Introduction
Impressionism as a phenomenon in art
Impressionism in painting
Artists - Impressionists
3.1 Claude Monet
3.2 Edgar Degas
3.3 Alfred Sisley
3.4 Camille Pissarro
Conclusion
Bibliographic list
Introduction
This essay is dedicated to impressionism in art - painting.
Impressionism is one of the brightest and most important phenomena in European art, which largely determined the entire development of contemporary art. Currently, the works of the Impressionists, who were not recognized at the time, are highly valued and their artistic merit is undeniable. The relevance of the chosen topic is explained by the need for every modern person to understand the styles of art, to know the main milestones of its development.
I chose this topic because Impressionism was a kind of revolution in art that changed the idea of works of art as integral, monumental things. Impressionism brought to the fore the individuality of the creator, his own vision of the world, pushed political and religious subjects, academic laws into the background. Interestingly, emotions and impressions, rather than plot and morality, played a major role in the works of the Impressionists.
Impressionism (fr. impressionnisme, from impression- impression) - a trend in art of the last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries, which originated in France and then spread throughout the world, whose representatives sought to most naturally and impartially capture the real world in its mobility and variability, to convey their fleeting impressions. Usually, the term "impressionism" means a direction in painting, although its ideas have also found their embodiment in literature and music.
The term "Impressionism" arose from the light hand of the critic of the magazine "Le Charivari" Louis Leroy, who titled his feuilleton about the Salon of the Les Misérables "Exhibition of the Impressionists", taking as the basis the name of this painting by Claude Monet.
Auguste Renoir Paddling pool, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
origins
During the Renaissance, the painters of the Venetian school tried to convey living reality using bright colors and intermediate tones. The Spaniards took advantage of their experiences, this is most clearly expressed by such artists as El Greco, Velazquez and Goya, whose work subsequently had a serious influence on Manet and Renoir.
At the same time, Rubens makes the shadows on his canvases colored using transparent intermediate shades. According to Delacroix, Rubens displayed light with subtle, refined tones, and shadows with warmer and more saturated colors, conveying the effect of chiaroscuro. Rubens did not use black, which would later become one of the main principles of Impressionist painting.
Édouard Manet was influenced by the Dutch artist Frans Hals, who painted with sharp strokes and loved the contrast of bright colors and black.
The transition of painting to impressionism was also prepared by English painters. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), Claude Monet, Sisley and Pissarro traveled to London to study the great landscape painters Constable, Bonington and Turner. As for the latter, already in his later works it is noticeable how the connection with the real image of the world disappears and the withdrawal into the individual transmission of impressions.
Eugène Delacroix had a strong influence, he already distinguished local color and color acquired under the influence of lighting, his watercolors painted in North Africa in 1832 or in Etretat in 1835, and especially the painting "The Sea at Dieppe" (1835) allow us to speak of him as a forerunner of the Impressionists.
The last element that influenced the innovators was Japanese art. Since 1854, thanks to exhibitions held in Paris, young artists have been discovering masters of Japanese printmaking such as Utamaro, Hokusai and Hiroshige. A special, hitherto unknown in European fine art, arrangement of an image on a sheet of paper - a displaced composition or composition with an inclination, a schematic transfer of form, a penchant for artistic synthesis, won the favor of the Impressionists and their followers.
Story
Edgar Degas, blue dancers, 1897, Pushkin Museum im. Pushkin, Moscow
The beginning of the search for the Impressionists dates back to the 1860s, when young artists were no longer satisfied with the means and goals of academicism, as a result of which each of them independently seeks other ways to develop his style. In 1863, Edouard Manet exhibited the painting “Luncheon on the Grass” in the “Salon of the Rejected” and actively spoke at the meetings of poets and artists in the Guerbois cafe, which were attended by all the future founders of the new movement, thanks to which he became the main defender of modern art.
In 1864, Eugene Boudin invited Monet to Honfleur, where he lived all autumn, watching his teacher paint sketches in pastels and watercolors, while his friend Jonkind applied paint to his work with vibrating strokes. It was here that they taught him to work in the open air and write in light colors.
In 1871, during the Franco-Prussian War, Monet and Pissarro leave for London, where they get acquainted with the work of the forerunner of Impressionism, William Turner.
Claude Monet. Impression. Sunrise. 1872, Marmottan Monet Museum, Paris.
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 empty, unlike 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 19th 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.
Impressionism as a phenomenon in art
Impressionism, one of the most striking and interesting trends in French art of the last quarter of the 19th century, was born in a very difficult environment, characterized by variegation and contrasts, which gave impetus to the emergence of many modern trends. Impressionism, despite its short duration, had a significant impact on the art of not only France, but also other countries: the USA, Germany (M. Lieberman), Belgium, Italy, England. In Russia, the influence of impressionism was experienced by K. Balmont, Andrey Bely, Stravinsky, K. Korovin (the closest in his aesthetics to the impressionists), the early V. Serov, as well as I. Grabar. Impressionism was the last major artistic movement in France in the 19th century, drawing the line between modern and modern art.
According to M. Aplatov, “pure impressionism probably did not exist. Impressionism is not a doctrine, it could not have canonized forms...French Impressionist painters, to varying degrees, have one or another of its features.” Usually, the term "impressionism" means a direction in painting, although its ideas have found their embodiment in other forms of art, for example, in music.
Impressionism is, first of all, the art of observing reality, conveying or creating an impression, which has reached unprecedented refinement, an art in which the plot is not important. This is a new, subjective artistic reality. The Impressionists put forward their own principles of perception and display of the surrounding world. They erased the line between the main objects worthy of high art and secondary objects.
An important principle of Impressionism was the departure from typicality. Transience, a casual look has entered art, it seems that the canvases of the Impressionists were written by a simple passer-by walking along the boulevards and enjoying life. It was a revolution in vision.
