Impressionist Movement

Impressionist movement The impressionist movement was a powerful part of the art culture in the late 1800’s. The impressionist, as well as futurist, cubist and others wanted to break free from the representative nature of the previous artworks. Artists during this time felt that art was also capable of representing the human condition and offer a glance inside the obscure mind of the artist. The 1800th century was a great period in France’s art history. This was due in part because of the new art institutions that were established in the early eighteenth century, which spawned several generations of talented French artists. However, at this time gender was a large component of art’s focus and of the restrictions of the artists themselves. Although Caillebotte and Morisot are similar for being impressionists and in representing moments of leisure, they are different because of the limitations in subject matter between the artist’s gender, the type of subjects shown and how they represent modernity. For the majority of history, painting has been a predominately male endeavor. In general, females were excluded from just about every avenue of higher education and art institutes where no exception. Of course, there were classically trained female artist but they were generally self-taught. These conjectures about women in society had also placed many restrictions in the subject matter that women were allowed to address. Classically trained artists that were women weren’t allowed to portray the nude male form. In the case of impressionist, Morisot was only allowed to paint little girls, mothers or other women only because of the fact that she herself was a woman. Hence, that is why in The Basket Chair painting we see that the subject matter is of a little girl. Alternatively, because of the fact the Caillebotte was a man, he was able to depict whatever he chose with a free range between men and women. Hence, in The Orange Trees painting we can clearly see a man and