The rise of impressionism. General characteristics of creativity

Interregional Academy of Personnel Management

Severodonetsk Institute

Department of General Education and Humanities

Control work in cultural studies

Impressionism as a direction in art

Completed:

group student

ІН23-9-06 BUB (4. Od)

Sheshenko Sergey

Checked:

Candidate of Laws, Assoc.

Smolina O.O.

Severodonetsk 2007

Introduction

4. Post-impressionism

Conclusion

Bibliography

Applications

Introduction

An important phenomenon of European culture in the second half of the 19th century. was the artistic style of impressionism, which became widespread not only in painting, but in music and fiction. And yet it arose in painting. Impressionism (French impressionism, from impression - impression), a trend in art of the last third of the 19th - early 20th century. It took shape in French painting in the late 1860s and early 1870s. (the name arose after the exhibition in 1874, which exhibited the painting by C. Monet "Impression. The Rising Sun").

Signs of the impressionistic style are the absence of a clearly defined form and the desire to convey the subject in fragmentary, instantly fixing every impression strokes, which, however, revealed their hidden unity and connection when reviewing the whole. As a special style, impressionism, with its principle of the value of the "first impression", made it possible to tell the story through such, as it were, seized at random details, which apparently violated the strict coherence of the narrative plan and the principle of selecting the essential, but with their "lateral truth" gave the story extraordinary brightness and freshness.

In temporal arts, the action unfolds in time. Painting, as it were, is capable of capturing only one single moment in time. Unlike cinema, she always has one "frame". How to convey movement in it? One of these attempts to capture the real world in its mobility and variability was the attempt of the creators of the direction in painting, called impressionism (from the French impression). This direction brought together various artists, each of which can be characterized as follows. An impressionist is an artist who conveys his direct impression of nature, sees in it the beauty of variability and impermanence, recreates the visual sensation of bright sunlight, the play of colored shadows, using a palette of pure unmixed colors, from which black and gray are banished. Sunlight streams, vapors rise from the damp earth. Water, melting snow, plowed land, swaying grass in the meadows do not have clear, frozen outlines. Movement, which was previously introduced into the landscape as an image of moving figures, as a result of the action of natural forces - the wind, driving clouds, swaying trees, is now replaced by peace. But this peace of inanimate matter is one of the forms of its movement, which is conveyed by the very texture of painting - dynamic strokes of different colors, not constrained by the rigid lines of the drawing.

1. The birth of impressionism and its founders

The formation of impressionism began with the painting by E. Manet (1832-1893) "Breakfast on the Grass" (1863). The new style of painting was not immediately accepted by the public, who accused the artists of not being able to draw, throwing paint scraped off the palette onto the canvas. So, the pink Rouen cathedrals of Monet seemed implausible to both the audience and fellow artists - the best of the artist's pictorial series ("Morning", "With the first rays of the sun", "Noon"). The artist did not seek to present the cathedral on canvas at different times of the day - he competed with the Gothic masters to absorb the viewer with the contemplation of magical light and color effects. The facade of the Rouen Cathedral, like most Gothic cathedrals, hides the mystical spectacle of bright colored stained-glass windows of the interior coming to life from the sunlight. The lighting inside the cathedrals varies depending on which direction the sun is shining from, cloudy or clear weather. One of Monet's paintings owes its appearance to the word "impressionism". This canvas was indeed an extreme expression of the innovation of the emerging pictorial method and was called "Sunrise at Le Havre". The compiler of the catalog of paintings for one of the exhibitions suggested that the artist call it something else, and Monet, having crossed out "in Le Havre", put "impression". And a few years after the appearance of his works, they wrote that Monet "reveals a life that no one before him was able to catch, about which no one even knew." In the paintings of Monet, they began to notice the disturbing spirit of the birth of a new era. So, in his work appeared "serial" as a new phenomenon of painting. And she drew attention to the problem of time. The artist's painting, as noted, snatches one "frame" from life, with all its incompleteness and incompleteness. And this gave impetus to the development of the series as successive shots. In addition to the "Rouen Cathedrals" Monet creates a series of "Station Saint-Lazare", in which the paintings are interconnected and complement each other. However, it was impossible to combine the "frames" of life into a single tape of impressions in painting. This has become the task of cinema. Historians of cinema believe that the reason for its emergence and wide distribution was not only technical discoveries, but also an urgent artistic need for a moving image, and the paintings of the Impressionists, in particular Monet, became a symptom of this need. It is known that one of the plots of the first film session in history, arranged by the Lumiere brothers in 1895, was "Arrival of the Train". Steam locomotives, station, rails were the subject of a series of seven paintings "Gare Saint-Lazare" by Monet, exhibited in 1877.

Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), together with C. Monet and A. Sisley, created the core of the impressionist movement. During this period, Renoir worked to develop a lively, colorful artistic style with a feathery brushstroke (known as Renoir's iridescent style); creates many sensual nudes ("Bathers"). In the 80s, he gravitated more and more towards the classical clarity of images in his work. Most of all, Renoir liked to write children's and youthful images and peaceful scenes of Parisian life ("Flowers", "Young man walking with dogs in the forest of Fontainebleau", "Vase of flowers", "Bathing in the Seine", "Lisa with an umbrella", " Lady in a Boat", "Riders in the Bois de Boulogne", "Ball at Le Moulin de la Galette", "Portrait of Jeanne Samary" and many others). His work is characterized by light and transparent landscapes, portraits, glorifying the sensual beauty and joy of being. But Renoir owns the following thought: "For forty years I have been going to the discovery that the queen of all colors is black paint." Renoir's name is synonymous with beauty and youth, that time of human life when spiritual freshness and the flowering of physical strength are in perfect harmony.

2. Impressionism in the works of C. Pissarro, C. Monet, E. Degas, A. Toulouse-Lautrec

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) - a representative of impressionism, the author of light, clean-colored landscapes ("Plowed Land"). His paintings are characterized by a soft restrained gamut. In the late period of creativity, he turned to the image of the city - Rouen, Paris (Montmartre Boulevard, Opera passage in Paris). In the second half of the 80s. was influenced by neo-impressionism. He also worked as a scheduler.

Claude Monet (1840-1926) - the leading representative of impressionism, the author of landscapes thin in color, filled with light and air. In the series of canvases "Haystacks", "Rouen Cathedral" he sought to capture the fleeting, instantaneous states of the light and air environment at different times of the day. From the name of Monet's landscape Impression. The rising sun happened and the name of the direction is impressionism. In a later period, features of decorativeism appeared in the work of C. Monet.

The creative style of Edgar Degas (1834-1917) is characterized by impeccably accurate observation, the strictest drawing, sparkling, exquisitely beautiful coloring. He became famous for his freely asymmetrical angular composition, knowledge of facial expressions, postures and gestures of people of different professions, accurate psychological characteristics: "Blue Dancers", "Star", "Toilet", "Ironers", "Dancers' Rest". Degas is an excellent master of the portrait. Under the influence of E. Manet, he switched to the everyday genre, depicting the Parisian street crowd, restaurants, horse races, ballet dancers, laundresses, and the rudeness of the smug bourgeois. If the works of Manet are bright and cheerful, then in Degas they are colored with sadness and pessimism.

Closely connected with Impressionism is the work of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). He worked in Paris, where he painted cabaret dancers and singers and prostitutes in his particular style, characterized by bright colors, bold composition and brilliant technique. His lithographic posters enjoyed great success.

3. Impressionism in sculpture and music

A contemporary and colleague of the Impressionists was the great French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). His dramatic, passionate, heroically sublime art glorifies the beauty and nobility of a person, it is permeated with an emotional impulse (the Kiss group, The Thinker, etc.), it is characterized by the courage of realistic searches, the vitality of images, and energetic pictorial modeling. Sculpture has a fluid form, acquires a kind of unfinished character, which makes his work related to impressionism and at the same time makes it possible to create the impression of the painful birth of forms from spontaneous amorphous matter. The sculptor combined these qualities with the drama of the idea, the desire for philosophical reflection ("The Bronze Age", "Citizens of Calais"). The artist Claude Monet called him the greatest of the greats. Rodin owns the words: "Sculpture is the art of recesses and bulges."

IMPRESSIONISM(French impressionnisme, from impression - impression) - a trend in art of the late 1860s - early 1880s, the main purpose of which was to convey fleeting, changeable impressions. Impressionism was based on the latest discoveries in optics and color theory; in this he is in tune with the spirit of scientific analysis characteristic of the late 19th century. Impressionism manifested itself most clearly in painting, where special attention was paid to the transfer of color and light.

Impressionism appeared in France in the late 1860s. Its leading representatives are Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley and Jean Frederic Bazille. Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas exhibited their paintings with them, although the style of their works cannot be called impressionistic. The word "Impressionism" comes from the name of Monet's painting. Impression. Rising Sun(1872, Paris, Marmottan Museum), presented at the exhibition in 1874. The name implied that the artist conveys only his fleeting impression of the landscape. Now the term "impressionism" is understood more than just the subjective vision of the artist: as a careful study of nature, primarily in terms of color and lighting. Such a concept is essentially the opposite of the traditional understanding, dating back to the Renaissance, of the main task of painting as the transfer of the form of objects. The goal of the Impressionists was to depict instantaneous, as it were, “random” situations and movements. This was facilitated by the asymmetry, fragmentation of compositions, the use of complex angles and cuts of figures. The picture becomes a separate frame, a fragment of the moving world.

Landscapes and scenes from urban life - perhaps the most characteristic genres of impressionistic painting - were painted "en plein air", i.e. directly from life, and not on the basis of sketches and preparatory sketches. The Impressionists peered intently at nature, noticing colors and shades that are usually invisible, such as blue in the shadows. Their artistic method was to decompose complex tones into their constituent pure colors of the spectrum. Colored shadows and pure light quivering painting were obtained. The Impressionists applied paint in separate strokes, sometimes using contrasting tones in one area of ​​the picture, the size of the strokes varied. Sometimes, for example, to depict a clear sky, they were smoothed out with a brush into a more even surface (but even in this case, a free, careless painting style was emphasized). The main feature of Impressionist paintings is the effect of lively flickering of colors.

Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley and Claude Monet in their work preferred landscapes and urban scenes. Auguste Renoir painted people in the bosom of nature or in the interior. His work perfectly illustrates the tendency characteristic of impressionism to blur the lines between genres. Pictures like Ball at the Moulin de la Galette(Paris, Museum D "Orsay) or Rowers breakfast(1881, Washington, Phillips Gallery), are colorful memories of the joys of life, urban or rural.

Similar searches for the transmission of the light-air environment, the decomposition of complex tones into pure colors of the solar spectrum took place not only in France. The Impressionists include James Whistler (England and the USA), Max Lieberman, Lovis Corinth (Germany), Joaquin Sorolla (Spain), K.A. Korovin, I.E. Grabar (Russia).

Impressionism in sculpture implies a lively free modeling of fluid soft forms that creates a complex play of light on the surface of the material and a sense of incompleteness. In the poses, the moment of movement, development is accurately captured; the figures seem to have been taken with a hidden camera, as, for example, in some works by E. Degas and O. Rodin (France), Medardo Rosso (Italy), P.P. Trubetskoy (Russia).

At the beginning of the 20th century in painting, new trends were outlined, expressed in the rejection of realism and the appeal to abstraction; they caused younger artists to turn away from Impressionism. However, Impressionism left a rich legacy: primarily an interest in color issues, as well as an example of a bold break with tradition.

Impressionism(French impressionnisme, from impression - impression) - a trend in art of the last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries, which originated in France and then spread throughout the world, whose representatives sought to most naturally capture the real world in its mobility and variability, to convey their fleeting impressions .

1. Liberation from the traditions of realism (no mythological, biblical and historical paintings, only modern life).

2. Observation and study of the surrounding reality. Not what he sees, but how he sees from the position of the perceived "visual essence of things"

3. Daily life of a modern city. Psychology of the city dweller. The dynamics of life. The pace, the rhythm of life.

4. "Effect of a stretched moment"

5. Search for new forms. Small sizes of works (etudes, framing). Not typical, but random.

6. Serialization of paintings (Monet's "Hacks")

7. The novelty of the painting system. Open pure color. Relief, the richest collection of reflexes, quivering.

8. Mixing genres.

Edouard Manet - innovator. From deaf dense tones to light painting. Fragmentation of compositions.

"Olympia"- relies on Titian, Giorgione, Goya. Posed by Victoria Muran. Venus is depicted as a modern cocotte. At the feet of a black cat. A black woman presents a bouquet. The background is a dark, warm tone of the woman's body like a pearl on blue sheets. The volume is broken. There is no black and white modeling.

"Breakfast on the Grass"- model and two artists + landscape + still life. Black frock coats form a contrast with the naked body.

"Flutist"- the impression of the music.

"Bar Folies-Bergere" - the girl is a bartender. The thrill of a peeped moment. The loneliness of a bustling city. The illusion of happiness. I put it in the whole canvas (inaccessible in my thoughts, but accessible to bar customers). A full hall of visitors is an image of the world.

Claude Monet - abandoned the traditional sequence (undercoating, glazing, etc.) - ala prima

"Impression. Rising Sun" - Fieria yellow, orange, green. The boat is a visual accent. Elusive, unfinished landscape, no contours. Variability of the light-air environment. Rays of light change vision.

"Breakfast on the Grass" - edge of the forest, picnic experience , dark green gamma interspersed with brown and black. The leaves are wet. The woman's clothes and the tablecloth are illuminated, filled with air, light through the foliage.

Boulevard des Capucines in Paris fragmentary. Cuts off two people who are looking at the boulevard from the balcony. The crowd of people is the life of the city. Half in light from the setting sun and half in shadow from the building. No visual center, instant impression.

"Rocks in Belle-Ile"- the moving mass of water dominates (thick strokes). Iridescent shades vigorously applied. Rocks are reflected in the water, and water is reflected in the rocks. Feeling the power of the elements, boiling green-blue water. High horizon composition.

"Gare Saint-Lazare" - the interior of the station is shown, but the steam locomotive and the steam that is everywhere are more interesting (fascination with fog, lilac haze).

Pierre Auguste Renoir- an artist of joy, known primarily as a master of a secular portrait, not devoid of sentimentality.

"Swing"- imbued with warm colors, youth is shown, the girl is impressed.

"Ball at the Moulin de la Gallette" - genre scene. Day. Young people, students, shop assistants, etc. At tables under acacia trees, a dance floor. Light overflows (solar bunnies on the backs).

"Portrait of Jeanne Samary" - flower women. Charming, feminine, graceful, touching, direct actress. Deep eyes, a slight sunny smile.

"Portrait of Madame Charpentier with children"- an elegant secular woman in a black dress with a train and two girls in blue. Tapestry table, dog, parquet - everything speaks of the wealth of the family.

Edgar Degas- did not write in the open air, the cult of line and drawing. Compositions diagonally (from bottom to top)); S-shaped, spiral shapes + a window from which lighting + lighting from spotlights. Oil, then bed.

"Ballet Girls", "Dancers"- invades the lives of ballerinas. Strokes connect drawing and painting. Constant pace of training.