The aesthetics of impressionism took shape in part as an attempt to decisively free itself from the conventions of classic art, as well as from the persistent symbolism and thoughtfulness of late romantic painting, which offered to see encrypted meanings in everything that needed careful interpretation. Impressionism affirms not only the beauty of everyday reality, but also makes artistically significant the perceived variability of the surrounding world, the naturalness of a spontaneous, unpredictable, random impression. The Impressionists strive to capture its colorful atmosphere without detailing or interpreting it.
As an artistic movement, impressionism, in particular in painting, quickly exhausted its possibilities. Classical French impressionism was too narrow, and few remained true to its principles all their lives. In the process of development of the impressionist method, the subjectivity of pictorial perception overcame objectivity and rose to an ever higher formal level, opening the way for all currents of post-impressionism, including Gauguin's symbolism and Van Gogh's expressionism. But, despite the narrow time frame - some two decades, impressionism brought art to a fundamentally different level, having a significant impact on everything: modern painting, music and literature, as well as cinema.
Impressionism introduced new themes; works of a mature style are distinguished by their bright and spontaneous vitality, the discovery of new artistic possibilities of color, the aestheticization of a new pictorial technique, the very structure of the work. It is these features that arose in impressionism that are further developed in neo-impressionism and post-impressionism. The impact of impressionism as an approach to reality or as a system of expressive techniques was found in almost all art schools of the early 20th century, it became the starting point for the development of a number of trends, up to abstractionism. Some of the principles of impressionism - the transmission of instantaneous movement, the fluidity of form - manifested themselves to varying degrees in the sculpture of the 1910s, by E Degas, Fr. Rodin, M. Golubkina. Artistic impressionism to a large extent enriched the expressive means in literature (P. Verlaine), music (C. Debussy), theater.
2. Impressionism in painting
In the spring of 1874, a group of young painters, including Monet, Renoir, Pizarro, Sisley, Degas, Cezanne and Berthe Morisot, neglected the official Salon and staged their own exhibition, later becoming the central figures of the new direction. It took place from April 15 to May 15, 1874 in the studio of the photographer Nadar in Paris, on the Boulevard des Capucines. There were presented 30 artists, in total - 165 works. Such an act was in itself revolutionary and broke with age-old foundations, while the paintings of these artists at first glance seemed even more hostile to tradition. It took years before these, later recognized, classics of painting were able to convince the public not only of their sincerity, but also of their talent. All these very different artists were united by a common struggle against conservatism and academicism in art. The Impressionists held eight exhibitions, the last in 1886.
It was at the first exhibition in 1874 in Paris that a painting by Claude Monet appeared, depicting a sunrise. She attracted everyone's attention primarily with an unusual title: “Impression. Sunrise". But the painting itself was unusual, it conveyed that almost elusive, changeable play of colors and light. It was the name of this painting - "Impression" - thanks to the mockery of one of the journalists, that marked the beginning of a whole trend in painting, called impressionism (from the French word "impression" - impression).
Trying to express their immediate impressions of things as accurately as possible, the Impressionists created a new method of painting. Its essence was to convey the external impression of light, shadow, reflexes on the surface of objects with separate strokes of pure colors, which visually dissolved the form in the surrounding light-air environment.
Credibility was sacrificed to personal perception - the Impressionists, depending on their vision, could write the sky green and the grass blue, the fruits in their still lifes were unrecognizable, human figures were vague and sketchy. What was important was not what was depicted, but the “how” was important. The object became an occasion for solving visual problems.
The brevity, etude nature of the creative method of impressionism is characteristic. After all, only a short study made it possible to accurately record individual states of nature. What was previously allowed only in sketches has now become the main feature of the completed canvases. Impressionist artists tried with all their might to overcome the static nature of painting, to forever capture all the charm of an elusive moment. They began to use asymmetrical compositions to better highlight the characters and objects they were interested in. In some methods of impressionist construction of composition and space, the influence of passion for one’s age is tangible - not antiquity as before, Japanese engraving (by such masters as Katsushika Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro) and partly photography, its close-ups and new points of view.
The Impressionists also updated coloring, they abandoned dark, earthy paints and varnishes and applied pure, spectral colors to the canvas, almost without mixing them first on the palette. Conditional, "museum" blackness in their canvases gives way to the play of colored shadows.
Thanks to the invention of ready-to-carry metal paint tubes, which replaced the old hand-made paints from oil and powdered pigments, artists were able to leave their studios to work in the open air. They worked very quickly, because the movement of the sun changed the lighting and color of the landscape. Sometimes they squeezed the paint onto the canvas directly from the tube and got pure sparkling colors with a brushstroke effect. By placing a dab of one paint next to another, they often left the surface of the paintings rough. In order to preserve the freshness and variety of colors of nature in the picture, the Impressionists created a pictorial system that is distinguished by the decomposition of complex tones into pure colors and the interpenetration of separate strokes of pure color, as if mixing in the eye of the viewer, with colored shadows and perceived by the viewer according to the law of complementary colors.
Striving for maximum immediacy in the transfer of the surrounding world, for the first time in the history of art, the Impressionists 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. 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. The main theme for them was quivering light, air, in which people and objects are, as it were, immersed. In their paintings, one could feel the wind, the damp, sun-warmed earth. They sought to show the amazing richness of color in nature.
Impressionism introduced new themes into art - the daily life of the city, street landscapes and entertainment. Its thematic and plot range was very wide. In their landscapes, portraits, and multi-figured compositions, the artists strive to preserve the impartiality, strength, and freshness of the “first impression,” without going into individual details, where the world is an ever-changing phenomenon.
