What is Impressionism?

if you want to understand modern air it's a good idea to take a look at the various schools and movements that came before it our history tends to be broken up into a procession of movements or isms romanticism neoclassicism cubism so on of all of these isms perhaps the most important to understanding modern art is Impressionism a style of painting that began in Paris in the mid to late nineteenth century today impressionist artworks are almost universally admired they fetch insane prices at auction and the artists involved to become quite famous among them household names such as Monet Degas and Renoir it is interesting to note that despite how admired Impressionism is today at the time it was created almost everyone from critics and the art establishment to the general public itself hated it you may look at these paintings and wonder how anyone could possibly hate them to our eyes they seem quite pleasant and generally inoffensive a far cry from the shock art that elicits similar reactions today and yet the critics of the time attacked Impressionism as if it were an existential threat to their very way of life which in fact it was for his innocuous and innocent of these paintings seem they signal the death of the old artistic systems and the beginnings of something new which would eventually come to be called modern heirs understanding Impressionism is therefore key to understanding modern art itself so today we are going to take a look at the Impressionists their artworks and the rapidly changing society they inhabited to try to understand why they were reviled then and adored now the beginnings of Impressionism can be found in the French Academy of Fine Arts which in the 19th century held sway over all artistic production in France the académie des beaux-arts or something like that was a government organization that trained artists ran exhibitions and awarded the major commissions the Academy held a lot of power over artists but by the middle of the 19th century some problems with the system were emerging like many other institutions the Academy disliked change they are pre dogmatic about what subjects and techniques were acceptable and staunchly opposed to dissent in the ranks at the same time however French society was undergoing drastic changes that would soon be felt in all walks of life these changes came in the form of advances in the sciences industrialization and economic developments which led to the emergence of a new middle class this in turn led some artists to begin shifting away from the traditional subjects of the Academy which mainly focused on myth biblical stories and history paintings towards our work which incorporated more modern subjects and techniques some of these modernizing artists included Gustave Courbet and Edouard Manet both of whom were attacked by the academies because of their increasingly modern styles this would mark the beginning of a divide between the traditionalism of the Academy and the changing interests of artists this divide showed most prominently and the works that are being submitted to the annual Academy exhibition the salon which was the major event of the year for artists where they could show their work gained recognition and make sales for about the 1860s onwards the works that are being submitted to the salon began to feature more and more modern subjects and different compositional styles the Academy's response to this was to resoundingly reject these aberrant works these strange new paintings didn't follow the academic style and so they could be easily dismissed or so the Academy thought by 1863 the amount of work that was being rejected from the Academy show was staggering more and more artists were making work that was considered non-traditional and a response the Academy cracked down even harder as you can imagine this was a terrible way to deal with the matter as all it did was draw public attention the outcry led Napoleon the third to decree the creation of the salon to refuse a show of all the art work which the Academy had rejected with the admirable goal of letting public decide for themselves if this emerging modern era was any good or not the salon des refused attracted huge crowds each day thousands of people attended the exhibition and while many of them came to laugh at or scorn the works many more were intrigued among those works shown were paintings by MANET Courbet and Whistler whose work would inspire a group of young painters to begin to similarly disregard the academic traditions this group included Claude Monet Pierre Auguste Renoir Alfred Sisley and Frederick bazzill all of whom would go on to become part of the nascent impressionist movement these young painters were impressed by the non-traditional subject some techniques of the refused artists and in particular the subject of landscape painting genre that was considered a lesser subject by the Academy the Impressionists so take trips out to the countryside to paint and study the landscape where in addition to painting the everyday world as corbeil had before them they also pay close attention to the effects of natural light the depiction of which will become a core tenant of Impressionism academic painters worked for the most part indoors and relied on traditional lighting schemes and techniques to create their realistic effects rather than direct observation the impressionist painters will begin to move away from this as they found that working outside led to brighter and more vibrant paintings than to traditional methods of studio painting painting outside was also made practical by the invention of paint chips which made the transportation of pigments much easier before this artists who wish to transport paints had to use animal bladders to do so which was not very convenient and something most is thought of as taking the piss besides empowering color and vibrancy to their works there was another reason for impressionist painting outside it let them depict firsthand the rapid changes that are taking place in both the countryside and the cities this was the era when Paris was being reshaped into the CEV know today the medieval boroughs and winding streets were cleared to make room for the bright wide boulevards that were characterized a modern city and conveniently make revolutionary style barricades impossible this reshaping