"Blue Dancers"- no individuality - a single wreath of bodies. In one corner there is still light from the ramps, and in the other the shadow of the wings. The moment is still actresses and ordinary people. Expressive silhouettes, cornflower blue dresses. Fragmentation - the characters do not look at the viewer.

"Apsent" - man and woman are sitting in a cafe. Ash gamma. A man with a pipe looks in one direction, and a drunken woman with a detached look - aching loneliness.

Camille Pissarro - fond of landscapes, including people, carts in them. The motive of the road with walking. Loved spring and autumn.

"Entrance to the village of Voisin» - a dim, soft landscape, trees along the road - frame the entrance, their branches mix, dissolving in the sky. Slowly, calmly, the horse walks. Houses are not just architectural objects, but dwellings for people (warm nests).

"Opera Passage in Paris"(series) - a gray cloudy day. The roofs are slightly powdered with snow, the pavement is wet, the buildings are drowning in a veil of snow, passers-by with umbrellas turn into shadows. The color of humid air envelops. Lilac-blue, olive tones. Small strokes.

Alfred Sisley- sought to notice the beauty of nature, the epic tranquility inherent in the rural landscape.

"Frost in Louveciennes" - morning, fresh state, objects are bathed in light (fusion). No shadows (fine nuances), yellow-orange colors. Quiet corner, not a hurried city. The feeling of purity, fragility, love for this place

Impressionism in Russia. develops at a later time and at an accelerated pace than in France

V.A.Serov - indifferent to academic drawing wants to show the beauty of nature in color.

"Girl with peaches"- a portrait of Verochka Mamontova. Everything is natural and unconstrained, every detail is connected with one another. The charm of a girl's face, the poetry of a life image, a light-saturated colorful painting. The charm and freshness of the study, organically combined two trends, two forces that formed a single form of pictorial vision. Everything seems so simple and natural, but there is so much depth and wholeness in this simplicity!! With the utmost expressiveness, V. Serov conveyed the light pouring in a silvery stream from the window and filling the room. The girl is sitting at the table and is not busy with anything, as if she really sat down for a moment, automatically picked up a peach and holds it, looking at you simply and frankly. But this peace is only momentary, and a passion for frisky movement peeps through it.

"Children"- shows the spiritual world of children (sons). The elder is looking at the sunset, and the younger is facing the viewer. A different outlook on life.

"Mika Morozov"- sits in a chair, but rolls down on the viewer. Childish excitement is conveyed.

"Chorus Girl"- etude. He paints with juicy strokes of the brush, wide strokes in the foliage, strokes either vertical or horizontal and different in texture ⇒ dynamism, air and light. The combination of nature and girls, freshness, immediacy.

"Paris. Boulevard des Capucines" - colorful kaleidoscope of colors. Artificial lighting - entertainment, decorative theatricality.

I.E. Grabar - volitional, emotional beginning.

« February azure»- I saw a birch from ground level and was shocked. The chimes of the rainbow are united by the azure of the sky. The birch is monumental (in the whole canvas).

"March Snow"- the girl carries buckets on the yoke, the shadow of the tree on the melted snow.

Impressionism opened a new art - it is important how the artist sees, new forms and ways of presenting. They have a moment, we have a stretch in time; we have less dynamics, more romanticism.

Mane Breakfast on the grass Mane Olympia

Manet "Bar Folies-Bergere" Manet Flutist"

Monet "Impression. Rising Sun Monet "Breakfast on the Grass" - "Boulevard des Capucines in Paris"

Monet "Rocks in Belle-Ile"» Monet Gare Saint-Lazare

Monet Boulevard des Capucines in ParisRenoir"Swing"

Renoir "Ball at the Moulin de la Gallette" Renoir "Portrait of Jeanne Samary"

Renoir "Portrait of Madame Charpentier with Children"

Degas "Blue Dancers" Degas "Apsent"

Pissarro -"Opera Passage in Paris"(series) Pissarro "Entrance to the village of Voisin»

Sisley "Frost in Louveciennes" Serov "Girl with Peaches"

Serov "Children" Serov "Mika Morozov"

Korovin "Chorus Girl" Korovin "Paris. Boulevard of the Capucines»

Grabar "February azure" Grabar "March snow"

fr. impression - impression) - a direction in the art of the last third of the nineteenth - early. of the 20th century, whose representatives began to paint landscapes and genre scenes directly from nature, trying to convey the sun glare, the breath of the wind, the rustle of grass, the movement of the city crowd with very clean and intense colors. The Impressionists strove to capture the real world in its mobility and variability in the most natural and unbiased way, to convey their fleeting impressions.

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IMPRESSIONISM

French impressionnisme, from impression - impression), direction in the art of con. 1860 - early. 1880s Most clearly manifested in painting. Leading representatives: C. Monet, O. Renoir, C. Pissarro, A. Guillaumin, B. Morisot, M. Cassatt, A. Sisley, G. Caillebotte and J. F. Basil. Together with them, E. Manet and E. Degas exhibited their paintings, although the style of their works cannot be called completely impressionistic. The name "Impressionists" was assigned to a group of young artists after their first joint exhibition in Paris (1874; Monet, Renoir, Pizarro, Degas, Sisley, etc.), which caused furious indignation of the public and critics. One of the presented paintings by C. Monet (1872) was called “Impression. Sunrise ”(“ L’impression. Soleil levant ”), and the reviewer mockingly called the artists “impressionists” - “impressionists”. The painters performed under this name at the third joint exhibition (1877). At the same time, they began to publish the Impressionist magazine, each issue of which was dedicated to the work of one of the group members.