Impressionism is distinguished by its bright and immediate vitality. It is characterized by the individuality and aesthetic value of the canvases, their deliberate randomness and incompleteness. In general, the works of the Impressionists are distinguished by cheerfulness, passion for the sensual beauty of the world.
impressionism 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 in 1874, which exhibited a painting by C. Monet "Impression. Rising Sun" ("Impression. Soleil levant", 1872, now at the Musée Marmottan, Paris). 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.
Impressionism continues what was begun by realistic art of the 40-60s. liberation from the conventions of classicism, romanticism and academism, affirms the beauty of everyday reality, simple, democratic motives, achieves a living authenticity of the image. He makes authentic, modern life aesthetically significant in its naturalness, in all the richness and sparkle of its colors, capturing the visible world in its inherent constant variability, recreating the unity of man and his environment. In many Impressionist paintings (especially in landscapes and still lifes, a number of multi-figured compositions), a transient moment of the continuous flow of life, as if accidentally caught by the eye, is accentuated, the impartiality, strength and freshness of the first impression are preserved, allowing one to capture the unique and characteristic in what they see. The works of the Impressionists are distinguished by cheerfulness, passion for the sensual beauty of the world, but in a number of works by Manet and Degas there are bitter, sarcastic notes.
The Impressionists were the first to create a multifaceted picture of the everyday life of a modern city, capturing the originality of its landscape and the appearance of the people inhabiting it, their way of life, work and entertainment. In the landscape, they (especially Sisley and Pissarro) developed the plein air searches of J. Constable, the Barbizon school, C. Corot and others, developed a complete plein air system. In Impressionist landscapes, a simple, everyday motif is often transformed by an all-penetrating moving sunlight, which brings a sense of festivity to the picture. Working on a painting directly in the open air made it possible to reproduce nature in all its quivering real vivacity, to subtly analyze and capture its transitional states, to capture the slightest color changes that appear under the influence of a vibrating and fluid light-air medium (organically uniting man and nature), which becomes Impressionism is an independent object of the image (mainly in the works of Monet). In order to preserve the freshness and variety of colors of nature in the paintings, the Impressionists (with the exception of Degas) created a pictorial system that is distinguished by the decomposition of complex tones into pure colors and the interpenetration of clear separate strokes of pure color, as if mixing in the eye of the viewer, light and bright colors, richness Valery and reflexes, colored shadows. Volumetric forms, as it were, dissolve in the light-and-air shell that envelops them, dematerialize, acquire unsteadiness of outlines: the play of various strokes, pasty and liquid, gives the colorful layer a quivering, relief; this creates a peculiar impression of incompleteness, the formation of an image in front of a person contemplating the canvas. Thus, there is a convergence of the sketch and the picture, and often the merging of several. stages of work into one continuous process. The picture becomes a separate frame, a fragment of the moving world. This explains, on the one hand, the equivalence of all parts of the picture, simultaneously born under the artist’s brush and equally participating in the figurative construction of works, on the other hand, the apparent randomness and imbalance, asymmetry of the composition, bold cuts of figures, unexpected points of view and complex angles that activate the spatial construction.
In some methods of constructing composition and space in impressionism, the influence of Japanese engraving and partly photography is noticeable.
The Impressionists also turned to the portrait and everyday genre (Renoir, B. Morisot, partly Degas). The everyday genre and the nude in Impressionism were often intertwined with the landscape (especially in Renoir); figures of people illuminated by natural light were usually depicted at an open window, in an arbor, etc. Impressionism is characterized by a mixture of the everyday genre with a portrait, a tendency to blur clear boundaries between genres. From the beginning of the 80s. some masters of impressionism in France sought to modify its creative principles. Late impressionism (mid-80s - 90s) developed during the period of the formation of the "modern" style, various trends of post-impressionism. Late impressionism is characterized by the emergence of a sense of self-worth of the subjective artistic manner of the artist, the growth of decorative trends. The game of shades and additional tones in the work of impressionism is becoming more and more sophisticated, there is a tendency to greater color saturation of the canvases or to tonal unity; landscapes are combined in a series.
The pictorial manner of Impressionism had a great influence on French painting. Certain features of impressionism were perceived by salon-academic painting. For a number of artists, the study of the method of impressionism became the initial stage on the way to the formation of their own artistic system (P. Cezanne, P. Gauguin, V. van Gogh, J. Seurat).
Creative appeal to impressionism, the study of its principles was an important step in the development of many national European art schools. Under the influence of French impressionism, the work of M. Liebermann, L. Corinth in Germany, K. A. Korovin, V. A. Serov, I. E. Grabar and early M. F. Larionov in Russia, M. Prendergast and M. Cassatt in the USA, L. Vychulkovsky in Poland, the Slovenian Impressionists, etc. At the same time, only certain aspects of Impressionism were picked up and developed outside of France: an appeal to modern themes, the effects of plein air painting, brightening the palette, sketchy painting style, etc. The term "impressionism" is also applied to the sculpture of the 1880-1910s, which has some features similar to impressionist painting - the desire to convey instantaneous movement, fluidity and softness of forms, deliberate plastic incompleteness. Impressionism in sculpture manifested itself most clearly in the works of M. Rosso in Italy, O. Rodin and Degas in France, P. P. Trubetskoy and A. S. Golubkina in Russia, and others. Impressionism in the visual arts influenced the development of expressive means in literature, music and theatre.