also gave us the first instances of many urban spaces that are common today such as shopping centers factories offices and cafes all of this was accompanied by an explosion in population as people moved from the countryside to the city in search of work in a barren life surrounded by this never-before-seen smell of people in construction the impressionist painters would find a slew of modern subjects to paint painting outdoors was thus not only valuable for the effects of light and color impaired but also for the slew of new modern subjects it provided a good example of this painting of modern life is Ren Juarez dance at the Moulin de la galette Renoir who started out as professional ceramicist an amateur anti-semite has become the target of sumach fashionable hatred these days he is mainly known for his syrupy paintings of female nudes who all share a bad case of vase with his most well known work and regard to Impressionism is this picture of the newly affluent leisure classes enjoying a Sunday dance at the Moulin de la galette a fashionable spot where professionals on their day off would come to dance eat drink solicit prostitutes and generally partake of high society Renoir painted this campus on location over a few sessions and captured a sense of light movement and life that was evocative of the new bustling city despite the modern subject he constructed this picture with some very traditional methods arranging figures and triangles to lend stability as well as placing contrasting areas of light and dark beside each other the overall composition has a sort of modernistic snapshot feel to it characteristic of many impressionist paintings that would set them apart from the more artificial compositions of the academy rather than depicting allegorical figures as the academy painters did the figures in this painting are based on real people they wear current fashions of the day and interestingly many are based on artists writers and critics at the time conspicuously absent however are Renoir as impressionist peers instead the notables present are members of the Academy and other established cultural big weeks perhaps Renoir hoped to flatter them or more likely his impressionist mates who are still mostly unsuccessful could not afford to attend such luxurious events Ranbir's painting would become emblematic of Impressionism as a style because it focused on the modern life of Paris as well as embracing the impressionist techniques of depicting light and movement another interesting fact regarding his painting which will tell us a whole lot more about the change in perception of Impressionism over time is that nearly a century later it will become the most expensive painting ever sold the story behind this is quite interesting and very relevant to understanding Impressionism to understand this however we will have to cover some other things first so for an air will keep this fact in the back of your head and we'll come back to it later the snapshot light quality of Renoir's work reflected another change modernism had brought about a technological one in the form of photography photographs offered a much quicker and cheaper way of recording portraits and events than paintings ever caught which almost overnight eliminated the need for portraits and history paintings people and events could now be documented with the press of a button rather than labor-intensive painting once photography became widespread it started to seem that the intensive academic pro is not only outdated it was inefficient the impressionist painters by contrast had no such problem their paintings were not so concerned with exact correspondence to reality but instead in careful observation of light and atmosphere that conveyed the subjective qualities of a scene a job the painting was much more well suited to than the more objective nature of photography this is a small detail but it will go on to have massive effects on all our work from this point onwards and was surely a driving topic of conversation for the Impressionists who had begun to take advantage of another new invention of urban life the cafe the cafes of Paris offered a social space where the Impressionists and owners could gather to discuss their works and ideas the role of cafes and the development of many 20th century social changes is notable with everyone from Freud to Marx to Hitler being involved in such discussions at one point or another the Impressionists are one of the first groups to use this new social space and famous spots like the cafe ger boy would play an instrumental role in the development of their works among the painters who were involved in these cafe discussions where many we would recognize today Monet Renoir daga Pizarro and Cicely as well as occasional visits from Suzanne and MANET Monet in particular was seen as something of a mentor to the group who offered advice from the sidelines but didn't participate much more than that while their numbers were growing with the addition of notable painters like Berthe Morisot their public acclaim was not mostly due to the fact that they could not exhibit at the annual salon shows this led them to something of a revolutionary idea for the time if the salon wouldn't have them then they would have their own show in 1873 they held their first group show in the studio's of the photographer Nadar the show featured over 200 works by the likes of money Degas Pizarro and others in keeping with the tradition of art is speaking terrible names for everything they went by the group name the cooperative company of artists painters sculptors print makers engravers etc which they are ineffectively shortened to the anonymous Society of painters sculptors etc these names alone were worthy of some pretty harsh criticism which is exactly what their work received the show was eviscerated by the critics who saw no value in the impressionist work to their eyes these paintings were ugly rough and unfinished the composition seems simple and crass lacking the historical and literary references of the academic works worst of all the figures seemed ugly in comparison to the divine beauties that the academics loved to paint bad reviews and mocking audiences led to a lack of sales as a result the show was a financial failure each of the artists involved having to pay out of their own pockets to cover the cost despite