Realism /Impressionism/Post-Impressionism
Realism,
Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism are all styles of rebellion. At that time
(the 19th Century), institutions focused solely on academic styles--Neo-classical
and Romantic. It was appropriate to paint only certain subjects, things worthy
of art, and in certain ways. However, some artists didn’t agree with these
rules. They rejected artistic traditions, bringing art to ordinary life and
valuing art for art’s sake, not as a tool.
Realistic
artists attempted to show life as it really is: nature is cruel, social
inequality exists, most people are plain, and, ultimately, life is hard. An
example of realistic art is Millet’s The
Gleaners in the Musee d’Orsay.
The
Impressionists’ objective was to capture one’s emotion about and own
perspective of the subject rather than painting the subject perfectly (just the
right shade of paint, clear and distinct lines, etc.). They met this objective
by not mixing their paint, by painting on location (even if outside), by using
quick brush strokes, and by giving hazy and blurry effects, dreamlike in many
ways. Over all, they were not perfectionists in their painting. Capturing
emotion and light was more important than capturing realistic representation of
the subject. Some examples from the Impressionist paintings that I saw include:
Renoir’s A Dance in the City (Orsay)
and The Lecture (Louvre), Morisot’s La Berceau (Orsay), and Monet’s The Area around Honfleur (Louvre).
Renoir's The Lecture.
I wasn't expecting to come across a Renoir in the Louvre, so when I did, I almost cried.
Monet's The Area around Honfleur, also located in the Louvre.
The
Post-Impressionists were not members of the Impressionist group, but lived at
the same time and had the same objectives and subjects as the Impressionists. Their
technique was slightly different though. They painted more solid shapes and
forms than the Impressionists, and used color arbitrarily. Again, the emotion
was more important than the reality. If that meant that the sky was green and
the grass was blue, then so be it. Van Gogh’s paintings are prime examples of
this emotional use of color. His painting Church
at Auvers, in the Musee d’Orsay, doesn’t really look like the actual church
(the lines are skewed and the sky is almost night time blue, even though the
grass has sunlight on it) but it captures his feelings at the moment he painted
it.
A Post-Impressionist sculptor, Auguste Rodin, like the painters, sculpted more emotion into his works than he did reality.
One
of my new favorite Post-Impressionist paintings is Fountain in the Park of Sanssouci Palace by Theo van Rysselberghe,
another great example of Post-Impressionism. His style is different than Van
Gogh’s, but he still captures the light and emotion in this painting.
Rysselberghe's Fountain in the Park of Sanssouci Palace, located in the Neue Pinakothek in Munich.
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