K. Pissarro. "Mail Coach at Louveciennes". Around 1870. Museum of Impressionism. Paris.
(Source: "Popular Art Encyclopedia." Edited by Polevoy V.M.; M.: Publishing House "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1986.)
impressionism(French impressionnisme, from impression - impression), a direction in the art of con. 1860 - early. 1880s Most clearly manifested in painting. Leading representatives: K. Monet, ABOUT. Renoir, TO. Pissarro, A. Guillaumin, B. Morisot, M. Cassatt, A. Sisley, G. Caillebotte and J. F. Basile. Together with them they exhibited their paintings by E. Mane and E. Degas, although the style of their works cannot be called completely impressionistic. The name "Impressionists" was assigned to a group of young artists after their first joint exhibition in Paris (1874; Monet, Renoir, Pizarro, Degas, Sisley, etc.), which caused furious indignation of the public and critics. One of the presented paintings by C. Monet (1872) was called “Impression. Sunrise ”(“ L’impression. Soleil levant ”), and the reviewer mockingly called the artists “impressionists” - “impressionists”. The painters performed under this name at the third joint exhibition (1877). Then they began to publish the Impressionist magazine, each issue of which was dedicated to the work of one of the group members.
The Impressionists sought to capture the world around them in its constant variability, fluidity, and to express their immediate impressions without prejudice. Impressionism was based on the latest discoveries in optics and color theory (spectral decomposition of the sun's beam into the seven colors of the rainbow); in this he is consonant with the spirit of scientific analysis, characteristic of con. 19th century However, the Impressionists themselves did not try to determine the theoretical foundations of their art, insisting on the spontaneity, intuitiveness of the artist's work. The artistic principles of the Impressionists were not uniform. Monet painted landscapes only in direct contact with nature, in the open air (in open air) and even built a workshop in the boat. Degas worked in the workshop from memories or using photographs. Unlike representatives of later radical movements, the artists did not go beyond the Renaissance illusory-spatial system based on the use of direct perspectives. They firmly adhered to the method of working from nature, which they elevated to the main principle of creativity. Artists strove to "paint what you see" and "as you see". The consistent application of this method entailed the transformation of all the foundations of the existing pictorial system: color, composition, spatial construction. Pure colors were applied to the canvas in small separate strokes: multi-colored “dots” lay side by side, mixing into a colorful spectacle not on the palette and not on the canvas, but in the eye of the viewer. The Impressionists achieved an unprecedented sonority of color, an unprecedented richness of shades. The smear became an independent means of expression, filling the surface of the picture with a lively shimmering vibration of color particles. The canvas was likened to a mosaic shimmering with precious colors. Black, gray, brown shades predominated in the former painting; in the canvases of the Impressionists, the colors shone brightly. The Impressionists did not use chiaroscuro to convey volumes, they abandoned dark shadows, the shadows in their paintings also became colored. Artists widely used additional tones (red and green, yellow and purple), the contrast of which increased the intensity of the color. In Monet's paintings, the colors were brightened and dissolved in the radiance of the rays of sunlight, local colors acquired many shades.
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).
The Impressionists developed new principles for constructing composition. Previously, the space of the picture was likened to a stage, now the captured scenes resembled a snapshot, a photo frame. Invented in the 19th century photography had a significant impact on the composition of the impressionist painting, especially in the work of E. Degas, who himself was a passionate photographer and, in his own words, sought to take the ballerinas depicted by surprise, to see them “as if through a keyhole”, when their poses, body lines natural, expressive and authentic. Creating paintings outdoors, the desire to capture rapidly changing lighting forced the artists to speed up the work, write "alla prima" (in one go), without preliminary sketches. Fragmentation, "randomness" of the composition and dynamic pictorial manner created a feeling of special freshness in the paintings of the Impressionists.
The favorite impressionist genre was the landscape; the portrait was also a kind of “landscape of the face” (O. Renoir, “Portrait of the Actress J. Samary”, 1877). In addition, the artists significantly expanded the range of painting subjects, turning to topics that were previously considered unworthy of attention: folk festivals, horse races, picnics of artistic bohemia, the backstage life of theaters, etc. However, their paintings do not have a detailed plot, a detailed narrative; human life is dissolved in nature or in the atmosphere of the city. The Impressionists did not write events, but moods, shades of feelings. Artists fundamentally rejected historical and literary themes, avoided depicting the dramatic, dark sides of life (wars, disasters, etc.). They sought to free art from the fulfillment of social, political and moral tasks, from the obligation to evaluate the phenomena depicted. The artists sang the beauty of the world, being able to turn the most everyday motif (room renovation, gray London fog, steam locomotive smoke, etc.) into an enchanting spectacle (G. Caillebotte. "Parquette", 1875; C. Monet. "Saint-Lazare Station" , 1877).
In 1886, the last exhibition of the Impressionists took place (O. Renoir and K. Monet did not participate in it). By this time, significant disagreements between the members of the group were revealed. The possibilities of the Impressionist method were exhausted, and each of the artists began to look for his own path in art.
Impressionism as a holistic creative method was a phenomenon predominantly of French art, but the work of the Impressionists had an impact on all European painting. The desire to update the artistic language, brighten the colorful palette, and expose painting techniques are now firmly included in the arsenal of artists. In other countries, J. Whistler (England and the USA), M. Lieberman, L. Corinth (Germany), J. Sorolla (Spain) were close to impressionism. The influence of impressionism was experienced by many Russian artists (V.A. Serov, K. A. Korovin, I. E. Grabar and etc.).
In addition to painting, impressionism was embodied in the work of some sculptors (E. Degas and O. Rodin in France, M. Rosso in Italy, P. P. Trubetskoy in Russia) in lively free modeling of fluid soft forms, which creates a complex play of light on the surface of the material and a feeling of incompleteness of the work; in poses the moment of movement, development is captured. In music, closeness to impressionism is found in the works of C. Debussy ("Sails", "Mists", "Reflections in the Water", etc.).
(Source: "Art. Modern Illustrated Encyclopedia." Under the editorship of Prof. A.P. Gorkin; M.: Rosmen; 2007.)
