what's impressionism?

Question

art

Answer 1

The name Impressionism comes from Claude Monet's painting Impression: Sunrise, which was shown at an exhibition in 1874. A critic used the word to make fun of all the works in the show, but the artists later adopted the word to describe themselves.

The impressionist style of painting is characterized chiefly by concentration on the general impression produced by a scene or object and the use of unmixed primary colors and small strokes to simulate actual reflected light.

Impressionism, French Impressionnisme, a major movement, first in painting and later in music, that developed chiefly in France during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Impressionist painting comprises the work produced between about 1867 and 1886 by a group of artists who shared a set of related approaches and techniques. The most conspicuous characteristic of Impressionism was an attempt to accurately and objectively record visual reality in terms of transient effects of light and colour. The principal Impressionist painters were Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Berthe Morisot, Armand Guillaumin, and Frédéric Bazille, who worked together, influenced each other, and exhibited together independently. Edgar Degas and Paul Cézanne also painted in an Impressionist style for a time in the early 1870s. The established painter Édouard Manet, whose work in the 1860s greatly influenced Monet and others of the group, himself adopted the Impressionist approach about 1873.

Answer 2

A very interesting statement. Impressionism implies that an art work from this style should represent some concrete object or idea of reality in an approximate and vague manner. The first condition that therefore must be fulfilled is that the source object or idea is specific and well-defined. The second condition that hereafter must be met is that the work truly yields an impression of that object or idea It is easily observed that in Debussy's piano preludes as an example both of these conditions are met and are prime examples of an impressionistic style. The fact that all music is relatively abstract since it is lost in time and more fluid-like as compared to a physical painting or art statue does not take away that the impressionistic association between object/idea and art work exists. Furthermore, the fact that our association is formed by the labels Debussy attaches to each of those pieces does not matter too much. 'Le vent dans la pleine' is likely to evoke similar associations even if we did not know the title Debussy attached to it. For music from Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Scriabin, Chopin, Rachmaninoff or Prokofiev and others it is hard to draw similar conclusions if we consider their whole oeuvre. In my opinion it is the definite association between source idea/object and composition that is lacking and does not allow us to speak of impressions for these composers. For me this argument could even be applied to Ravel. In my opinion there is thus room for compatibility and meaningful application in the context of music and I think one has the best chance of finding such style in program music. Maybe film scores rely upon creating impressions in combination with animated images. It is unlikely that music from before the twentieth century will be really impressionistic since obviously Debussy used non tonal harmony to create impressionistic effects. Non tonal harmony was not explored extensively before 1900 to the purpose of such effects. Despite the foregoing, I do agree that impressionism as a label for Debussy's music is inappropriate since ultimately though his music creates impressions it is evidently real music and not some approximation to it. The label impressionism then seems to indicate a limited scope in his music and rather the opposite is true. It would be better to speak of impressionistic features or style elements and I personally prefer the term 'realism' to describe Debussy's works since they mimic to a high degree the source objects/ideas.

Answer 3

Impressionism, is a take on what a artist see's. Basically a rough sketch (painting) of what the artist is looking at. It isn't done the traditional realism way. Impressionist paintings are usually textured, or done with a pallette knife. Or thick paint on a bbrush.

Answer 4

In layman's terms it was a style of painting originating in France in the late 1800s that aimed to capture a "quick impression" of the subject. Instead of taking hours to capture the painstaking details, the painter would use many small, rough brush strokes.

It was the "polaroid" photo of the times.

In impressionistic paintings, you have to step away from the painting to see the full picture. If you stand close to it, it will just look like blurry dashes and swishes.