to the abuse of the system of separate strokes. Persistent technical searches in the field of light and color are often carried out to the detriment of plastic form and pattern. Many Impressionists, refusing a plot thematic picture, come to etude, neglecting a complete, thoughtful, holistic composition.
By 1886, all the tasks put forward by Impressionism were solved. Further development in the field of narrow tasks of this direction was impossible, it urgently required the formulation of new big themes, deeper problems, as well as a greater breadth and diversity of the creative method.
Having originated and reached its fullest flowering in France, since the late 1880s, impressionism has spread to other countries, where many prominent artists have joined this trend.
Edgar Degas. The greatest French artist of that time, Edgar Degas (1834-1917), was closely associated with Impressionism. He was one of the organizers and participants of almost all exhibitions of the Impressionists. However, in this current, Degas occupies a special place. With impressionism, he is related to the desire to capture the dynamics of modern life, interest in the transmission of light, some pictorial and coloristic searches. At the same time, very much in the method of the Impressionists was deeply alien to him. In particular, he disapproved of their commitment to the visual impression, considering their approach to reality too passive. Degas denied working on the player and created almost all of his paintings in the studio. Summarizing his observations of nature, the artist has always sought to convey its essence and character. “It is impossible to imagine art less directly than mine,” said Degas. “My work is the result of reflection, the study of masters, it is a matter of inspiration, character, patient observation.”
Degas went through an academic school in the workshop of Lamotte. Passion for Ingres and Poussin was reflected in many of the artist's early works, solved in the classic spirit ("Competition of Spartan boys and girls", 1860, London, National Gallery). Already in these paintings, the honed mastery of drawing, inherent in Degas, an interest in the transfer of movement, as well as the desire to renew academic painting with a sharp observation of nature, is manifested. In the future, Degas turns exclusively to the image of modern life. The characteristic features of Degas' skill first manifested themselves in his portraits, many of which can be named among the best examples of a realistic portrait of modern times. They convey the models truthfully and accurately, they are distinguished by the seriousness and subtlety of psychological characteristics, the originality of compositional solutions, the classical rigor of the drawing, and the refined mastery of color. Among them are a portrait of the Belleli family (1860-1862, Louvre), a portrait of a woman (1867, Paris, Louvre), a portrait of the father of the artist and guitarist Pagan (c. 1872, Chicago, private collection) and amazing courage, liveliness and immediacy of the decision portrait of Lepic with his daughters (Concord Square, 1873).
Genre works by Degas make up a brilliant picture of the mores of modern Paris. Their subjects are diverse and cover many phenomena of modern reality. The sharpness of observation and a careful study of nature are often combined in them with caustic irony and a pessimistic attitude towards the depicted. Degas often focuses his attention on the unattractive aspects of reality and conveys them with the cold ruthlessness inherent in his skeptical mind. This is characteristic of his paintings, depicting the life of bohemia, cafe visitors, singers performing in cafe-concerts. So, in the famous painting "Absinthe" 1876, Louvre), Degas managed with great realistic persuasiveness and sharpness to capture the characteristic scene of modern life and create expressive images of two fallen people.
The favorite theme of Degas's work was theater and ballet. With equal skill, the artist depicts the boring, tedious everyday life of ballerinas - lessons, rehearsals, scenes in the dressing rooms, and the colorful, festive extravaganza of ballet performances. In these works, Degas's inherent ability to capture and convey the often transient, instantaneous, but always characteristic postures and movements of figures, facial expressions is reflected.
Degas's attention was also attracted by labor scenes. In numerous images of laundresses (Paris, Louvre; New York, private collection), the artist managed to convey both the burden of labor and its tedious monotony. In these works, Degas often rises to social generalizations in the characteristic and sharply conveyed images of women from the people. True, unlike Daumier, he is not characterized by the desire to emphasize the moral strength and dignity of the common man.
Degas's pictorial manner develops from the meticulousness of execution in his early works to ever greater freedom and breadth. In his pictorial quest, he in many ways approaches the Impressionists; his palette brightens, he uses pure color, imposes it with separate strokes or strokes (in pastels). The artist shows great interest in the transmission of light (mainly artificial) and air. The latter is especially evident in many depictions of horse races. However, the approximate, monotonous and limited manner of the Impressionists were unusual for him. Picturesque searches, technical experiments, the development of sharp and diverse color solutions Degas combined with a strict drawing and great attention to composition. For all their liveliness, surprise and immediacy, Degas' compositions are always carefully thought out and masterfully constructed.
