Impressionistic and Post-Impressionistic Art
Impressionism
Impressionism marked a significant change in art history. The artists of this movement
seriously questioned conventional art form, and dramatically changed the direction of
modern art. They broke away from tradition by painting outdoors, using different colors,
and creating lighter palettes.
In the later half of the nineteenth century, the Impressionists struggled to have their
work accepted by the Official Salons. In their quest to paint landscapes and contemporary
life, the Impressionists broke with over four centuries of tradition and departed with
such classical themes as religion and history. Because no other group of artists prior to
the Impressionists had challenged their predecessors, their struggle to gain credibility
was great. Despite scathing comments from critics, the artists continued to work
diligently to preserve their "new way" of art.
Today, the Impressionist movement is considered one of the most beloved periods in the
history of art.
History
The story of Impressionism begins in Paris, France. In 1851, the newly crowned Emperor
Napoleon the III began to crack down on Paris’ medieval image (marked with narrow
windy streets and poor sanitation). He created new reform that encouraged growth in
industry and commerce. In 1853, with the help of architect Baron Haussman, Napoleon
the III transformed the run-down city into
the new showpiece of Europe.
Together, they rebuilt Paris with 85 miles of new roads that boasted modern buildings,
restaurants, cafes, and today’s popular museum, The Louvre. The Impressionists
admired the new city for its modern appearance, and felt that it was an atmosphere ideal
for painting.
During the 1850’s, many of the future Impressionists had been influenced by these
critical changes. The artists would develop a custom of gathering at local cafes. A
favorite spot of many of the Impressionists was Café Guerbois (9-avenue de Clichy). If
Impressionism had a birthplace, it was "The Bastignolles District" of Paris,
where they met regularly to discuss current
events and personal progress.
For a brief time, life for the artists was trouble-free, but France would soon enter a
deadly war. The Franco-Prussian War of 1871 would scatter the aspiring artists throughout
Europe. Some artists such as Monet fled to England, while others, including Bazille, went
off to fight in the front
lines.
After the Franco-Prussian War had ended, many of the artists returned to Paris to peruse a
career in art. In France however, the Official Salons were the major determining factor in
the success of any artist. The Salons disliked the Impressionist style. The Salon, an
annual exhibition, preferred
paintings done in the academic styles of history, religion, and mythology. The jury
members of the Salon often rejected the Impressionists paintings because they portrayed
contemporary Parisian life.
In protest to the Salons, the Impressionists formed their own art society called the Salon
d’ Refuses. This art society allowed for independent artists in the circle of
Impressionism to exhibit their work and receive recognition they could not get from the
Salons. Degas, Pissaro, Monet, Renoir, Sisley,
and Berthe Morisot founded the new society. The first exhibition took place in 1874 on the
first floor of 35 Boulevard de Capucines in Paris. Between the years 1874 and 1886, the
Impressionists exhibited their work independent of the Salon. By the last exhibition in
1886, many of the Impressionists had gone their separate ways. In 1880, Monet and Renoir
had already left the
Salon d’ Refuses, after becoming successful and financially secure.
Impressionism officially ended in 1886, and their styles went on to influence such artists
as Van Gogh, Signac, Suerat, and Gauguin.
For seventy years now it has been accepted practice to refer to the two decades of avant garde artistic experimention in France at the end of the last century by the term Post Impressionism. The irony of this state of affairs is that most of the artists designated by the term did not think of themselves as being 'Post-Impressionists' first and foremost, and probably would not even have recognized themselves under that heading. George Seurat, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Paul Cezanne, to take the four artists who create the most significant paintings during the period, were dead long before 1910 when the term was first coined. Post Impressionism was not one of those smear-words such as Impressionism or Fauvism, invented by witty French journalists on first seeing the works of the artists concerned, words which caught the public imagination and were subsequently accepted and used by the artists themselves. On the contrary, it was the invention of an academic, cultured, but exasperated English critic, Roger Fry, faced with the difficulty of presenting a haphazard exhibition of recent continental art to an inexperienced English audience. It was faute de mieux that Fry hit in 1910 upon the title 'Manet and the Post-Impressionists.
As used by Fry, Post-Impressionisms encompassed a broad and cosmopolitan range of modern art; it grouped Cezanne and Gauguin with Picasso and Matisse, Denis and Vuillard with Gilman and Lewis. For the sake of coherence and manageability I have confined the present study to the immediate aftermath of Impressionism in France and to the rough chronological limits 1880 to 1900, but this is not to suggest that responses and reactions to Impressionism were so confined or that they came to an abrupt end as the twentieth century dawned.
Although the term Post-Impressionism has been and continues to be found useful in many respects, it is problematic and unwieldy as a style label. On the surface it does no more than date the art it covers as 'coming after' Impressionism. Its drawback is that it suggests a firm and purposeful avant-garde movement, caused and unified by relationship to the fixed style called Impressionism. In the light of contemporary thinking about the period, it is becoming clear that even in France such a movement never existed. Of course there were links, both at a personal and a stylistic level, between the original Impressionists and the progressive artists who succeeded them in the Paris of the 1880 and 1890s. The example of the Impressionists eight group shows, held between 1874 and 1886, may well have been the spur to the various subsequent attempts to form close-knit avant-gardes and to find a space and market for modern art. Certainly many of the freedoms the Impressionists had fought for in the 1806 and 1870s in terms of paint application, colour, choice of subject and working procedure became part of the artist's stock in trade in the 1880. But it is misleading to see the artists of this period as drawn together before all else by their awareness of Impressionism. Other equally important factors were at work. Impressionism itself was far less of a stable entity, that could be accepted or rejected, than is usually allowed. By the 1880s its chief exponents were themselves evolving new working procedures and responding, in some degree, to the same intellectual and stylistic influences as the younger generation. They were no more immune than their successors to change in social, economic and political circumstances.
What we find, then, in Paris-based art of the late nineteenth century, is a wealth of talent, ambition, and drive to succeed, a great variety of technical and stylistic innovation, and a surfeit of theory. There were complicated personal relationship, bitter rivalries, arguments, feuds, and self-imposed exile, groupings, regroupings and secessions. Few periods offer the art historian such fascinating documentation as the inexhaustible correspondence of Pissarro, Gauguin, and Van Gogh or the perspicacious art criticism of Felix Feneon and Maurice Denis. The initial impression is a shifting and perplexing one, and in an effort not to gloss this over I have tended to make sparing and cautious use of the term Post-Impressionism. But at the same time there are dominant issues and prevailing currents beneath the chaos of events, images, and styles; and in an attempt to clarify these I have found it necessary to abandom the straightforward chronological narrative and to adopt a more flexible, thematic approach.
Impressionistic and Post-Impressionistic
Artwork Examples
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Claude Monet "Boulevard des Capucines" 1873