the disastrous reception the exhibition did help to solidify the new movement the variety of different painting styles on display here conceptualized a different kind of Eric show moon where variety was accepted rather than expunged chief among these works that would set the tone for impressionist works going forwards was an unassuming canvas by Claude Monet entitled impression sunrise the painting depicts the poor of la Havre Monet's hometown which was then a quickly growing economic hub money painted this image from a hotel room and most likely completed in one sitting sometime in 1873 though he mistakenly dates a 1872 on the canvas the scene shows a misty Airy morning view of the docks in the foreground we can see a dark silhouette of rowing boats which provides the darkest tones and creates contrast with the bright light of the Rising Sun behind which cuts through the mist and shines us like a beacon in the background we can see the soft shapes of ship masts and smokestacks showing us that this is a place of business activity despite its Placid mooring air money himself ascribed the turn of impression to the title simply because he was asked for a name for the catalog before this the term was already in use in particular by the painters of the Barbizon School who preceded the Impressionists its use then was to describe an heiress quick impression of a scene differentiates which works from completed pieces moire seems to have used in this way as this painting was one of nine canvases depicting la Havre and is more or less the more sketchy looking one the critic Louie Leroy would take the name and run with it in his review of the impressionist show using it to mock money and the others inadvertently giving the new style its name in the process despite the name the actual painting is not really a great example of impressionist style impressionist paintings mostly applied color straight and are blended to preserve its luminosity when Conor waz blended it was applied wet into wet mixing two colors into each other directly on the canvas Monet here has not done any of this instead applied his paints in washes over a grey under painting this layering technique is quite common in a lot of paintings the gray ground provides a stable layer upon which lighter and darker colors can be seen more clearly Monet used two colors over this gray background a blue and an orange favoring the impressionist theories of complementary color use the Browns that we can see are a result of the mix of the blue and orange which produces a neutral tone against which the brighter highlights can be seen more vividly an interesting effect which is produced by this is that the seemingly brightest part of the canvas the Rising Sun is not actually the brightest part if we view the painting in grey we can see it's luminosity is an optical illusion created by the perception of light and dark tones placed against each other regardless of its lack of conformity to the style of Impressionism the name and connotations would stick making this work the poster child for Impressionism at Mont a one of its greatest exponents from this point on a perhaps more traditional if you will style of impressionist painting can be seen in the series of views of the boulevard Montmartre created by Camille Pissarro which depicts the streets in various lighting and weather conditions this is something what our impressionist to do as well such as Monet's famous series of the Rouen Cathedral Bizarros paintings of Montmartre however are a great example of the impressionist interest in the modern city Xaro was a skilled self-taught draftsman whose structured drawings allowed him to be more loose and free with his application of paint his brushwork can look chaotic with the patchwork of colors he produces but it is unified through the use of mostly primary colors bizarro followed the impressionist style of her mitting blacks and ogres from his palette instead he utilized bright primary colors and mixed what he needed from those when we mix paint we might find that the brightest colors are the ones straight out of the tube the more we mix the more impurities in the pigment diminish their brilliance eventually producing the mode that is common to painters palettes the emission of blacks and air tones and the focus and simple bright primaries helped bizarro and other Impressionists to avoid this and increase the brightness of their works the bright patch works of color and bizarro and other impressionist works were heightened by the application of color theories formed by the famous chemist michel eugène chevreul chevre el was responsible for some of the modern conveniences that are revolutionising France at the time most notably the rendering of soap from animal fats which must have been a godsend considering the population boom chevre el was also responsible for devising a system for understanding contrasting colors he know it that two contrasting colors would have the noticeable effect on each other of increasing their perceived luminosity this phenomenon would also create what is known as an optical mix where the eye perceives a color that is not actually there the views of Montmartre take advantage of this new theory of color the patchwork of brushstrokes heightening the effects and becoming another hallmark of the impressionist style in Bizarros paintings we can see this is particularly effective in depicting the modern city as well the patches of bright color mirror the flickering new street lights as well as the bustling movements of crowds the hurried through the streets another impressionist work or we can see some more direct traits of the impressionist style is this cafe seen by dega in this work which depicts two figures in a cafe we can see the everyday observed quality of impressionist paintings its ability to capture a sort of mood and its focus on modern subject matter daga who had been trained as a history painter turned away from his academic roots in his 30s in order to become a painter of not history but as he put it modern life what this meant in practice was that he spent most of his time hanging around ballet studios drawing the dancers daga was particularly interested in anatomy and physiology the idea that a person's physical traits and appearance told you something of their personality and we can see this in much of