Synonyms:
See what "Impressionism" is in other dictionaries:
IMPRESSIONISM. I. in literature and art is defined as a category of passivity, contemplation and impressionability, applicable to one degree or another to artistic creativity at all times or periodically, in one form or another ... ... Literary Encyclopedia
impressionism- a, m. impressionisme m. The Doctrine of the Impressionist Painters. Bulgakov Hood. enc. A direction in art that aims to convey direct, subjective impressions of reality. Ush. 1934. Why, for example, the great ... ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language
- [fr. impressionnisme Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
Impressionism- IMPRESSIONISM. The end of the 19th century is associated with the flowering of impressionism in all areas of art, especially in painting and literature. The very term impressionism comes from the French word impression, which means impression. Under this... ... Dictionary of literary terms
- (from the French impression impression), a direction in the art of the last third of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It took shape in French painting in the 1860s and early 70s. (E. Manet, C. Monet, E. Degas, O. Renoir, K. Pissarro, A. Sisley). Impressionism claimed... Modern Encyclopedia
- (from French impression impression) direction in art of the last third of the 19th beginning. 20 centuries, whose representatives sought to most naturally and impartially capture the real world in its mobility and variability, to convey their fleeting ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
IMPRESSIONISM(fr. impressionnisme, from impression - impression) - a trend in art of the late 1860s - early 1880s, the main purpose of which was to convey fleeting, changeable impressions. Impressionism was based on the latest discoveries in optics and color theory; in this he is in tune with the spirit of scientific analysis characteristic of the late 19th century. Impressionism manifested itself most clearly in painting, where special attention was paid to the transfer of color and light.
Impressionism appeared in France in the late 1860s. Its leading representatives are Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley and Jean Frederic Bazille. Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas exhibited their paintings with them, although the style of their works cannot be called impressionistic. The word "Impressionism" comes from the name of Monet's painting. Impression. Rising Sun(1872, Paris, Marmottan Museum), presented at the exhibition in 1874. The name implied that the artist conveys only his fleeting impression of the landscape. Now the term "impressionism" is understood more than just the subjective vision of the artist: as a careful study of nature, primarily in terms of color and lighting. Such a concept is essentially the opposite of the traditional understanding, dating back to the Renaissance, of the main task of painting as the transfer of the form of objects. The goal of the Impressionists was to depict instantaneous, as it were, “random” situations and movements. This was facilitated by the asymmetry, fragmentation of compositions, the use of complex angles and cuts of figures. The picture becomes a separate frame, a fragment of the moving world.
Landscapes and scenes from urban life - perhaps the most characteristic genres of impressionistic painting - were painted "en plein air", i.e. directly from life, and not on the basis of sketches and preparatory sketches. The Impressionists peered intently at nature, noticing colors and shades that are usually invisible, such as blue in the shadows. Their artistic method was to decompose complex tones into their constituent pure colors of the spectrum. Colored shadows and pure light quivering painting were obtained. The Impressionists applied paint in separate strokes, sometimes using contrasting tones in one area of the picture, the size of the strokes varied. Sometimes, for example, to depict a clear sky, they were smoothed out with a brush into a more even surface (but even in this case, a free, careless painting style was emphasized). The main feature of Impressionist paintings is the effect of lively flickering of colors.
Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley and Claude Monet in their work preferred landscapes and urban scenes. Auguste Renoir painted people in the bosom of nature or in the interior. His work perfectly illustrates the tendency characteristic of impressionism to blur the lines between genres. Pictures like Ball at the Moulin de la Galette(Paris, Museum D "Orsay) or Rowers breakfast(1881, Washington, Phillips Gallery), are colorful memories of the joys of life, urban or rural.
Similar searches for the transmission of the light-air environment, the decomposition of complex tones into pure colors of the solar spectrum took place not only in France. The Impressionists include James Whistler (England and the USA), Max Lieberman, Lovis Corinth (Germany), Joaquin Sorolla (Spain), K.A. Korovin, I.E. Grabar (Russia).
Impressionism in sculpture implies a lively free modeling of fluid soft forms that creates a complex play of light on the surface of the material and a sense of incompleteness. In the poses, the moment of movement, development is accurately captured; the figures seem to have been taken with a hidden camera, as, for example, in some works by E. Degas and O. Rodin (France), Medardo Rosso (Italy), P.P. Trubetskoy (Russia).
At the beginning of the 20th century in painting, new trends were outlined, expressed in the rejection of realism and the appeal to abstraction; they caused younger artists to turn away from Impressionism. However, Impressionism left a rich legacy: primarily an interest in color issues, as well as an example of a bold break with tradition.
“A new world was born when the Impressionists painted it”
Henri Kahnweiler
XIX century. France. The unthinkable happened in painting. A group of young artists decided to shake the 500-year-old tradition. Instead of a clear drawing, they used a wide “sloppy” brushstroke.
And they completely abandoned the usual images, depicting everyone in a row. And ladies of easy virtue, and gentlemen of dubious reputation.
The public was not ready for Impressionist painting. They were ridiculed and scolded. And most importantly, they did not buy anything from them.
But the resistance was broken. And some Impressionists lived to see their triumph. True, they were already over 40. Like Claude Monet or Auguste Renoir. Others waited for recognition only at the end of their lives, like Camille Pissarro. Someone did not live up to it, like Alfred Sisley.
What revolutionary did each of them? Why did the public not accept them for so long? Here are 7 of the world's most famous French Impressionists.
1. Edouard Manet (1832-1883)
Edward Mane. Self portrait with palette. 1878 Private collectionManet was older than most of the Impressionists. He was their main inspiration.
Manet himself did not claim to be the leader of the revolutionaries. He was a man of the world. Dreamed of official awards.
But he waited a very long time for recognition. The public wanted to see Greek goddesses or still lifes at worst, so that they looked beautiful in the dining room. Manet wanted to paint contemporary life. For example, courtesans.
