What was it?
Impressionism was the derisive name given to the most important artisticphenomenon of the 19th century and the first of the Modern Movements. Thename was derived from a picture by Monet, Impression, Sunrise (1872: Paris,Musee Marmottan), which represents the play of light on water, with thespectator looking straight into the rising sun. The occasion of the derision wasthe first Impressionist Exhibition, held in 1874, when Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Pissarro, Cezanne, Degas, Guillaumin, Boudin, Berthe Morisot andothers held an independent exhibition. In fact, the true aim of Impressionism was to achieve ever greater naturalism, by exact analysis of tone and colour andby trying to render the play of light on the surface of objects. This is a form ofsensualism in which traditional ideas of composition and drawing - that is,putting a line round a concept — were bound to suffer. Impressionist interestin colour and light was at least partly due to the researches into the physics ofcolour carried out by scientists like Chevreul; and the idea that an object ofany given colour casts a shadow tinged with its complementary (though knownalready to Delacroix) suggested one ofthe principal ways in which they animatedthe surface of their canvases. The flickering touch, with the paint applied insmall, brightly-coloured dabs, and the lack of firm outline, combined with thebrightness of the colour, even in the shadows, and the generally high key,undoubtedly alienated the public. In the course of time these technical devicesbecame petrified into a quasi-scientific method of applying paint (Neo-Impressionism) which was supposed to give the maximum of truth — opticaltruth - to nature: it also led naturally to Post-Impressionism; that is, to a purelyartistic and anti-naturalistic movement. The great decade of Impressionism was1870-80, but most of the major figures, such as Monet, Pissarro and Sisley,continued to produce masterpieces in a more or less Impressionist style formany more years. Degas, and Cezanne were only dubiously Impressionists even in the l870s (many of the original group felt that Cezanne was morethan they could swallow) and they very soon moved away from it. Cezanne said that he wanted 'to make of Impressionism something solid and durable,like the art of the Museums', thus clearly defining the main weakness ofthemovement, its lack of intellectual rigour. Nevertheless, most painting of thelast 100 years has been profoundly affected by it, and even the RA and theSalon would nowadays be lost without it.
There is a large collection in the Museed'Orsay in Paris and there is now also an important collection in the Mus.Marmottan, Passy, Paris; but the very nature of the movement, with its emphasison painting landscapes out of doors and catching the fleeting impression, meantan enormous output of pictures so that they are not difficult to find. The eight Impressionist Exhibitions were held in 1874, 1876, 1877, 1879, 1880, 1881,1882 and 1886.
Source: The Penguin Dictionary of Art and Artists (Penguin Reference Books)
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