The word "Impressionism" is derived from the French "impression" - impression. This is a direction of painting that originated in France in the 1860s. and largely determined the development of art in the 19th century. The central figures of this trend were Cezanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley, and the contribution of each of them to its development is unique. The Impressionists opposed the conventions of classicism, romanticism and academism, asserted the beauty of everyday reality, simple, democratic motives, achieved a lively authenticity of the image, tried to capture the “impression” of what the eye sees at a particular moment, without focusing on drawing specific details.
In the spring of 1874, a group of young painters, including Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Degas, Cezanne and Berthe Morisot, neglected the official Salon and staged their own exhibition. 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. The reaction to this innovation from visitors and critics was far from friendly. They accused the artists of writing simply to attract the attention of the public, and not in the way that recognized masters do. The most condescending considered their work as a mockery, as an attempt to play a trick on honest people. It took years of fierce struggle before these, later recognized, classics of painting were able to convince the public not only of their sincerity, but also of their talent.
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. In their favorite genres (landscape, portrait, multi-figure composition), they tried to convey their fleeting impressions of the world around them (scenes on the street, in cafes, sketches of Sunday walks, etc.). The Impressionists portrayed a life full of natural poetry, where a person is in unity with the environment, eternally changeable, striking in richness and sparkling with pure, bright colors.
After the first exhibition in Paris, these artists began to be called impressionists, from the French word "impression" - "impression". This word was suitable for their works, because in them the artists conveyed their direct impression of what they saw. Artists approached the image of the world in a new way. 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 was the last major artistic movement in 19th century France.
This is not to say that the path of the Impressionist artists was easy. At first they were not recognized, their painting was too bold and unusual, they were laughed at. Nobody wanted to buy their paintings. But they stubbornly went their own way. Neither poverty nor hunger could force them to abandon their beliefs. Many years passed, many of the Impressionist painters were no longer alive when their art was finally recognized.
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. This actually ends the history of impressionism as a trend in painting, after which each of the artists went his own way.
One of the paintings presented at the first exhibition of the "independents", as the artists preferred to call themselves, belonged to Claude Monet and was called "Impression. Sunrise". In a newspaper review of the exhibition that appeared the next day, critic L. Leroy scoffed in every possible way at the lack of “formality” in the paintings, ironically inclining the word “impression” in every way, as if replacing true art in the works of young artists. Against expectations, the new word, uttered in mockery, took root and served as the name of the whole movement, since it perfectly expressed the common thing that united all participants in the exhibition - the subjective experience of color, light, space. Trying to express their immediate impressions of things as accurately as possible, artists freed themselves from traditional rules and created a new method of painting.
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, established a direct and feedback relationship between them. The impressionistic method thus became the maximum expression of the very principle of painting. The pictorial approach to the image just involves the identification of the relationship of the subject with the world around it. The new method forced the viewer to decipher not so much the vicissitudes of the plot as the secrets of the painting itself.
The essence of the impressionistic vision of nature and its image lies in the weakening of the active, analytical perception of three-dimensional space and reducing it to the original two-dimensionality of the canvas, determined by a planar visual setting, in the words of A. Hildebrand, “distant looking at nature”, which leads to the distraction of the depicted object from its material qualities, merging with the environment, almost completely turning it into an “appearance”, an appearance that dissolves in light and air. It is no coincidence that P. Cezanne later called the leader of the French Impressionists Claude Monet "only an eye." This "detachment" of visual perception also led to the suppression of the "color of memory", i.e., the connection of color with the usual subject representations and associations, according to which the sky is always blue and the grass is green. The Impressionists could, depending on their vision, paint the sky green and the grass blue. "Objective plausibility" was sacrificed to the laws of visual perception. For example, J. Seurat enthusiastically told everyone how he discovered that the orange coastal sand in the shade is bright blue. Thus, the principle of contrasting perception of complementary colors was put at the basis of the pictorial method.
For an impressionist artist, for the most part, it is not what he depicts that matters, but the “how” is important. The object becomes only an occasion for solving purely pictorial, “visual” tasks. Therefore, impressionism originally had another, later forgotten name - “chromantism” (from the Greek Chroma - color). The Impressionists updated coloring, they abandoned dark, earthy colors and applied pure, spectral colors to the canvas, almost without mixing them first on the palette. The naturalism of impressionism consisted in the fact that the most uninteresting, ordinary, prosaic turned into beautiful, as soon as the artist saw the subtle nuances of gray and blue there.
