Impressionism: 1867-1886

The French 19^th century Impressionist movement demonstrated a historic break from traditional European art by employing scientific research into the physics of colour. A new methodology was introduced to realize a more precise depiction of tone and colour, in a style that was designed to portray the impression of an object, as someone would see it in a fleeting glance.

Impressionist artists used the technique of applying small amounts of pure colour to their canvas, rather than traditional broader strokes. Pictures were often very luminous and vivid, capturing the artist’s perception of the subject matter rather than the intricate detail.

The leaders of the movement, Claude Monet, August Renoir, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt became known as Impressionists because a newspaper critic likened their work to mere sketches or impressions, without the finish and polish of fashionable art. To the artists however, the most important aspect of their work was to convey the idea of a particular and brief moment of time. This involved a realism based on the artists’ individual feelings towards a subject, rather the strict reproduction of something for its own sake. They were motivated by a desire to remain “true to nature”, and this was manifest in recording even the most delicate sensations of reflected light.

Pleasant riverside settings depicting middle class leisure time as well as outdoor scenes were consequently very popular among the Impressionists. Where most earlier landscape artists had sketched outdoors and then completed their work in the studio, artists like Renoir and Monet would go into the countryside with all their brushes, oil colours and canvas so that they could stand in an exact position and note what they saw at the time. Every slant of natural light was recorded in a touch of paint like a comma. The colours remained unmixed and concentrated so that it was left to the viewer’s eye to mix them naturally, with the effect that they could subjectively experience the radiating sunlight of the scene through active participation of the artist’s impression.

Although Impressionism covers the majority of art during this time, smaller movements within it were also evident, such as Pointillism, Art Nouveau and Fauvism. The common link was in reducing the emphasis of the object by representing the subjective through the independent expression of the individual. Thus, reality became what the individual saw and the inspiration for modern art was established.