The Impressionists sought to capture the world around them in its constant variability, fluidity, and to express their immediate impressions without prejudice. Impressionism was based on the latest discoveries in optics and color theory (spectral decomposition of the sun's beam into the seven colors of the rainbow); in this he is consonant with the spirit of scientific analysis, characteristic of con. 19th century However, the Impressionists themselves did not try to determine the theoretical foundations of their art, insisting on the spontaneity, intuitiveness of the artist's work. The artistic principles of the Impressionists were not uniform. Monet painted landscapes only in direct contact with nature, in the open air (en plein air) and even built a workshop in a boat. Degas worked in the workshop from memories or using photographs. Unlike representatives of later radical movements, the artists did not go beyond the Renaissance illusory-spatial system based on the use of direct perspective. They firmly adhered to the method of working from nature, which they elevated to the main principle of creativity. Artists strove to "paint what you see" and "as you see". The consistent application of this method entailed the transformation of all the foundations of the existing pictorial system: color, composition, spatial construction. Pure colors were applied to the canvas in small separate strokes: multi-colored “dots” lay side by side, mixing into a colorful spectacle not on the palette and not on the canvas, but in the eye of the viewer. The Impressionists achieved an unprecedented sonority of color, an unprecedented richness of shades. The brushstroke became an independent means of expression, filling the surface of the picture with a lively shimmering vibration of color particles. The canvas was likened to a mosaic shimmering with precious colors. Black, gray, brown shades predominated in the former painting; in the canvases of the Impressionists, the colors shone brightly. The Impressionists did not use chiaroscuro to convey volumes, they abandoned dark shadows, the shadows in their paintings also became colored. Artists widely used additional tones (red and green, yellow and purple), the contrast of which increased the intensity of the color. In Monet's paintings, the colors were brightened and dissolved in the radiance of the rays of sunlight, local colors acquired many shades.

The Impressionists depicted the surrounding world in perpetual motion, the transition from one state to another. They began to paint a series of paintings, wanting to show how the same motif changes depending on the time of day, lighting, weather conditions, etc. (cycles Boulevard Montmartre by C. Pissarro, 1897; Rouen Cathedral, 1893– 95, and "London Parliament", 1903-04, C. Monet). Artists have found ways to reflect in the paintings the movement of clouds (A. Sisley. “Louan in Saint-Mamme”, 1882), the play of glare of sunlight (O. Renoir. “Swing”, 1876), gusts of wind (C. Monet. “Terrace in Sainte-Adresse", 1866), jets of rain (G. Caillebotte. "Jer. Effect of rain", 1875), falling snow (C. Pissarro. "Opera passage. Snow effect", 1898), swift running of horses (E. Manet "Races at Longchamp", 1865).

The Impressionists developed new principles for constructing composition. Previously, the space of the picture was likened to a stage, now the captured scenes resembled a snapshot, a photo frame. Invented in the 19th century photography had a significant impact on the composition of the impressionist painting, especially in the work of E. Degas, who himself was a passionate photographer and, in his own words, sought to take the ballerinas depicted by surprise, to see them “as if through a keyhole”, when their poses, body lines natural, expressive and authentic. Creating paintings outdoors, the desire to capture rapidly changing lighting forced the artists to speed up the work, write "alla prima" (in one step), without preliminary sketches. Fragmentation, "randomness" of the composition and dynamic pictorial manner created a feeling of special freshness in the paintings of the Impressionists.

The favorite impressionist genre was the landscape; the portrait was also a kind of “landscape of the face” (O. Renoir, “Portrait of the Actress J. Samary”, 1877). In addition, the artists significantly expanded the range of painting subjects, turning to topics that were previously considered unworthy of attention: folk festivals, horse races, picnics of artistic bohemia, the backstage life of theaters, etc. However, their paintings do not have a detailed plot, a detailed narrative; human life is dissolved in nature or in the atmosphere of the city. The Impressionists did not write events, but moods, shades of feelings. Artists fundamentally rejected historical and literary themes, avoided depicting the dramatic, dark sides of life (wars, disasters, etc.). They sought to free art from the fulfillment of social, political and moral tasks, from the obligation to evaluate the phenomena depicted. Artists sang the beauty of the world, being able to turn the most everyday motif (renovation of a room, gray London fog, smoke of steam locomotives, etc.) into an enchanting spectacle (G. Caillebotte. "Parquette", 1875; C. Monet. "Saint-Lazare Station" , 1877).

In 1886, the last exhibition of the Impressionists took place (O. Renoir and K. Monet did not participate in it). By this time, significant disagreements between the members of the group were revealed. The possibilities of the Impressionist method were exhausted, and each of the artists began to look for his own path in art.