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. The Impressionists were the first to break with the traditional principles of spatial painting dating back to the Renaissance and Baroque. They used asymmetrical compositions to better highlight the characters and objects they were interested in. But the paradox was that, having abandoned the naturalism of academic art, destroying its canons and declaring the aesthetic value of fixing everything fleeting, random, the Impressionists remained captive to naturalistic thinking and, moreover, in many ways it was a step backwards. One can recall the words of O. Spengler that "Rembrandt's landscape lies somewhere in the endless spaces of the world, while Claude Monet's landscape is close to the railway station"
Impressionism is a trend in painting that originated in France in the 19th-20th centuries, which is an artistic attempt to capture any moment of life in all its variability and mobility. Impressionist paintings are like a qualitatively washed-out photograph, reviving in fantasy the continuation of the story seen. In this article, we take a look at 10 of the world's most famous impressionists. Fortunately, there are more than ten, twenty or even a hundred talented artists, so let's focus on those names that you need to know for sure.
In order not to offend either the artists or their admirers, the list is given in Russian alphabetical order.
1. Alfred Sisley
This French painter of English origin is considered the most famous landscape painter of the second half of the 19th century. There are more than 900 paintings in his collection, of which the most famous are “Country Alley”, “Frost in Louveciennes”, “Bridge in Argenteuil”, “Early Snow in Louveciennes”, “Lawns in Spring”, and many others.
2. Van Gogh
Known to the whole world for the sad story about his ear (by the way, he did not cut off the whole ear, but only the lobe), Wang Gon became popular only after his death. And in his life he was able to sell a single painting, 4 months before his death. It is said that he was both an entrepreneur and a priest, but often ended up in psychiatric hospitals due to depression, so all the rebelliousness of his existence resulted in legendary works.
3. Camille Pissarro
Pissarro was born on the island of St. Thomas, in a family of bourgeois Jews, and was one of the few impressionists whose parents encouraged his hobby and soon sent him to Paris to study. Most of all, the artist liked nature, and he depicted it in all colors, and more precisely, Pissarro had a special talent for choosing the softness of colors, compatibility, after which air seemed to appear in the paintings.
4. Claude Monet
From childhood, the boy decided that he would become an artist, despite the prohibitions of the family. Having moved to Paris on his own, Claude Monet plunged into the gray everyday life of a hard life: two years in the service in the armed forces in Algeria, litigation with creditors due to poverty, illness. However, one gets the feeling that the difficulties did not oppress, but rather inspired the artist to create such vivid paintings as “Impression, Sunrise”, “Parliament Building in London”, “Bridge to Europe”, “Autumn in Argenteuil”, “On the Shore Trouville, and many others.
5. Konstantin Korovin
It is nice to know that among the French, the parents of impressionism, one can proudly place our compatriot Konstantin Korovin. Passionate love for nature helped him intuitively give unimaginable liveliness to a static picture, thanks to the combination of suitable colors, width of strokes, choice of theme. It is impossible to pass by his paintings "Pier in Gurzuf", "Fish, Wine and Fruit", "Autumn Landscape", "Moonlight Night. Winter” and a series of his works dedicated to Paris.
6. Paul Gauguin
Until the age of 26, Paul Gauguin did not even think about painting. He was an entrepreneur and had a large family. However, when I first saw the paintings of Camille Pissarro, I decided that I would certainly begin to paint. Over time, the artist's style has changed, but the most famous impressionistic paintings are Garden in the Snow, By the Cliff, On the Beach in Dieppe, Nude, Palms in Martinique and others.
7. Paul Cezanne
Cezanne, unlike most of his colleagues, became famous during his lifetime. He managed to organize his own exhibition and gain considerable income from it. People knew a lot about his paintings - he, like no one else, learned to combine the play of light and shadow, made a loud emphasis on regular and irregular geometric shapes, the severity of the themes of his paintings were in harmony with romance.