his work which revels in the human form take a skill capturing motion and evoke a mood is quite clear in this painting the expressions of the figures the way they are sitting as well as their placement of the canvas evokes feelings of lethargy ennui and angst that run counter to the social pleasures of the city that Renoir depicted the woman is based on one of Degas favorite models Ellen Andre and her disconnected expression here conveys a weariness that seems particularly modern this weariness is also hinted at by her feet which are set askew from one another solely conveying her uncertainty her male companion whose appearance is based on the painter and engraver Marcela and des Baux team sits leaning forwards his gaze pointing off the canvas as if he anticipates something or someone's arrival even the composition which feels noticeably claustrophobic because of the placement of horizontal tables which block in both the figures and the overall space reinforces this feeling of entrapment these are very modern feelings that go hand in hand with the complexities of the big-city life that Degas depicting the subject matter of a cafe as well as the absence the painting derives its name from represented the new social spaces modernization had created as well as the vices it had brought absinthe drinking was seen as morally degenerate owing to its potency and preference by alcoholics the woman with the class of absent in front of her was therefore a scandalous enough subject to make this painting seem shocking at the time it was exhibited once in France in 1876 and after failing to find admirers was put into storage until it was shown again in England in 1892 as you can imagine if it was too racy for the French then Victorian England might not have been the best place for it either they're the critics attacked it once again for its moral degeneracy and in theorized its ugliness we should know here what they mean by ugliness to the critics the painting was ugly not because of its surface appearance because it contained no morality it did not condemn the drinking of absence nor that it seemed to tell any sort of story moral or otherwise it was most definitely not couched in the language of myth and moral narrative that the Academy demanded it was just a picture of modern life and the complex emotional states that it creates in us when we look at this painting today we can recognize the expression as one that's common to many people's faces and cities we can find such weary and tired expressions on buses and trains or in pubs and cafes the whole world over in contrast I don't think many of us have ever seen clouds of angels descending from the sky or roaming herds of allegorical figures wrapped in bedsheets unless you're a particularly heavy absinthe drinker that is this difference alone should illustrate the reasons for the eventual downfall of the Academy and the rise of Impressionism the art of the Academy didn't really depict reality whereas Impressionism for better or worse did while the first impressions show was pretty much a critical and financial disaster the Impressionists were not dissuaded they continued to hold their own annual shows which featured a revolving cast of is working loosely in the style over the next several years they of course still faced opposition from antagonistic critics with these shows also helps to draw new audiences new artists and perhaps most importantly new art dealers who were interested in representing the style one of these dealers who played a major role in the success of Impressionism on whom we should take some time to discuss is Paul durand-ruel durand-ruel was an art dealer who became interested in the Impressionists and their works and took a risk that most investors would not have he began to support these painters and by their works most of the famous impressionist we know today are well known precisely because durand-ruel bought many of their works including figures like MANET Pizarro daga money and others his support made many of them financially stable for the first time in their lives in addition to this he started many of the practices to support artists as we still have today he paid Stepan's which allowed them to produce work without the worry of financial destitution he even broke the hold of the academies in the exhibition system by popularizing the solo exhibit which was not really a thing at all prior to this but today is commonplace by paying his artists to produce work and popularizing this work true solo exhibits in his own galleries he drove up their prices and their popularity the popularization of Impressionism was made possible by the wealthy new consumers classes that modernism had created durand-ruel found himself in the right place at the right time to buy and sell these works to a newly wealthy class of people who now had the required money to invest in art works it probably helped as well that many of the impressionist paintings were smaller scale quicker to produce and more affordable than traditional Titanic canvases of the Academy most buyers could find room for a small haystack seen by money less could find space for a gargantuan academic canvas by the likes of Jericho or Aang this marks a turning point in the art market now there were other buyers for Irish besides the church on the stage this wider suitability to an emerging art market would make durand-ruel quite wealthy and would lead to him beginning to explore impressionist works from France to the US in America he found a different audience with very different tastes and most importantly known of the snobbishness of the academies of the Americans response to Impressionism durand-ruel is quoted as saying while the French laugh the Americans spend the Americans who already have a taste for landscape are a forward-looking attitude would embrace Impressionism wholeheartedly and cement its reputation as the most significant art movement of the time the Americans in fact would embrace Impressionism so much that many of them took to creating impressionist artworks themselves leading to an informal school of American Impressionism these painters would include more notable figures from the movements history such as Mary Cassatt and Frederick Child Hossam among others this rise in popularity Illustrated huge change in the perception of Impressionism from a pariah