Impressionism as a holistic creative method was a phenomenon predominantly of French art, but the work of the Impressionists had an impact on all European painting. The desire to update the artistic language, brighten the colorful palette, expose the painting techniques from now on firmly entered the arsenal of artists. In other countries, J. Whistler (England and the USA), M. Lieberman, L. Corinth (Germany), J. Sorolla (Spain) were close to impressionism. The influence of impressionism was experienced by many Russian artists (V. A. Serov, K. A. Korovin, I. E. Grabar and others).

In addition to painting, impressionism was embodied in the work of some sculptors (E. Degas and O. Rodin in France, M. Rosso in Italy, P. P. Trubetskoy in Russia) in a lively free modeling of fluid soft forms that creates a complex play of light on the surface of the material and a sense of incompleteness of the work; in poses the moment of movement, development is captured. In music, closeness to impressionism is found in the works of C. Debussy ("Sails", "Mists", "Reflections in the Water", etc.).

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Impressionism is an art movement that emerged in the 70s. XIX century in French painting, and then manifested in music, literature, theater.

Impressionism in painting began to take shape long before the famous exhibition of 1874. Edouard Manet is traditionally considered the founder of the Impressionists. He was very inspired by the classical works of Titian, Rembrandt, Rubens, Velazquez. Manet expressed his vision of images on his canvases, adding “vibrating” strokes that created the effect of incompleteness. In 1863, Manet created "Olympia", which caused a big scandal in the cultural community.

At first glance, the picture is made in line with traditional canons, but at the same time it already carried innovative trends. About 87 reviews were written about Olympia in various Parisian publications. A lot of negative criticism fell upon her - the artist was accused of vulgarity. And only a few articles could be called benevolent.

Manet in his work used the technique of overlaying a single layer of paint, which created the effect of spots. Subsequently, this method of overlaying paints was adopted by impressionist artists as the basis for images on paintings.

A distinctive feature of impressionism was the subtlest fixation of fleeting impressions, in a special manner of reproducing the light environment with the help of a complex mosaic of pure colors, cursory decorative strokes.

It is curious that at the beginning of their search, the artists used a cyanometer - an instrument for determining the blueness of the sky. The black color was excluded from the palette, it was replaced by other color shades, which made it possible not to spoil the sunny mood of the paintings.

The Impressionists focused on the latest scientific discoveries of their time. The color theory of Chevrel and Helmholtz boils down to the following: a sunbeam is split into its component colors, and, accordingly, two paints placed on a canvas enhance the pictorial effect, and when the paints are mixed, they lose their intensity.

The aesthetics of impressionism took shape, in part, as an attempt to decisively free ourselves from the conventions of classicism in art, as well as from the persistent symbolism and thoughtfulness of late romantic painting, which invited everyone to see encrypted ideas that needed careful interpretation. Impressionism claimed not just the beauty of everyday reality, but the fixation of a colorful atmosphere, without detailing or interpreting, depicting the world as an ever-changing optical phenomenon.

Impressionist artists developed a complete plein air system. The forerunners of this stylistic feature were landscape painters who came from the Barbizon school, the main representatives of which were Camille Corot and John Constable.

Working in open space gave more opportunity to capture the slightest color changes at different times of the day.

Claude Monet created several series of paintings on the same subject, for example, “Rouen Cathedral” (a series of 50 paintings), “Hacks” (a series of 15 paintings), “Pond with water lilies”, etc. The main indicator of these series there was a change in light and colors in the image of the same object, written at different times of the day.

Another achievement of Impressionism is the development of an original painting system, where complex tones are decomposed into pure colors transmitted by separate strokes. The artists did not mix colors on the palette, but preferred to apply strokes directly to the canvas. This technique gave the paintings a special trepidation, variability and relief. The works of artists were filled with color and light.

The exhibition on April 15, 1874 in Paris was the result of the period of formation and presentation to the general public of a new trend. The exposition was deployed in the studio of photographer Felix Nadar on Boulevard des Capucines.

The name "Impressionism" arose after the exhibition, which featured Monet's painting "Impression. Sunrise". The critic L. Leroy, in his review in Sharivari, gave a playful description of the 1874 exhibition, citing the work of Monet as an example. Another critic, Maurice Denis, reproached the Impressionists for their lack of individuality, feeling, and poetry.

About 30 artists showed their works at the first exhibition. This was the largest number in comparison with subsequent exhibitions until 1886.

It is impossible not to say about the positive feedback from the Russian society. Russian artists and democratic critics, always keenly interested in the artistic life of France - I. V. Kramskoy, I. E. Repin and V. V. Stasov - highly appreciated the achievements of the Impressionists from the very first exhibition.

The new stage in the history of art, which began with the exhibition of 1874, was not a sudden explosion of revolutionary tendencies - it was the culmination of a slow and consistent development.

Despite the fact that all the great masters of the past have contributed to the development of the principles of impressionism, the immediate roots of the current can most easily be found in the twenty years preceding the historical exhibition.

Parallel to the exhibitions in the Salon, exhibitions of the Impressionists were gaining momentum. Their works demonstrated new trends in painting. This was a reproach to salon culture and exhibition traditions. In the future, impressionist artists managed to attract admirers of new trends in art to their side.

