Impressionism: Origins, Characteristics, and Cultural Impact
Impressionism: Historical and Cultural Context
The Impressionist movement emerged in Paris during the second half of the 19th century. The city’s boulevards, parks, and expositions, including the Eiffel Tower, became prominent features. Artists and intellectuals gathered in cafes, discussing art, politics, and literature, identifying with the bohemian lifestyle. While the art world was still largely controlled by the Academy, Impressionists applied Chevreul’s color theory to their works. The creation of industrial paints encouraged outdoor painting, and the discovery of photography freed painting from the need to replicate reality, opening new technical possibilities. The arrival of Japanese art in Paris, with its flat colors and unique treatment of light, also significantly influenced these artists.
Features of Impressionist Art
The name “Impressionism” originated in 1874 when a group of artists, rejected by the academic establishment, organized an exhibition in Paris. Monet’s painting “Impression, Sunrise” led a critic to label the exhibition as “the Impressionists’ exhibition.” The movement was primarily pictorial, focusing on the inconstant aspects of things, with little interest in sculpture. French painters developed their style between 1870 and 1880, initially struggling to sell their art. Impressionism shifted from conceptual to perceptive art, emphasizing light and color over form. They depicted landscapes in a process of abstraction, anticipating abstract art. They pushed realism to its limits, capturing reality at a specific moment, painting outdoors with a quick and light technique. Japanese art heavily influenced them, particularly in the importance of water and its effects on light. Their paintings were relatively small, with a focus on bright colors and contrasts, often not mixing colors on the palette. They frequently repeated themes under various lighting conditions.
Cultural and Historical Context
The cultural and historical context of Impressionism shares features with Neoclassicism, including the Industrial Revolution, the rise of the proletariat, and advancements in transportation. The period was marked by bourgeois revolutions, with the bourgeoisie challenging absolutist and monarchic restorations in the riots of 1820, 1830, and 1848, often with the support of the proletariat and intellectuals. Nationalism emerged, leading to the unification of Germany and Italy, as well as the independence of Greece and Belgium. Intellectuals, like Lord Byron, supported the Greek cause. The wide dissemination of media, such as newspapers and magazines, facilitated the rapid spread of artistic ideas and methods. Philosophies of Kant, Fichte, and Rousseau also influenced the movement, with Kant emphasizing sentiment, Fichte focusing on individual consciousness, and Rousseau advocating for a love of nature and passions.
Features of Romantic Art
Neoclassicism and Romanticism are fundamentally opposed movements, though their boundaries were not always clear, with mutual influences (e.g., the Marseillaise on the Arc de Triomphe). Both sought an escape from reality, but differed in their direction. Romantic art was closely tied to literature, with works like Goethe’s Faust embodying the romantic spirit. The romantic attitude permeated all aspects of life, with artists living as such. The movement embraced the exotic world, including the East, the pre-Renaissance, and the Middle Ages (Historicism), as well as fantasy, luxury, and exuberance. There was a break with classical tradition and the academy in both thematic (with new issues like historical or contemporary revolutionary themes) and technical aspects (with complex compositions and casual views). Romanticism valued diversity over uniformity, exalting individualism and national traditions. It also embraced the irrational, the imaginary, and the dream world, with a taste for the fantastic and unreal, as well as religiosity and mysticism. There was a taste for adventure, risk, and struggle, with the figure of the dissatisfied individual always searching for a vital purpose. Emotion and the expression of pain were central, and beauty was not always the main objective. The movement valued ingenuity, not as a sketch of previous work, but as a short, complete piece. Nature was a source of inspiration, where man sought refuge in search of happiness.