In the late period of creativity, Degas worked mainly in pastels, often depicting nudes. These are usually women, busy washing, combing their hair, getting out of the bath, getting dressed. The artist sharply captures in these works various, sometimes awkward and ugly movements of the human body. All these works are marked by high and original skill. However, Degas's almost exclusive appeal to the image of the nude testifies to the well-known ideological and thematic limitations of his late work.
In addition to oil paintings and pastels, Degas left many works in graphics. He also made a number of sculptures (ballerinas, horse jockeys, nudes), mainly at the end of his life, when, due to an almost complete loss of vision, he was deprived of the opportunity to work in painting.
Degas had a great influence on many French artists of the late 19th century, in particular the so-called "painters of Montmartre". The most significant of the followers of Degas was Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), a sharp draftsman and subtle colorist, who worked a lot in the poster and created in a number of lithographs expressive, often satirical, images of Parisian bohemia not without critical features.
Pierre Auguste Renoir. The work of Renoir (1841-1919), one of the most prominent representatives of impressionism, has a completely different character. Unlike Degas, he was a cheerful artist who captured poetic images of modern Parisians and colorful scenes of Parisian life in his canvases. Renoir began his artistic career as a porcelain painter. In the workshop of Gleyre, where he studied painting for a short time, Renoir became close to C. Monet and Sisley, sharing with them the rejection of the academic routine and Courbet's passion. The influence of the latter marked many of Renoir's works made in the 1860s, for example, "Aunt Antonia's Tavern" (1865, Stockholm, National Museum), a portrait of Sisley with his wife (1868, Cologne, Wallraf-Richart Museum), "Lisa" (1867, Essen, Folkwang Museum). Already in these early works, Renoir paid considerable attention to the transmission of light and pictorial and coloristic problems.
Paintings made in the late 1860s, in particular "The Frog" (1868-1869, Moscow, Pushkin Museum), mark the beginning of the impressionistic period in the artist's work, when he performs his most famous works. At this time (the end of the 1860s and 1870s), he painted mainly portraits and genre paintings, paying some attention to the landscape.
Among Renoir's portraits, children's and women's are the most successful. His works such as The Lodge (1874, London, Courtauld Institute), Girl with a Fan (Hermitage Museum), Portrait of Madame Charpentier with Children (1878, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art), Portrait of the Artist Samary (1877 , Moscow, Pushkin Museum), recreate the characteristic images of contemporary Parisians, their peculiar, unique charm. These portraits cannot be called psychological, but they attract with pictorial skill and persuasiveness of the transfer of models, liveliness of expression, peculiar poetry and a sense of fullness of life inherent in most of Renoir's works.
Genre paintings by Renoir do not differ in the variety or significance of the subject matter. Out-of-town walks of Parisians, open-air holidays - these are the plots of many of his paintings. In them, as in all the artist's work, his cheerful attitude and a somewhat superficial, thoughtless attitude to reality are reflected. But their dignity is the freshness and immediacy of interpretation, the ability to feel the poetic charm of simple motives, to reveal the picturesque richness of reality. His coloring becomes sonorous, varied and iridescent, bright sunlight floods his canvases, a motley noisy Parisian crowd is given in unity with the surrounding light and air environment, erasing the contours of figures and depriving objects of their plastic certainty (“Moulin de la Galette”, 1876, Paris, Louvre ; The Boatmen's Breakfast, 1881, Washington, Phillips Gallery). While accepting the principles and method of impressionism during this period, Renoir, however, retains in full measure his individual worldview and techniques. His painting technique combines the fractional brushstroke and glazing characteristic of the Impressionists, which gives Renoir's canvases not only a rare colorful richness, but also a coloristic unity.
In the late period of creativity, Renoir moves away from the impressionism. “I reached the limits of impressionism and stated that I can neither write nor draw,” the artist wrote in the early 1880s. The problem of transmitting light and air occupies him much less at this time, he pays more attention to composition, strives for generalization, monumentality, plastic certainty in the interpretation of figures. However, all the changes that occur in the artist's work relate exclusively to the formal side of his art. At this time, Renoir further limits the subject matter of his work, focusing primarily on the depiction of the nude. The fascination with formal problems is combined with purely decorative tendencies, which ultimately leads to a significant conventionality in the interpretation of forms and color in many of the artist's later works.