Theoretical knowledge and formulations of impressionism began to take shape quite late. The artists preferred more practice and their own experiments with light and color. In impressionism, primarily pictorial, the legacy of realism can be traced, it clearly expresses the anti-academic, anti-salon orientation and installation of the image of the surrounding reality of that time. Some researchers note that impressionism has become a special offshoot of realism.

Undoubtedly, in impressionist art, as in every artistic movement that arises during the period of the turning point and crisis of the old traditions, various and even contradictory tendencies were intertwined, for all its outward integrity.

The principal features were in the themes of the artists' works, in the means of artistic expression. Irina Vladimirova's book about the Impressionists includes several chapters: "Landscape, nature, impressions", "City, places of meetings and partings", "Hobbies as a way of life", "People and characters", "Portraits and self-portraits", "Still life". It also describes the history of creation and the location of each work.

During the heyday of impressionism, artists found a harmonious balance between objective reality and its perception. Artists tried to capture every ray of light, the movement of the breeze, the changeability of nature. To preserve the freshness of the paintings, the Impressionists created an original pictorial system, which later turned out to be very important for the development of art in the future. Despite the general trends in painting, each artist has found his own creative path and the main genres in painting.

Classical Impressionism is represented by such artists as Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Edgar Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Jean Frederic Bazille, Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas.

Consider the contribution of some artists to the formation of impressionism.

Edouard Manet (1832-1883)

Manet received his first painting lessons from T. Couture, thanks to which the future artist acquired a lot of necessary professional skills. Due to the teacher's lack of proper attention to his students, Manet leaves the master's atelier and engages in self-education. He visits exhibitions in museums, his creative formation was greatly influenced by the old masters, especially the Spanish ones.

In the 1860s, Manet wrote two works that show the basic principles of his artistic style. Lola from Valencia (1862) and The Flutist (1866) show Manet as an artist who reveals the character of the model through the rendering of color.

His ideas on brushstroke technique and attitude towards color were adopted by other Impressionist painters. In the 1870s, Manet became close to his followers and worked en plein air without black on the palette. The advent of impressionism was the result of the creative evolution of Manet himself. Manet's most impressionistic paintings are In a Boat (1874) and Claude Monet in a Boat (1874).

Manet also painted many portraits of various secular ladies, actresses, models, beautiful women. In each portrait, the uniqueness and individuality of the model was conveyed.

Shortly before his death, Manet writes one of his masterpieces - "Bar Folies-Bergere" (1881-1882). This picture combines several genres at once: portrait, still life, domestic scene.

N. N. Kalitina writes: “The magic of Manet’s art is such that the girl resists the environment, thanks to which her mood is so clearly revealed, and at the same time is a part, because the entire background, vaguely guessed, indefinite, agitated, is also resolved in blue-black , bluish-white, yellow tones.

Claude Monet (1840-1926)

Claude Monet was the undisputed leader and founder of classical impressionism. The main genre of his painting was landscape.

In his youth, Monet was fond of caricature and caricature. The first models for his work were his teachers, comrades. For a sample, he used cartoons in newspapers and magazines. He copied the drawings in Golois by E. Karzh, a poet and caricaturist, a friend of Gustave Coubret.

In college, Monet was taught by Jacques-Francois Hauchard. But it is fair to note the influence on Monet of Boudin, who supported the artist, gave him advice, motivated him to continue his work.

In November 1862 in Paris, Monet continued his studies in Paris with Gleyre. Thanks to this, Monet met Basil, Renoir, Sisley in his studio. Young artists were preparing to enter the School of Fine Arts, respecting their teacher, who took little for his lessons and gave soft advice.

Monet created his paintings not as a story, not as an illustration of an idea or theme. His painting, like life, did not have clear goals. He saw the world without focusing on the details, on some principles, he went to "landscape vision" (the term of the art historian A. A. Fedorov-Davydov). Monet strove for plotlessness, a fusion of genres on the canvas. The means of implementing his innovations were sketches, which were supposed to become finished paintings. All sketches were drawn from nature.

He painted meadows, and hills, and flowers, and rocks, and gardens, and village streets, and the sea, beaches and much more, he turned to the image of nature at different times of the day. Often he painted the same place at different times, thus creating whole cycles from his works. The principle of his work was not the image of objects in the picture, but the exact transmission of light.

Here are a few examples of the artist's works - "Field of poppies at Argenteuil" (1873), "Frog" (1869), "Pond with water lilies" (1899), "Wheat stacks" (1891).

Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)

Renoir is one of the outstanding masters of secular portraiture, in addition, he worked in the genres of landscape, domestic scene, still life.

The peculiarity of his work is an interest in the personality of a person, the disclosure of his character and soul. In his canvases, Renoir tries to emphasize the feeling of the fullness of being. The artist is attracted by entertainment and holidays, he paints balls, walks with their movement and a variety of characters, dances.

The most famous works of the artist are “Portrait of the actress Jeanne Samary”, “Umbrellas”, “Bathing in the Seine”, etc.