The result was "Breakfast on the Grass". Two dandies are relaxing in the company of ladies of easy virtue. One of them, as if nothing had happened, sits next to dressed men.
Edward Mane. Breakfast on the grass. 1863, Paris Compare his "Breakfast on the Grass" with Thomas Couture's "Romans in the Decline". Couture's painting made a splash. The artist instantly became famous.
"Breakfast on the Grass" was accused of vulgarity. Pregnant women were absolutely not recommended to look at her.
Thomas Couture. Romans in decline. 1847 Musée d'Orsay, Paris. artchive.ru In Couture's painting, we see all the attributes of academicism (traditional painting of the 16th-19th centuries). Columns and statues. Apollonian people. Traditional muted colors. The mannerism of postures and gestures. A plot from a distant life of a completely different people.
“Breakfast on the Grass” by Manet is a different format. Before him, no one portrayed courtesans like this easily. Close to respectable citizens. Although many men of that time spent their leisure time in this way. It was the real life of real people.
Once he portrayed a respectable lady. Ugly. He couldn't flatter her with a brush. The lady was disappointed. She left him in tears.
Edward Mane. Angelina. 1860 Musée d'Orsay, Paris. wikimedia.commons.org So he continued to experiment. For example, with color. He did not try to portray the so-called natural color. If he saw gray-brown water as bright blue, then he depicted it as bright blue.
This, of course, annoyed the public. “After all, even the Mediterranean Sea cannot boast of such a blue as the water at Manet,” they quipped.
Edward Mane. Argenteuil. 1874 Museum of Fine Arts, Tournai, Belgium. wikipedia.org But the fact remains. Manet fundamentally changed the purpose of painting. The picture became the embodiment of the individuality of the artist, who writes as he pleases. Forget about patterns and traditions.
Innovations did not forgive him for a long time. Recognition waited only at the end of life. But he no longer needed it. He was agonizingly dying from an incurable disease.
2. Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Claude Monet. Self-portrait in a beret. 1886 Private collection Claude Monet can be called a textbook impressionist. Since he was faithful to this direction all his long life.
He painted not objects and people, but a single color construction of highlights and spots. Separate strokes. Air trembling.
Claude Monet. Paddling pool. 1869 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Metmuseum.org Monet painted not only nature. He was also good at urban landscapes. One of the most famous - .
There is a lot of photography in this painting. For example, motion is conveyed using a blurred image.
Pay attention: distant trees and figures seem to be in a haze.
Claude Monet. Boulevard des Capucines in Paris. 1873 (Gallery of European and American Art of the 19th-20th centuries), Moscow Before us is a stopped moment of the bustling life of Paris. No staging. Nobody is posing. People are depicted as a collection of strokes. Such plotlessness and the “freeze frame” effect is the main feature of impressionism.
By the mid-1980s, artists had become disillusioned with Impressionism. Aesthetics is, of course, good. But the plotlessness of many oppressed.
Only Monet continued to persist, exaggerating impressionism. This developed into a series of paintings.
He depicted the same landscape dozens of times. At different times of the day. At different times of the year. To show how much temperature and light can change the same view beyond recognition.
So there were countless haystacks.
Paintings by Claude Monet at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Left: Haystacks at sunset at Giverny, 1891 Right: Haystack (snow effect), 1891
Please note that the shadows in these paintings are colored. And not gray or black, as was customary before the Impressionists. This is another one of their inventions.
Monet managed to enjoy success and material well-being. After 40, he already forgot about poverty. Got a house and a beautiful garden. And he did it for his pleasure for many years to come.
Read about the most iconic painting by the master in the article
3. Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Self-portrait. 1875 Sterling and Francine Clark Institute of Art, Massachusetts, USA. Pinterest Impressionism is the most positive painting. And the most positive among the Impressionists was Renoir.
You will not find drama in his paintings. He didn't even use black paint. Only the joy of being. Even the most banal Renoir looks beautiful.
Unlike Monet, Renoir painted people more often. Landscapes for him were less significant. In the paintings, his friends and acquaintances are relaxing and enjoying life.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Rowers breakfast. 1880-1881 Phillips Collection, Washington, USA. wikimedia.commons.org You will not find in Renoir and thoughtfulness. He was very glad to join the Impressionists, who completely refused subjects.
As he himself said, finally he has the opportunity to paint flowers and call them simply “Flowers”. And don't make up any stories about them.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Woman with an umbrella in the garden. 1875 Thyssen-Bormenis Museum, Madrid. arteuam.com Renoir felt best in the company of women. He asked his maids to sing and joke. The more stupid and naive the song was, the better for him. A man's chatter tired him. No wonder Renoir is known for nude paintings.
The model in the painting “Nude in Sunlight” seems to appear against a colorful abstract background. Because for Renoir there is nothing secondary. The eye of the model or the area of the background are equivalent.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Nude in the sunlight. 1876 Musée d'Orsay, Paris. wikimedia.commons.org Renoir lived a long life. And never put down the brush and palette. Even when his hands were completely shackled by rheumatism, he tied the brush to his arm with a rope. And he painted.
Like Monet, he waited for recognition after 40 years. And I saw my paintings in the Louvre, next to the works of famous masters.
Read about one of the most charming portraits of Renoir in the article
4. Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Edgar Degas. Self-portrait. 1863 Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, Portugal. cultured.com Degas was not a classical impressionist. He did not like to work in the open air (outdoors). You will not find a deliberately brightened palette with him.
On the contrary, he loved a clear line. He has plenty of black. And he worked exclusively in the studio.
But still he is always put on a par with other great impressionists. Because he was an impressionist of gesture.
