Wgu Iwt1 Task 1
Impressionism is a historical art period that took place during the late 19th century in France. Paintings from this period were usually of everyday outdoor scenes. The artists of this period wanted to develop their own technique where what was painted was not the actual focus of the art, but light itself was considered to be the focus. (Janaro & C, 2009) Paintings from this period were done in quick movements and with vibrant and light colors. Impressionist also used thick strokes of paint and left brush strokes adding a new dimension to the art. The first artists recognized as Impressionist include Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, and Paul Cezanne. (Impressionism, 2000) Famous Impressionist Edouard Manet was significantly influenced by the event of sight and believed that a painting should be an experience of light and color, not just the reproduction of a scene. (Janaro & C, 2009) The image below is of Claude Monet’s “Sunrise” from the Impressionist period. “Sunrise” is of an everyday scene in nature with vibrant colors that appear to be mixed directly on the canvas, which are all characteristics of the Impressionism period. A critic of this type of work during the period was noted as saying this painting reminded him of wallpaper. (Impressionism, 2000)
Impressionism influenced the emergence of Postimpressionism which was similar to its predecessor still being of everyday outdoor scenes and artists expressed themselves freely in the art. (Sporre, 2009) However, artists of this period completely rejected the objective naturalism using color and form in more personal ways expressing a person view of the visual world. (Impressionism, 2000) Post-Impressionist artists deviated from Impressism due to the fact they did not care if the work was a visual experience as Edouard Manet did, they merely expressed themselves through the use of bright colors. One of the more famous artists of this period was Vincent van Gogh who may have been one of the most
Cited: Impressionism. (2000). Retrieved from ORACLE ThinkQuest Education Foundation: http://library.thinkquest.org/J002045F/impressionism.htm?tql-iframe (Impressionism, 2000)
Janaro, R. P., & C, A. (2009). The Art of Being Human: The Humanities as a Technique for Living 9th Edition. New York: Pearson Education, Inc. (Janaro & C, 2009)
Sporre, D. J. (2009). Perceiving the Arts: An introduction to Humanities 9th Edition. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall. (Sporre, 2009)