Impressionism is an art movement style launched by a group of artists called Anonymous Society of Painters, who organized a paintings exhibition in Paris (Samu, 2004). The movement is characterized by a depiction of visual impressions of a moment, in terms of light and color effects to accentuate passage of time. However, impressionists faced strong oppositions and critics from those who panned their work for its crude, sketch-like form, although advanced writers praised it for a depiction of modern life (Samu, 2004). Moreover, impressionism was a reaction against academic painting which established standards for painters in the 19th century.
Impressionism demonstrates techniques of short, broken brushstrokes that hardly express forms and give an effect of impulsiveness and effortlessness that mask compositions. Moreover, impressionists painted landscapes and scenes of modern life outdoors for specific periods of time as the light changed (Douma, 2006). They realized that by painting outside, they could capture the momentary effects of sunlight. However, they violate the rules of academic painting. Douma, (2006) emphasizes that to achieve the changing effects of light, "they paint rapidly analyzing tone and color at the expense of composition and drawing which is held sacred by the Academy." Impressionists used the short-broken brushes of mixed and pure unblended colors and instead of neutral gray, white and black or smoothly blended colors as it was customary, they rendered shadows and highlights in color (Sam, 2004). Their paintings achieved an effect of intense color vibration.
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Moreover, as deemed earlier, the only painting that was good was a historical painting. Impressionists challenged the notion by making their subject matter of landscape and scenes more outstanding. Their techniques captured what they saw instead of romanticizing it. Their innovative style gave painting a new perspective, with the scarce mixing of colors applied one next to another to bring simultaneous contrast that makes the color more vivid to the eyes (Crowther, 2005). In the paintings made outdoors, the shadows were boldly painted with the blue of the sky reflecting on the surface giving a sense of freshness not depicted in previous paintings (Crowther, 2005).
The impressionist created a modern form of art that apprehended the rapid changes of contemporary life and transient conditions of light. For example the aspect of appearance of quickly shifting light on surfaces, light flickers on water, and presentation of atmospheric conditions like moving clouds and torrents of rain. On his work Samu, (2004) comments that the many facets and different participants of the impressionism movement make it difficult to define but even so, it was a movement of enduring significance that leads to the embrace of modernity in painting.
Reference
Crowther, J. (2005). Impressionism: More Than Meets the Eye. Artist-Perspective.com. Retrieved from: http://www.artist-perspectives.com/articles/impressionism.htm
Douma, M. (2006). Impressionism: The Innovations and Influence. Color Vision & Art. Web Exhibits, Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement, Washington, DC. Retrieved from: http://www.webexhibits.org/colorart/page18.html
Samu, M. (2004). Impressionism: Art and Modernity. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-. Retrieved from: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/imml/hd_imml.ht
