The Origin and History of Impressionism

Impressionism was a major movement in painting that developed during the late 19th and early 20th Century. Impressionism started as a rebellion of a few artists in Paris around 1863, against a strict art establishment. One day they took their easels, went to a nearby forest and started painting in open air. They painted with swift, rapid brush strokes trying to catch the impression of the moment. They showed the effects of light.

One of the artists, Monet, tried to capture effects of light and weather on the spot.

In the landscape paintings, Impressionists used rapid brush strokes to capture the effect of the view. They expressed light effects by bold contrasts of colour. The critics did not like this new style of painting; they thought the rapid brushstrokes made the paintings look unfinished and that the colour looked unnatural.

The impact of impressionism on later artistic movements, in particular Fauvism. Impressionists chose to paint everyday scenes from the world they knew.

They experimented with composition – framing or cropping their paintings. Impressionists painted real life landscapes as they saw them. They used vibrant, light colours. Impressionists applied their paint with great brushstrokes – they were not concerned about a beautiful finish.

The style of impressionism was to try and paint real-life paintings with the use of light and colour. The theory of the impressionists was ‘that pure, unmixed colour should be applied to the canvas to create an impression of the subject.’ Post-impressionism then evolved from Impressionism – Post – Impressionism is characterized by bright colour and sharp, outlined edges.

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An example of the Post – impressionists are: Seurat- He explored the effects of one colour on another in pointillism. Van Gogh – He used an expressive use of colour and line. Fauvism then developed from Post – impressionism. It was like a chain… Impressionism influenced Van Gogh and Van Gogh influenced Fauvism. Fauvism was an early twentieth century art movement and a style of painting used in France. The artists were called ‘Fauves’, which is French for ‘Wild beasts’. They were given this name because they used strong, vibrant colours in a wild way. The Fauves greatly admired Van Gogh who said, “Instead of trying to render what I see before me, I use color in a completely arbitrary way to express myself powerfully”.

The Fauvists then carried this idea further – they translated their feelings into colour with a rough and clumsy style. Fauvism was known as a violence of colours – the colours were applied (unmixed) from tubes of paint to a flat surface by a bold sense of surface design. The Fauves used contrasting, non- descriptive colours.

The leader of the Fauves was Henri Matisse, his painting “Woman with the hat” is shown above, it was painted in 1904. While the impressionists were exploring the views of an unemotional observer, Fauves were seeking sensation and emotion.