Unexpected angles. Asymmetry in the arrangement of objects. Characters caught off guard. Here are the main attributes of his paintings.
He stopped the moments of life, not allowing the characters to come to their senses. Look at least at his “Opera Orchestra”.
Edgar Degas. Opera Orchestra. 1870 Musée d'Orsay, Paris. commons.wikimedia.org In the foreground is the back of a chair. The musician has his back to us. And in the background, the ballerinas on the stage did not fit into the “frame”. Their heads are mercilessly “cut off” by the edge of the painting.
So his favorite dancers are not always depicted in beautiful poses. Sometimes they just stretch.
But such improvisation is imaginary. Of course, Degas carefully thought out the composition. This is just a freeze frame effect, not a real freeze frame.
Edgar Degas. Two ballet dancers. 1879 Shelburne Museum, Wermouth, USA Edgar Degas loved to paint women. But the disease or the characteristics of the body did not allow him to have physical contact with them. He never married. Nobody ever saw him with a lady.
The absence of real plots in his personal life added a subtle and intense eroticism to his images.
Edgar Degas. Ballet star. 1876-1878 Musee d'Orsay, Paris. wikimedia.comons.org Please note that in the painting “Ballet Star” only the ballerina herself is drawn. Her backstage colleagues are barely distinguishable. Just a few legs.
This does not mean that Degas did not finish the picture. Such is the reception. Keep only the most important things in focus. Make the rest disappear, illegible.
Read about other paintings by the master in the article.
5. Berthe Morisot (1841-1895)
Edward Mane. Portrait of Berthe Morisot. 1873 Marmottan Monet Museum, Paris. Bertha Morisot is rarely put in the forefront of the great Impressionists. I'm sure it's undeserved. Just in her you will find all the main features and techniques of impressionism. And if you like this style, you will love her work with all your heart.
Morisot worked quickly and impetuously, transferring her impression to the canvas. The figures seem to be about to dissolve into space.
Berthe Morisot. Summer. 1880 Fabre Museum, Montpellier, France. Like Degas, she often left some details unfinished. And even body parts of the model. We cannot distinguish the hands of the girl in the painting “Summer”.
Morisot's path to self-expression was difficult. Not only was she engaged in “sloppy” painting. She was still a woman. In those days, a lady was supposed to dream of marriage. After that, any hobby was forgotten.
Therefore, Bertha refused marriage for a long time. Until she found a man who respectfully treated her occupation. Eugene Manet was the brother of the painter Edouard Manet. He dutifully carried an easel and paints for his wife.
Berthe Morisot. Eugene Manet with his daughter in Bougival. 1881 Marmottan Monet Museum, Paris. But it was still in the 19th century. No, Morisot didn't wear trousers. But she could not afford complete freedom of movement.
She could not go to the park to work alone, without being accompanied by someone close to her. I couldn't sit alone in a cafe. Therefore, her paintings are people from the family circle. Husband, daughter, relatives, nannies.
Berthe Morisot. A woman with a child in a garden in Bougival. 1881 National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. Morisot did not wait for recognition. She died at the age of 54 from pneumonia, having sold almost none of her work during her lifetime. On her death certificate, there was a dash in the “occupation” column. It was unthinkable for a woman to be called an artist. Even if she really was.
Read about the paintings of the master in the article
6. Camille Pissarro (1830 - 1903)
Camille Pissarro. Self-portrait. 1873 Musée d'Orsay, Paris. wikipedia.org Camille Pissarro. Non-confrontational, reasonable. Many considered him as a teacher. Even the most temperamental colleagues did not speak badly of Pissarro.
He was a faithful follower of impressionism. In dire need, with a wife and five children, he still worked hard in his favorite style. And never switched to salon painting to become more popular. It is not known where he got the strength to fully believe in himself.
In order not to die of hunger at all, Pissarro painted fans, which were eagerly sold out. And the real recognition came to him after 60 years! Then at last he was able to forget about the need.
Camille Pissarro. Stagecoach at Louveciennes. 1869 Musée d'Orsay, Paris The air in Pissarro's paintings is thick and dense. Unusual fusion of color and volume.
The artist was not afraid to paint the most changeable phenomena of nature, which appear for a moment and disappear. First snow, frosty sun, long shadows.
Camille Pissarro. Frost. 1873 Musée d'Orsay, Paris His most famous works are views of Paris. With wide boulevards, vain motley crowd. At night, during the day, in different weather. In some ways, they echo the series of paintings by Claude Monet.
The phrase "Russian Impressionism" only a year ago cut the ear of the average citizen of our vast country. Every educated person knows about the light, bright and impetuous French impressionism, can distinguish Monet from Manet and recognize Van Gogh's sunflowers from all still lifes. Someone heard something about the American branch of the development of this direction of painting - more urban compared to the French landscapes of Hassam and portraits of Chase. But researchers argue about the existence of Russian impressionism to this day.
Konstantin Korovin
The history of Russian impressionism began with the painting "Portrait of a chorus girl" by Konstantin Korovin, as well as with misunderstanding and condemnation of the public. When I first saw this work, I. E. Repin did not immediately believe that the work was done by a Russian painter: “Spaniard! I see. Boldly, juicy writes. Wonderful. But it's just painting for painting's sake. Spaniard, however, with temperament ... ". Konstantin Alekseevich himself began to paint his canvases in an impressionistic manner as early as his student years, being unfamiliar with the paintings of Cezanne, Monet and Renoir, long before his trip to France. Only thanks to Polenov's experienced eye did Korovin learn that he was using the technique of the French of that time, which he came to intuitively. At the same time, the Russian artist is betrayed by the subjects that he uses for his paintings - the recognized masterpiece "Northern Idyll", written in 1892 and stored in the Tretyakov Gallery, shows us Korovin's love for Russian traditions and folklore. This love was instilled in the artist by the "Mammoth Circle" - a community of creative intelligentsia, which included Repin, Polenov, Vasnetsov, Vrubel and many other friends of the famous philanthropist Savva Mamontov. In Abramtsevo, where Mamontov's estate was located and where members of the art circle gathered, Korovin was fortunate enough to meet and work with Valentin Serov. Thanks to this acquaintance, the work of the already accomplished artist Serov acquired the features of light, bright and impetuous impressionism, which we see in one of his early works - “Open Window. Lilac".
