Impressionism

ImpressionismTo understand Impressionism you need to understand what art was like leading up to Impressionism.

Academic Art•The Académie was made up of French art professors, critics, and historians.

•Their ideas of good art were:1. Hidden brush work (Flawless).2. Showed Bible or Mythology

stories.3. Showed utopian or idealized world.

French Academic Art

Solan –Art Show in Paris

Selling work meant they would have money to live on, if The Académie approved of them.

•The artists who were to become the Impressionists had been popular as Academic artists.

•However, as they began to explore their bold new style the public and The Académie did not like their work at all.

•At the same time another devise was becoming popular and was being used by more and more people to capture images around them.

•That devise was…

The Camera

Color photographs were now available

Ideas of Impressionists•They did not want to compete with the camera so they did art for the sake of art.

•They wanted to show effects of sunlight.

•Represent everyday life as it was.•Use optical mixing in their work.

Optical mixing•Placing colors side-by-side, results in the colors mixing together to make a blended color when viewed from a distance. This works because our eyes are unable to see the details of the individual colors.

•Since their ideas were not very popular they stopped being accepted into the Solan by the French Academe and began to become very poor artists.

•They started to group together and have their own art shows.

•Famous Impressionists are:•Edgar Degas•Camille Pissarro•Edouard Manet•Pierre-Auguste Renoir•Mary Cassatt

Their leader was Claude Monet

There were three techniques used in optical mixing.

1.Dots2.Dash3.Swirl

Dot (or very short dash)

Dash

Swirl