Exhibition Brochure | Brochure Images | Related Information Introduction | Impressionism | Group Exhibitions | The Paris Suburbs | Impressions of Nature
Impressionist Techniques | Landscapes of Modernity | Leisure | Group Dynamics
Impressionism
During
the late 1860s and 1870s the impressionists developed a style of painting
that departed radically from existing traditions of European art. Rejecting
the notion that high art should represent elevated subjects from mythology,
history, or religious sources, these avant-garde artists turned their
attention to the people, sites, and scenes of their own age. One contemporary
critic wrote: "To paint what they see, to reproduce nature without
interpreting it and without arranging it, seems to be the goal of these
artists." The impressionists wished to capture momentary effects,
such as the flux and movement of modern life or the fleeting properties
of light on forms in nature, and they devised new techniques of painting
to achieve this aim. Their broken brushwork, irregular surfaces, heightened
color, and sense of spontaneity gave physical expression to their perceptions
of a particular time and place. Contemporaries regarded the paintings
as crude and sketchy, and at the first public exhibition of these works,
the artists were disparagingly called mere "impressionists"
by the conservative art critic Louis Leroy.
Impressionist Techniques | Landscapes of Modernity | Leisure | Group Dynamics