movement to the mainstream cultural acceptance of found in the States it also helpfully Illustrated one of the big reasons for the change in the critical opinion of Impressionism from its inception to today its ever rising value as a commodity when we say today that Impressionism marks the beginnings of modern Irish it is often taken that we mean this in a purely artistic sense while this is true to some extent it is also true in an economic one after the success of Impressionism in America Irish and our production will become increasingly tied to the market forces that would shape just about everything else in the 20th century while Impressionism was instrumental in breaking the hold of the academies over art and culture it did so in a way that may have simply shackled it to another Titanic force that of markets and economics rather than those of church and state for better or worse this is perhaps the biggest impact Impressionism had on the development of modern Irish its popularization led to the creation of the art America consider if you will that impressionist art works were affordable and accessible to the new wealthy classes created by industrialization it also contained appealing bright and colorful subject matter based in the modern world which potential buyers could understand without needing a degree in classical studies which academic art seemingly required in order to understand finally there was its ever increasing value impressionist artworks increased dramatically in price over the 20th century which netted big returns for those who bought in arity art today has become a commodity unlike it or not Impressionism success was the proof of concept this is perhaps the dirty secret of the modern loafer Impressionism when we talk about Impressionism in art history or watch glossy dramas and documentaries about the artists involved we tend to romanticize the movement we talk about how beautiful the colors are how smart the modern techniques that produce them where we talk about how important it is to modern and contemporary art today the subtext that has not often brought up in these discussions is that one of the reasons it is so important is not solely because of its beautiful artwork Stas or the plucky underdog opposition it gave to the Academy it is because Impressionism marks the first time a major art movement was suitable for commercialization marketing and the new burgeoning capitalistic market systems that will play a huge role in the development of art and pretty much everything else over the course of the 20th century eight years ago back when we were talking about Renoir picture of the dancing leisure classes I mentioned that it was at one point one of the most expensive paintings ever sold the case of this sale and what it says about the commodification of art that Impressionism inadvertently led to illustrates the effects of the movement success in 1990 dance at the Moulin de la galette was bought at auction for 78 million dollars by the Japanese businessman Rio a Saito Saito was a keen collector of arish I bought this piece alongside van Gogh Sport rate of dr. Gachet at the time this made headlines as the most expensive purchase of art in history the derek side of the sale emerged some years layer when Saito ran into financial and threatened that he would have the paintings cremated with him when he died in order to avoid the enormous inheritance tax it becuase his children to inherit them when the comment provoked outrage Saito claimed he was joking but after his death in 97 the paintings could not be found for a time fears mounted that Saito had made goodness promise look good Lee this was not the case instead as it turns out they had been sold off in a then secret deal to a hedge fund manager by the name of Wolfgang floatie from here the paintings ownership and locations become a bit murkier they still exist in private collections somewhere but are unavailable to public viewing while Impressionism freed iron from the control of the academies its usefulness as a commodity has unintentionally re-enslaved it to other forces now much like in the 19th century these artworks have become the playthings of the wealthy only today it is investors and business men rather than clergy and aristocracy the sale of Renoir's work and its subsequent disappearance from public view demonstrates the new relationship to the artwork we have today one where it is defined first and foremost as a commodity to be bought and sold rather than a shared piece of our cultural heritage all of this is not to diminish the importance of Impressionism but instead to try and give a more complete view of the movement and its role in the development of modern art as we go forward looking at more movements to follow on from Impressionism echoes if these economic and cultural factors will be felt more and more and may well begin to explain some of the more bizarre behaviors we will see in 20th century art much like everything else Erik does not occur in a vacuum and the more we understand about the contexts that contribute to it the more we can understand the art itself thank you all for watching if you've got any feedback thoughts or comments I'd love to hear them if you're interested in learning more about Irish art history and that type of thing check out our other videos upcoming videos we'll take a look at post-impressionist art works and how they follow along in the wake of Impressionism as well as some overviews of other movements important to understanding modern era such as Romanticism neoclassicism Expressionism and FAL ISM next month we will be taking an in-depth look at the life and works of Paul Gauguin an important artist who is becoming more and more difficult to discuss as he increasingly begins to look like the 19th century equivalent of Gary Claire so if you want to listen to me flail and effectually with the minefield of subject matter that is going on please join me then thank you very much for watching and I'll see you next time

Channel: The Arts Hole

Views: 64,279

Keywords: art, painting, impressionism, france, arts hole, fine art, art history, education, documentary, modern art, contemporary art, monet, renoir, degas, berthe morisot, mary cassatt, alfred sisley, history

Id: vExG3Wgm4cQ

Length: 30min 15sec (1815 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 26 2020