Portrait of a chorus girl, 1883
Northern idyll, 1886
Bird cherry, 1912
Gurzuf 2, 1915
Pier in Gurzuf, 1914
Paris, 1933
Valentin Serov
Serov's painting is permeated with a feature inherent only in Russian impressionism - his paintings reflect not only the impression of what the artist saw, but also the state of his soul at the moment. For example, in the painting "St. Mark's Square in Venice", painted in Italy, where Serov went to in 1887 due to a serious illness, cold gray tones predominate, which gives us an idea of the artist's condition. But, despite the rather gloomy palette, the picture is a reference impressionistic work, since on it Serov managed to capture the real world in its mobility and variability, to convey his fleeting impressions. In a letter to his bride from Venice, Serov wrote: “In this century, everything is written that is difficult, nothing encouraging. I want, I want what is gratifying, and I will write only what is gratifying.”
Open window. Lilac, 1886
St. Mark's Square in Venice, 1887
Girl with peaches (Portrait of V. S. Mamontova)
Coronation. Confirmation of Nicholas II in the Assumption Cathedral, 1896
Girl illuminated by the sun, 1888
Bathing a horse, 1905
Alexander Gerasimov
One of the students of Korovin and Serov, who adopted their expressive brushstroke, bright palette and etude style of writing, was Alexander Mikhailovich Gerasimov. The heyday of the artist's work came at the time of the revolution, which could not but be reflected in the plots of his paintings. Despite the fact that Gerasimov gave his brush to the service of the party and became famous for his outstanding portraits of Lenin and Stalin, he continued to work on impressionistic landscapes that were close to his soul. The work of Alexander Mikhailovich “After the Rain” reveals to us the artist as a master of conveying air and light in the picture, which Gerasimov owes to the influence of his eminent mentors.
Artists at Stalin's dacha, 1951
Stalin and Voroshilov in the Kremlin, 1950s
After the rain. Wet Terrace, 1935
Still life. Field bouquet, 1952
Igor Grabar
In a conversation about late Russian impressionism, one cannot but turn to the work of the great artist Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar, who adopted many of the techniques of French painters of the second half of the 19th century thanks to his numerous trips to Europe. Using the techniques of the classical impressionists, Grabar depicts absolutely Russian landscape motifs and everyday scenes in his paintings. While Monet paints the blooming gardens of Giverny, and Degas paints beautiful ballerinas, Grabar depicts the harsh Russian winter and village life with the same pastel colors. Most of all, Grabar liked to depict frost on his canvases and dedicated a whole collection of works to him, consisting of more than a hundred small multi-colored sketches created at different times of the day and in different weather. The difficulty of working on such drawings was that the paint hardened in the cold, so I had to work quickly. But this is precisely what allowed the artist to recreate “that very moment” and convey his impression of it, which is the main idea of classical impressionism. Often Igor Emmanuilovich's style of painting is called scientific impressionism, because he attached great importance to light and air on canvases and created many studies on color reproduction. Moreover, it is to him that we owe the chronological arrangement of paintings in the Tretyakov Gallery, of which he was director in 1920-1925.
Birch alley, 1940
Winter landscape, 1954
Hoarfrost, 1905
Pears on a blue tablecloth, 1915
Corner of the estate (Ray of the sun), 1901
Yuri Pimenov
Completely non-classical, but still, impressionism developed in the Soviet era, a prominent representative of which is Yuri Ivanovich Pimenov, who came to the image of a “fleeting impression in pastel colors” after working in the style of expressionism. One of the most famous works of Pimenov is the painting "New Moscow" of the 1930s - light, warm, as if painted with Renoir's airy strokes. But at the same time, the plot of this work is completely incompatible with one of the main ideas of impressionism - the rejection of the use of social and political themes. "New Moscow" Pimenov just perfectly reflects the social changes in the life of the city, which have always inspired the artist. “Pimenov loves Moscow, its new, its people. The painter generously gives this feeling to the viewer,” wrote artist and researcher Igor Dolgopolov in 1973. And indeed, looking at the paintings of Yuri Ivanovich, we are imbued with love for Soviet life, new quarters, lyrical housewarming and urbanism, captured in the technique of impressionism.
Pimenov's work proves once again that everything "Russian", brought from other countries, has its own special and unique path of development. So French impressionism in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union absorbed the features of the Russian worldview, national character and way of life. Impressionism, as a way of conveying only the perception of reality in its pure form, remained alien to Russian art, because every painting by Russian artists is filled with meaning, awareness, the state of the changeable Russian soul, and not just a fleeting impression. Therefore, next weekend, when the Museum of Russian Impressionism will re-present the main exposition to Muscovites and guests of the capital, everyone will find something for themselves among the sensual portraits of Serov, Pimenov's urbanism and landscapes atypical for Kustodiev.
New Moscow
Lyrical housewarming, 1965
Dressing room of the Bolshoi Theatre, 1972
Early morning in Moscow, 1961
Paris. Rue Saint-Dominique. 1958
Stewardess, 1964
Perhaps, for most people, the names of Korovin, Serov, Gerasimov and Pimenov are still not associated with a certain style of art, but the Museum of Russian Impressionism, which opened in May 2016 in Moscow, nevertheless collected the works of these artists under one roof.
