Art history periods and movements

Art Period

France has been always considered to be cultural centre of Europe; the standards set by French men in art were indisputable and classic. French painters were rather progressive for the nineteenth century epoch, as they experimented with colors, shape and themes of work, while others used to follow classic school standards. The main merit of French art of the nineteenth century is that it made the concept of art more understandable, more democratic and closer to public. Innovations of French artists of the nineteenth century still impress either common people or professional art appreciators worldwide.

The end of the nineteenth century in the world of fine art is characterized by the revolutionary changes proposed by impressionists. Sayre (2004) marks that impressionists had changed universal priorities in art, as they gave advantage to reflection of momentary reality in their paintings, reflection of natural colors and reflection of painter's "impressions" from the subject observed. Such "reflection" was achieved through the use of basic colors, use of major several colors, rather than of the whole palette. The main concept they have introduced was the reflection of personal impression on canvas. Was it really innovative? Probably not as innovative as it seems to be. If to refer to Sayre (2004) and compare works of impressionists to previous painters of the nineteenth century similar features will be observed. it's a well-known fact that lots of painters preferred natural painting to painting in workshops, based on imagination. The merit of impressionists is that they have completely studied the methods and techniques used for this "reflection" and achieved acknowledgement and fame.

As Phoebe Pool writes:"It was there that Renoir and Monet made their discovery that shadows are not brown or black but are colored by their surroundings, and that the 'local color' of an object is modified by the light in which it is seen, by reflections from other objects and by contrast with juxtaposed colors." (Pool 97)

The father of the Impressionist movement is considered to be Claudet Monet (1840-1926), French painter of the late nineteenth century, who developed new technique when painting French landscapes on open-air. Monet came to the conclusion that a painting "made on the open air, has a unique freshness and liveliness, which is unable to be achieved when working in the workshop"(Schapiro 74), where the theme is preplanned. According to Monet, painter had to change the way he perceives reality by fragmenting it into naive and primitive images, which formed the core of the aesthetic impression. Monet set a new task to the art, to reflect a momentary impression, to picture every moment and every element of objects motion in order to make painting alive. He was the first to practice techniques of short brush, zigzags and use of unmixed primary colors. Monet was a painter who painted the whole panorama of the future work, he worked over the whole space of canvas at once, stating that "the first layer of paint has to cover the whole space and that it doesn't matter how crude would it be" (Schapiro 79). If to look on the paintings of impressionists we would definitely notice that even though their paintings are rich in color, bright and pure, still the set of colors is limited to 3-4 major colors and combination of hues. It is unique for art of impressionism, characterized by purity, naturalism and originality.

In order to describe another original feature of impressionists, one has to look on the painting of Claude Monet "Boulevard des Capucines" and watch the manner it was painted. The figures of people, carriages, etc. are "washed-out," they are as small as ants are. The method of reflecting motion and dynamics of routine life by "washed-out effect" was borrowed "from a new invention of photography" (Schapiro 81). Photographic cameras of that epoch were not sensitive for picturing motion, so all objects in motion were "washed-out."

Some impressionists, for example Edgar Degas (1834-1917), were influenced by ethnic painting techniques such as Chinese and Japanese graphics, characterized by striking representation of shape and figures. Degas continued Monet's experiments with light and reflection of motion. Many of his paintings were influenced by other methods similar to photography: uncommon visual angles and asymmetric perspectives, which can be observed in such paintings as a Carriage at the Races (1872), Ballet Rehearsal (1876) characterized by unusual visual solution and geometric interpretation.

Auguste Renoir (1841-19191), father of Impressionism, became famous for his mass portraits. Renoir's Impressionism was an embodiment of optimism and joy of routine life, his "society" was enjoying and pleasurable. Such works as the Swing and the Ball at the Moulin de la Galette (both 1876) are sensuous and full of aesthetic energy. At the same time Renoir appeared to be the first impressionist who noticed coming crisis of his "creation," crisis of "pure" impressionism (at least the crisis of impressionism in his works). For example, painting the Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881) looks chaotic and fragmented. The group of people had lost the sense of unity and distinctiveness of forms is less observed.

Alfred Sisley became famous for a series of landscapes panted in late 1870's. Sisley painted under the guidance of Claude Monet, that's why lyrics in his paintings dominates over the subject (Floods at Port-Marly, Mus-e d'Orsay 1876). Influence of Camille Corot, realist painter, on his early works had resulted in passion for painting landscapes where the central place was devoted to sky and different effects of rain and snow: (Snow at V-neux; Mus-e d'Orsay1880).