Impressionism in 8 Minutes: How It Changed The Course of Art 🎨

[Music] when you think of art in the 1800s you might imagine grand historical subjects mythological scenes and traditional themes lots of them well that's what art used to be before impressionists changed the course of it forever why is impressionism considered such an important art movement what was so groundbreaking about it why do we think of impressionists as the pioneers of modern art many questions that we've got the answers so let's get into it [Music] if you'd like to see more art episodes be sure to give us a like and tell us which topics you want to learn about next in 19th century paris the main art exhibition was called the salon this annual exhibition was organized by the academy of fine arts and the academy loved grand historical subjects mythological scenes and traditional themes we can even say that the jury of the salon had quite a conservative taste the jury got to choose whose works were to be exhibited and those who didn't make the cut got a dramatic ah for rejected stamped on the back of the painting but then came the impressionists who didn't just want to sit around and wait for the salon jury to accept them they wanted to become independent from the salon and its artistic expectations they called themselves the anonymous society of painters sculptors and print makers and they decided to organize their own exhibitions their very first exhibition was held in paris in 1874 at a studio of the french photographer nadar and so the famous modern art movement called impressionism was born the movement was led by artists like claude monet edgar de ga pierro camille gastroenter and berta morisso and during the next 12 years until 1886 impressionists held eight of their own exhibitions in total take that paris salon the term impressionism came from claude monet's painting impression sunrise this famous work shows the harbour of the city of la java in northern france an art critic called louis leroy called this painting an impression but he meant it in a bad way and described the work as unfinished little did he know how popular impressionism was going to get imagine his face if he knew the prices of monet's works at auctions today compared to academic painting exhibited at the paris salon impressionists work looked different indeed they seemed more casual and informal with loose brush strokes and a tendency not to copy everything realistically from nature [Music] so is rejected showing historical biblical mythological or allegorical subjects um they in fact love showing modern life and paris was rebuilt during the 19th century so it became a real urban center and the population grew so all the public places were always filled with people and impressionists found inspiration in that and in those new experiences that a modern city could offer many impressionists ditched the studio and went outside they loved painting outdoors or should we say on plein air this is one of the reasons why their canvases weren't too big smaller canvases were easier to carry and transport around impressionists also loved playing with light and color in their paintings we can see best how light can affect the mood and atmosphere of a place when looking at impressionist works let's look at the round cathedral series by monet where we have the same place painted over and over again but in different ways the time of day and the weather affects the light the colour and the atmosphere of the place and it makes it a bit different each time synthetic paints in tubes developed during the 19th century also made it possible for impressionists to use new shades of colours these artists tended to show complementary colors like red and green violet and yellow and blue and orange painted next to each other and not blended together this way the colors seemed more intense and you can probably notice that the impressionists didn't use a lot of dark tones or a lot of black during monae's funeral the french statesman georges clemenceau even removed the black cloth that was draped over the coffin and said no no black for monet black is not a color a number of impressionist works show leisurely activities of middle class french society we can see scenes of swimming and boating sitting in cafes or going to the opera in works like the colorful bald mulan de we see people interacting dancing talking flirting and enjoying themselves in the bohemian mon matra district in paris wherever we look we see urban life happening renoir used loose brushstrokes and colours that make the whole scene look sunlit and lively the artist often painted scenes from modern life we can also look at his work la lege where a man and a woman are sitting in the theater it's good to know that these parisians often went to the theater and the opera not just for the show but to be seen and see who else will be there while painters like renoir and cassatt showed us what the audience looked like the famous impressionist edgar degas often painted what was happening on stage degas spent many years painting ballerinas back then most ballet dancers came from working class backgrounds and many of the young teenage ballerinas in training also known as putirat were sexually exploited dager himself also wasn't always nice to these young ballerinas making his models pose for hours in uncomfortable positions he even called them the little monkey girls you might be wondering were there any women impressionists and the answer is yes women impressionists like berta morisso and mary cassatt focused on depicting the upper classes of the french society and they both came from wealthy families themselves so in their paintings these two artists show the lives of bourgeoisie women and they painted private spaces that they had access to because of their gender they often depicted domestic subjects since women had restricted access to other places that men painted morrisseau's work the cradle was exhibited at the first impressionist exhibition in 1874. the work shows her sister with a baby so a very intimate moment indeed mary cassatt also painted scenes from domestic life in her work little girl in a blue armchair we see a fashionably dressed child during her private moment and within a private space looking bored while sitting next to her dog [Music] as you can see impressionists embraced modernity and moved away from biblical historical or mythological scenes they celebrated the topics taken from everyday life they took the freedom to show scenes from parisian cafes or nearby bathing spots these artists also showed the world that things didn't always have to be represented realistically they wanted to depict their own way of looking at things and show the atmosphere of a place during their time the impressionist way of looking at art was considered revolutionary in many ways impressionism was defining for many modern art movements that were yet to come and it's safe to say that it affected the course of modern art greatly [Music] hey muses so what's your impression of impressionism which artist or artwork did you enjoy most be sure to share your thoughts in the comments and don't forget to subscribe to our channel for more great content like this one also find us on instagram for your daily dose of culture from curious muse [Music] you

Channel: Curious Muse

Views: 264,992

Keywords: impressionism, impressionism art, impressionists, impressionist artists, classical art, modern art, contemporary art, european art, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot, Louis Leroy, en plein aire, edouard manet, Mary Cassat, art education, art videos, impression sunrise, Bal du Moulin de Galette, salon des refuses, curious muse, curious muse art, best art, best artists, impressionist paintings, artworks, art history, artube

Id: 3jhHX_tpy70

Length: 8min 50sec (530 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 17 2021