Historical art periods and their characteristics

Impressionism vs. Post-Impressionism

Impressionism vs. Post

This paper will explore impressionism vs. post-impressionism including the influences of each on each other and society, and the effects of each other on the 19th century. The paper will ascertain how one period revived or continued the style and characteristics of the other, or how one period originated in reaction to the other. Impressionist paintings tended to focus less on detail and more on making impressions of form and figure, as the name implies. The brush strokes were less inclined to add detail and structure or order. Post-impressionists considered this trivial, and created artistic work that was decidedly more expressive according to some; more organized and structured, the Post-Impressionist movement could be best described as a response to the Impressionist movement. Some focused on methods including Pointillism, or the use of dots of color, whereas others used bright fresh colors used by Impressionists but reduced objects into basic shapes or structures while maintain more order than what one might see in an impressionist painting.

Impressionism

Like post-impressionism, this style of art originated in France in the late 19th century, as a result of state controlled governments (Brettell, 2000). Artists using this style of artistry tended to favor independent art exhibitions, painting landscapes that were contemporary in nature, favoring scenes depicting modern life, bourgeois leisure and recreational pictures as their inspirations (Denvir, 1990). They looked down on historical figures and mythological narratives as subjects for artistic endeavors, and paid much attention to the effects of atmosphere, movement and light within their artistry (Brettell, 2000). The artistry of the impressionist movement was much like the break Realists began by emphasizing the manner in which paint looked on the surface of the canvas, using tonal modeling and cropped perspectives (Tinterow and Loyrette, 1994). Impressionists often painted in the open, using palettes of pure colors. The impressionists included painters working between 1860 and roughly 1900 including Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and August Renoir among others, many of whom revolutionized painting (Tinterow and Loyrette, 1994, Brettell, 2000).

Post-impressionism described a movement that opposed impressionism that began sometime around the 1880s, and included many notable painters including Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Paul Cezanne (Sweeny, 1996). These painters rejected the naturalistic light and color patterns used by impressionists, instead favoring symbolism in their paintings, and formal order (Sweeny, 1996). Thus, post-impressionism may be defined as a response to impressionist works (Tinterow and Loyrette, 1994). Post-impressionist works were ordered, structured, and stressed the artificial nature of a picture; although, much like the impressionists, the post-impressionists believed that they could derive color independent from the emotional and composition of the actual painting to bear a new meaning (Brettell, 2000). Examples of post-impressionist works include Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and Monet's works including Waterlillies (Sweeny, 1996). Many post-impressionists concerned themselves with adding their personal experiences into the painting, versus being loyal to the object they were painting. This was much different from impressionism, where the painter felt an obligation to the object or subject of the painting, to whom they were loyal. Post-impressionism was concerned more with "sensation" and much less close to "realism." While impressionists could hardly be defined as realists, their paintings did have some quality of naturalism to them, even though the painter separated themselves from reality when painting.

Some distinct characteristics of Impressionist paintings include small yet visible brush strokes and the crucial element of perception and experience (Tinterow & Loyrette, 1996; Denvir, 1990). This led to the development of Impressionist music and literature. Some refer this as an entire movement, the movement "Impressionism" (Tinterow and Lynette, 1994). It was said this captured the essence of human qualities, rather than the details of life. One might compare this to the dramatic quality of post-impressionism, which had more flare to it.

Conclusions