8. Pierre Auguste Renoir
Until the age of 20, Renoir worked as a fan decorator for his older brother, and only then he moved to Paris, where he met Monet, Basil and Sisley. This acquaintance helped him in the future to take the road of impressionism and become famous on it. Renoir is known as the author of a sentimental portrait, among his most outstanding works are “On the Terrace”, “Walk”, “Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary”, “The Lodge”, “Alfred Sisley and his Wife”, “On the Swing”, “The Frog” and a lot others.
9. Edgar Degas
If you haven't heard anything about the "Blue Dancers", "Ballet Rehearsals", "Ballet School" and "Absinthe" - hurry up to learn more about the work of Edgar Degas. The selection of original colors, unique themes for paintings, the feeling of movement of the picture - all this and much more made Degas one of the most famous artists in the world.
10. Edouard Manet
Do not confuse Manet with Monet - these are two different people who worked at the same time and in the same artistic direction. Manet was always attracted by everyday scenes, unusual appearances and types, as if by chance "caught" moments, subsequently captured for centuries. Among the famous paintings of Manet: "Olympia", "Breakfast on the Grass", "Bar at the Folies Bergère", "Flutist", "Nana" and others.
If you have even the slightest opportunity to see the paintings of these masters live, you will fall in love with impressionism forever!
Impressionism (impressionnisme) is a style of painting that appeared at the end of the 19th century in France and then spread throughout the world. The very idea of impressionism lies in its name: impression - impression. Artists who were tired of traditional academic painting techniques, which, in their opinion, did not convey all the beauty and liveliness of the world, began to use completely new techniques and methods of depiction, which were supposed to express in the most accessible form not a “photographic” look, but an impression from what you see. In his painting, the impressionist artist, using the nature of strokes and color palette, tries to convey the atmosphere, heat or cold, strong wind or peaceful silence, foggy rainy morning or bright sunny afternoon, as well as his personal experiences from what he saw.
Impressionism is a world of feelings, emotions and fleeting impressions. It is not external realism or naturalness that is valued here, but the realism of the expressed sensations, the internal state of the picture, its atmosphere, depth. Initially, this style was heavily criticized. The first Impressionist paintings were exhibited at the Salon des Les Misérables in Paris, where works by artists rejected by the official Paris Art Salon were exhibited. For the first time the term "Impressionism" was used by the critic Louis Leroy, who wrote a disparaging review in the magazine "Le Charivari" about the exhibition of artists. As the basis for the term, he took the painting by Claude Monet “Impression. Rising Sun". He called all artists impressionists, which can be roughly translated as "impressionists." At first, the paintings were indeed criticized, but soon more and more fans of the new direction in art began to come to the salon, and the genre itself turned from an outcast into a recognized one.
It is worth noting that the artists of the late 19th century in France did not come up with a new style out of nowhere. They took as a basis the techniques of the painters of the past, including the artists of the Renaissance. Such painters as El Greco, Velazquez, Goya, Rubens, Turner and others, long before the emergence of impressionism, tried to convey the mood of the picture, the liveliness of nature, the special expressiveness of the weather with the help of various intermediate tones, bright or vice versa dull strokes that looked like abstract things. In their paintings, they used it quite sparingly, so the unusual technique was not evident to the viewer. The Impressionists, on the other hand, decided to take these depiction methods as the basis for their works.
Another specific feature of the works of the Impressionists is a kind of superficial everydayness, which, however, contains incredible depth. They do not try to express any deep philosophical themes, mythological or religious tasks, historical and important events. The paintings of artists of this direction are inherently simple and everyday - landscapes, still lifes, people walking down the street or doing their usual things, and so on. It is precisely such moments where there is no excessive thematicity that distracts a person, feelings and emotions from what they see come to the fore. Also, the Impressionists, at least at the beginning of their existence, did not depict "heavy" topics - poverty, wars, tragedies, suffering, and so on. Impressionist paintings are most often the most positive and joyful works, where there is a lot of light, bright colors, smoothed chiaroscuro, smooth contrasts. Impressionism is a pleasant impression, the joy of life, the beauty of every moment, pleasure, purity, sincerity.
The most famous impressionists were such great artists as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro and many others.
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Alfred Sisley - Lawns in Spring
Camille Pissarro - Boulevard Montmartre. Afternoon, sunny.
The direction of I. developed in France in the last. third of the 19th century - early 20th century and went through 3 steps:
1860-70s - early I.
1874-80s - mature I.
90s of the 19th century - late I.