It is interesting that Renoir was distinguished by his musicality and as a child he sang in the church choir under the guidance of the outstanding composer and teacher Charles Gounod in Paris in the Cathedral of Saint-Eustache. C. Gounod strongly recommended that the boy study music. But at the same time, Renoir discovered his artistic talent - from the age of 13 he already learned how to paint porcelain dishes.

Music lessons influenced the formation of the artist's personality. A number of his works are related to musical themes. They reflected playing the piano, guitar, mandolin. These are the paintings "Guitar Lesson", "Young Spanish Woman with Guitar", "Young Lady at the Piano", "Woman Playing the Guitar", "Piano Lesson", etc.

Jean Frederic Basile (1841-1870)

According to his artist friends, Basil was the most promising and outstanding impressionist.

His works are distinguished by bright colors and spirituality of images. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Claude Monet had a great influence on his creative path. Jean Frederic's apartment for novice painters was a kind of studio and housing.

Basil mostly painted en plein air. The main idea of ​​his work was the image of man against the backdrop of nature. His first heroes in the paintings were his artist friends; many impressionists were very fond of painting each other in their works.

Frédéric Bazille marked the course of realistic impressionism in his work. His most famous painting, Family Reunion (1867), is autobiographical. The artist depicts members of his family on it. This work was presented at the Salon and received an approving assessment of the public.

In 1870, the artist died in the Prussian-French war. After the death of the artist, his artist friends organized the third exhibition of the Impressionists, where his canvases were also exhibited.

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)

Camille Pissarro is one of the largest representatives of landscape painters after C. Monet. His work was constantly exhibited in the expositions of the Impressionists. In his works, Pissarro preferred to depict plowed fields, peasant life and work. His paintings were distinguished by the structure of forms and the clarity of composition.

Later, the artist began to paint and paintings on urban themes. N. N. Kalitina notes in her book: “He looks at the city streets from the windows of the upper floors or from the balconies, without introducing them into the compositions.”

Under the influence of Georges-Pierre Seurat, the artist took up pointillism. This technique involves the imposition of each stroke separately, as if putting dots. But the creative prospects in this area were not realized, and Pissarro returned to impressionism.

Pissarro's most famous paintings are Boulevard Montmartre. Afternoon, sunny”, “Opera passage in Paris”, “Place of the French theater in Paris”, “Garden in Pontoise”, “Harvest”, “Haymaking”, etc.

Alfred Sisley (1839-1899)

The main genre of painting by Alfred Sisley was the landscape. In his early works, one can see mainly the influence of K. Corot. Gradually, in the process of joint work with C. Monet, J. F. Basil, P. O. Renoir, light colors begin to appear in his works.

The artist is attracted by the play of light, the change in the state of the atmosphere. Sisley addressed the same landscape several times, capturing it at different times of the day. In his works, the artist gave priority to the image of water and sky, which changed every second. The artist managed to achieve perfection with the help of color, each shade in his works carries a kind of symbolism.

The most famous of his works: "Country Alley" (1864), "Frost in Louveciennes" (1873), "View of Montmartre from the Flower Island" (1869), "Early Snow in Louveciennes" (1872), "The Bridge at Argenteuil" (1872 ).

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)

Edgar Degas is an artist who began his creative career by studying at the School of Fine Arts. He was inspired by the artists of the Italian Renaissance, which influenced his work in general. In the beginning, Degas painted historical paintings, for example, “Spartan girls challenge Spartan youths to a competition. (1860). The main genre of his painting is a portrait. In his works, the artist relies on classical traditions. He creates works marked by a keen sense of his time.

Unlike his colleagues, Degas does not share the joyful, open outlook on life and things inherent in Impressionism. The artist is closer to the critical tradition of art: compassion for the fate of the common man, the ability to see the souls of people, their inner world, inconsistency, tragedy.

For Degas, objects and the interior surrounding a person play an important role in creating a portrait. Here are a few works as an example: "Desiree Dio with Orchestra" (1868-1869), "Portrait of a Woman" (1868), "The Morbilli Couple" (1867), etc.

The principle of portraiture in the works of Degas can be traced throughout his entire career. In the 1870s, the artist depicts the society of France, in particular Paris, in his works in full glory. In the interests of the artist - urban life in motion. “Movement was for him one of the most important manifestations of life, and the ability of art to convey it was the most important achievement of modern painting,” writes N.N. Kalitina.

During this period of time, such paintings as "Star" (1878), "Miss Lola at Fernando's Circus", "Epsom Races" and others were created.

A new round of Degas' creativity is his interest in ballet. It shows the backstage life of ballerinas, talks about their hard work and hard training. But, despite this, the artist manages to find airiness and lightness in the transfer of their images.

In the ballet series of paintings by Degas, achievements in the field of transmitting artificial light from the footlight are visible, they speak of the artist's coloristic talent. The most famous paintings are "Blue Dancers" (1897), "Dance Class" (1874), "Dancer with a Bouquet" (1877), "Dancers in Pink" (1885) and others.

At the end of his life, due to the deterioration of his eyesight, Degas tries his hand at sculpture. The same ballerinas, women, horses become his objects. In sculpture, Degas tries to convey movement, and in order to appreciate the sculpture, you need to consider it from different angles.