The Impressionist Movement

The Impressionist era centered in France during the late 19th century, where the volatile political and social climate provided a fertile soil for the birth of an art movement that went against the grain of the traditional. The movement's name came from Monet's early work, Impression: A Sunrise, which was singled out for criticism by an art critique Louis Leroy on its exhibition. This art at first was viewed as controversial and it was considered to threaten the values that fine art meant to uphold. Only when Camille Pisaro died in 1903 have the critiques agreed that this movement was the main 19th century artistic revolution and that all its members were among the finest painters.

Édouard Manet is considered the inventor of modern art and the grand father of Impressionism. His painting "Lunchen on the Grass" stir up a scandal but young artists

The first large exhibition of Impressionism was held in 1874. "The Exposition des Impressionistes" was comprised entirely of Impressionist paintings rejected by the formal Salons "Le Salon Refusés". The original movement comprises the work produced between 1867 and 1886 by a group of artist who shared similar techniques and approaches. Some of the most influential impressionistic painters were Claude Monet, Pierre August Renoir, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Alfred Sisley, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro and Armand Guillaumin..

The Impressionist Style and the artists:

The Impressionist painters were faced with the difficult challenge of trying to capture an intense, fleeting impression of nature in true color and light. A painting was typically completed in a very short timeframe to capture the true essence of light. The brushstrokes were left as applied emanating beauty and spontaneity within the painting.

The perfect example is Monet's series of Watter Lilies. Here the painter demonstrates the different moods of the changing seasons, the time of day, and the available light, as he captures the essence of a moment in time.

August Renoir, is perhaps the only painter said Octave Mirbeau who never produced a sad painting. In his painting he created an immage of happiness.

Edgar Degas did not fit in the exact deffinition of Impressionism but he was never the less one of its dedicated driving force. With his eccentric view points he gave the human body a new interpretation. The hallmark of his art was the world of theatre, dance and music. Degas devoted most of his attention to ballerinas rehearsing or on stage.

Some of the most well known Impressionist were also part of the Post Impressionist era. There is no well deffined style of Post Impressionism but in general it is less casual and more emotionnaly charged than Impressionist work. The classic Post Impressionist were Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh

Paul Cézanne was facinated with by color, shape and form. He was a key figure in the transition of 19th centry to 20th century art.

Paul Gauguin, said " ....don't copy nature too much. Art is an abstraction"

In the Stary Night everything swirls at night in St. Remy. It seems that the artist Vincent van Gogh, has expelled his inner conflict onto a canvas.