The name of the direction I. came from the name of the painting by C. Monet “Impression. The Rising Sun, written in 1872.
Origins: the work of the "small" Dutch (Vermeer), E. Delacroix, G. Courbet, F. Millet, K. Corot, the artists of the Barbizon school - they all tried to capture the subtlest moods of nature, atmosphere, performing small sketches in nature.
Japanese engraving, an exhibition of which was held in Paris in 1867, where for the first time whole series of images of the same object were shown at different times of the year, day, etc. (“100 Views of Mount Fuji”, Tokaido Station, etc.)
Aesthetic principles AND.:
Rejection of the conventions of classicism; rejection of historical, biblical, mythological subjects, mandatory for classicism;
Work in the open air (except for E. Degas);
Transfer of an instant impression, which includes observation and study of the surrounding reality in various manifestations;
Impressionist painters expressed in paintings not only what they see(as in realism) but how they see(subjective principle);
The Impressionists, as artists of the city, tried to capture it in all its diversity, dynamics, speed, diversity of clothes, advertisements, movement (C. Monet “Boulevard des Capucines in Paris”;
Impressionist painting is characterized by democratic motives, which affirmed the beauty of everyday life; plots - this is a modern city, with its entertainment: cafes, theaters, restaurants, circuses (E. Manet, O. Renoir, E. Degas). It is important to note the poetic nature of the motives of the image;
New forms of painting: framing, sketching, etude, small sizes of works in order to emphasize the fleetingness of the impression, violating the integrity of objects;
The plot of the Impressionist paintings was not basic and typical, as in the realistic direction of the 19th century, but random (not a performance, a rehearsal - E. Degas: a ballet series);
- "mixture of genres": landscape, everyday genre, portrait and still life (E. Manet - "Bar in the Folies-Bergere";
Instantaneous image of the same object at different times of the year, day (C. Monet - “Haystacks”, “Poplars”, a series of images of the Rouen Cathedral, water lilies, etc.)
The creation of a new pictorial system to preserve the freshness of the instantaneous impression: the decomposition of complex tones into pure colors - separate strokes of pure color that blended in the eye of the viewer with a bright color range. The painting of the Impressionists is a variety of commas-strokes, which gives the paint layer quivering and relief;
The special role of water in its image: water as a mirror, a vibrating color medium (C. Monet "Rocks in Belle-Ile").
From 1874 to 1886, the Impressionists held 8 exhibitions; after 1886, Impressionism begins to decompose as a holistic trend into neo-impressionism and post-impressionism.
Representatives of French impressionism: Edouard Manet, Claude Monet - the founder of I., Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro.
Russian impressionism is characterized:
A more accelerated development of impressionism in its "pure form", because. this trend in Russian painting appears in the late 80s of the 19th century;
Great prolongation in time (I. appears as a stylistic coloring in the works of major Russian artists: V. Serov, K. Korovin)
Great contemplation and lyricism, "rural version" (compared to the "urban" French): I. Grabar - "February Blue", "March Snow", "September Snow";
Depiction of purely Russian themes (V. Serov, I. Grabar);
Greater interest in a person (V. Serov "Girl illuminated by the sun" "Girl with peaches";
Less dynamization of perception;
Romantic coloration.
Presentation " Impressionism in painting"will introduce the works of outstanding French artists: Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley and Auguste Renoir, will talk about the revolution that they made in art.
Impressionism in painting
On the origin of the term impressionism ”I’ll just say for the sake of order, I’m sure that my inquisitive reader has known about this since his school years. The term first appeared in a critical article in the newspaper Sharivari”, dedicated to the exhibition of artists who decided to show works not accepted by the Salon, where at that time academic art was welcomed. Our freedom-loving heroes, not wanting to obey any rules, obtained permission from Emperor Napoleon III to arrange their own exhibition. The first such action in 1863 was called " Outcast Salon". Ten years later, the artists exhibited again. At this exhibition, among other works that shocked the public, there was also the now famous painting all over the world. Claude Monet "Impression. Sunrise”, which gave a name to a wonderful direction in art.
Impressionist artists existed and there are a lot. My presentation is devoted only to the work of the five most prominent. Any creative person is well aware of how difficult it is to stay true to your ideas in an authoritarian society. Our heroes often found themselves in a hopeless situation, not having the means to feed their families (Camille Pissarro, for example, had seven children!).