Claude Monet. All the features of impressionism found the most complete expression in the work of Claude Monet (1840-1926). He was the leader of this trend, he was the first to formulate its principles, developed the player program and the painting technique characteristic of impressionism. Many achievements of this movement are associated with his name. And at the same time, it was precisely in the art of Monet that the limitations of impressionism and the crisis that it had been experiencing since the mid-1880s were especially clearly manifested.
Monet's early works connect impressionism with the realistic art of Courbet, Corot and Daubigny, and also testify to the influence of E. Manet. These are mainly landscapes, portraits and figurative compositions in the open air: "Breakfast on the Grass" (1866, Moscow, Pushkin Museum), "Camilla" (1866, Bremen, Museum), "Woman in the Garden" (1865-1866, Hermitage). Many of them are painted en plein air, the artist pays great attention to the transmission of light in them. Since the late 1860s, Monet has been working almost exclusively in the field of landscape, conveying in his canvases direct impressions of nature or city views, attaching increasing importance to the transmission of lighting and air. The best period of his work is the 1870s, when he creates convincing and moody paintings of French nature, distinguished by great freshness and coloristic freedom. At this time, he finds many new landscape motifs, simple but attractive, introduces into art the image of the city, squares and boulevards, animated by flickering carriages and a hurrying crowd. To express these motifs, the artist is looking for appropriate painting techniques - lively, pure color, quivering, separate brushstroke ("Capuchin Boulevard in Paris", 1873, Moscow, Pushkin Museum, landscapes made in Argenteuil). However, in the future, the fixation of transient light and atmospheric effects often becomes an end in itself for Monet. The form and outlines of objects dissolve in the light-air medium, they lose their density and materiality, turn into unsteady colorful spots. Monet strove for scientific accuracy in conveying the effects of light and air on the local colors of objects, studied the laws of complementary colors, paying special attention to the transmission of reflexes, and along this path of technical research came to significant exaggerations. The formal-technical side replaced deep knowledge and disclosure of reality in his work and obscured the integral artistic image in many of his later works. The very motive of nature ceases to interest the artist and turns into only a pretext for the transfer of color and light and air effects. This is especially significant for Monet's work since the late 1880s, when he created a series of landscapes depicting the same motif at different times of the day: a series of haystacks, Rouen cathedrals, views of the Thames, Venice. The perception of nature in these works becomes more and more subjective, and the desire to convey fleeting visual impressions leads to the rejection of a compositionally constructed picture and its replacement with a random sketch. Many of Monet's later works are marked not only by formal technical, but also by decorative quests. This determines in some cases a significant conventionality and deliberateness of compositional and color solutions (series "Waters").
As the head of French impressionism, Monet had a great influence on a number of artists who joined this movement and worked mainly in the field of landscape. Among them, Pissarro and Sisley deserve mention first of all.
Camille Pissarro. Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) in his early works develops the traditions of the French realistic landscape (Courbet, Corot, Barbizon). Then, from the end of the 1860s, having become close to E. Manet and the young artists grouped around him, Pissarro turns to the player, to the brightened, iridescent palette and becomes one of the characteristic representatives of French impressionism. In his paintings, Pissarro depicted the streets of Rouen and Paris, its suburbs and environs, the banks of the Seine, meadows and country roads. Unlike other impressionists, he often introduces the figures of peasants into his rural landscapes. Like all impressionists, Pissarro pays much attention to pictorial searches, the transmission of light and air. However, light and air effects rarely become the main motive in his paintings. In his best landscapes, Pissarro wholeheartedly perceives nature, conveys the richness and diversity of her life. Summarizing his immediate impressions, the artist usually carefully thinks over the compositional structure of the landscape and knows how to give monumentality to the most ordinary motives.
Alfred Speley. More lyrical was the work of Alfred Sisley (1839-1899). Monet's comrade in Gleyre's workshop, he joined Corot and Daubigny in his early works, and then became one of the first participants in Impressionist exhibitions. Working exclusively in the field of landscape painting, Sisley usually painted the nature of Ile de France. He was attracted by intimate, direct motives - fields, villages, banks of rivers and canals, and he knew how to reveal their originality and attractiveness. Sisley had a subtle sense of color, he sensitively captured the variability of nature, the state of the light and air environment. But, adopting the method of Impressionism, he was more restrained in his formal-technical pursuits than other Impressionists, in particular Monet.