Art and science
The discoveries of the Impressionists in the field of art were inextricably linked with the scientific discoveries and creative insights of their predecessors. The main rule of the Impressionist painters was the condition of work en plein air. This idea was not new. They painted their wonderful, lively landscapes in the open air. But neither the Barbizons nor the Impressionists would have been able to work in the air if, in 1841, the American portrait painter John Rend had not invented tin, shrink tube for oil paints. The invention of photography also could not but affect the fate of painting. By the way, one of the first professional photographers, Ralph Nadar, was a friend of the Impressionists, and they arranged their first exhibitions in his studio.
"Dry theory, my friend..."
Unlike painting, we will not find depth and sincerity in the landscapes of the Impressionists. The task of the heroes of my presentation was to capture on the canvas the momentary state of the air environment. The main character of the Impressionist painters was not nature, but light and air changing every moment. Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley tried to catch these changes. It is this desire that we owe to the existence of the famous series of Claude Monet: Haystacks, Rouen Cathedral, Gare Saint-Lazare, Poplars, London Parliament Building, Nymphaeums and others. On the site Gallerix.ru you can see these pictures in good quality.
Impressionist ideas
No color exists on its own. Form and colors are inseparable concepts. Light evokes forms. Light disappears, forms and colors disappear.
Every color is made up of the elements of sunlight, that is, of the 7 tones of the spectrum.
What used to be called local tone is a delusion: the leaf is not green, the tree trunk is not brown.
Air is the only real plot of the picture, only through it we see everything that is depicted on it.
The painter must write only with seven colors of the spectrum and expel all the rest from the palette. This is what Claude Monet boldly did, adding only white and black. Then, instead of composing mixtures on a palette, he must introduce only strokes of seven pure colors onto the canvas, laying them one next to the other, leaving the individual colors to enter into mixtures already in the eye of the viewer, therefore, acting as light itself does. . This is the theory of the decomposition of tones, which is the main basis of the technique of the Impressionists.
Light becomes the only plot of the picture, interest in the objects on which it plays becomes secondary.
Volynsky. green tree of life
“The Impressionists transformed the perception of painting and nature. It is unlikely that after them there will be an art lover or artist who dares to say that the sky is just blue, snow is white, and grass is green. Without noticing it, we now look at the world through the prism of impressionistic painting. They opened up the possibility of seeing not only a certain object, but "what lives between the artist and the subject of the image." Of course, they had great predecessors, but it was the Impressionists who opened the window to the world of sun and air so wide.”
Fomina N.N.
The Arthive website has an interesting material dedicated to the Impressionists: “ Traveling in France with the Impressionists. Fans of impressionistic art will be interested.
If you decide to watch my presentation, then do not be too lazy to download it to your computer (it, however, turned out to be very heavy, I wanted to make it beautiful, and the png format is heavy). Otherwise, many animation effects will not work.
References:
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- Encyclopedia for children. T.7. Art. – M.: Avanta+, 2000.
- Encyclopedia. Scenery. - M .: "OLMA-PRESS Education", 2002.
- Great artists. Volume 72. Camille Jacob Pissarro. - M .: Publishing house "Direct-Media", 2011.
- Beckett V. History of painting. - M .: Astrel Publishing House LLC: AST Publishing House LLC, 2003.
- Great artists. Volume 25. Edgar Hilaire Germe Degas. - M .: Publishing house "Direct-Media", 2010.
- Great artists. Volume 59. Alfred Sisley. - M .: Publishing house "Direct-Media", 2010.
- Great artists. Volume 4. Claude Monet. - M .: Publishing house "Direct-Media", 2009.
- Emokhonova L.G. World Artistic Culture: Proc. Allowance for students. avg. ped. textbook establishments. - M .: Publishing Center "Academy", 1998.
- Lvova E.P., Sarabyanov D.V., Borisova E.A., Fomina N.N., Berezin V.V., Kabkova E.P., Nekrasova L.M. World Art. XIX century. Visual arts, music, theater. ‒ St. Petersburg: Peter, 2007.
- Raymond Konya. Pissarro. - M.: Slovo, 1995
- Samin D.K. One hundred great artists. – M.: Veche, 2004.
Good luck!
