by Christa Nwokedi

Created on: November 10, 2009

Understanding Impressionism
Impressionistic painting evolved in the mid 19Th Century. It was a time of change in European life, touching all components of life, art, economy, social life, life styles. It was the age of industrial revolution, or as historian Nikolas Pevsner named it the "age of railway," an epoch centered on economy and business. At the same time Historism was challenged by the aggressive Italian movement of futurism; political ideas of socialism and communism acquired ground. The way to realism in art lay open, and was practised and labelled as Realism by artists like Edouard Manet (Luncheon on the Grass, 1863, Muse d'Orsay), Gustave Gourbet (The Atelier, 1855, Muse de Louvre, Paris), and Adolf Menzel (Rolling mill, 1875, National Gallery Berlin).

A group young artists Charles Gleyre, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Frdric Bazille, Alfred Sisley, Claude Monet, and others embraced the challenge that history had provided, and broke the rules of academic painting. They transformed Realism into a subjective realism (sometimes called optical realism), and developed fresh ideas to approach painting. They explored the effects of light (en plein air), emphasised on light in its changing qualities, broken color, rapid brush strokes, open composition, included movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and practiced outdoor painting - all typical characteristics which later became the main features of Impressionism. The group of artist staged their own exhibitions since they were not recognized by the French Academy of Art.

The leaders of the early independent movement were Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, August Renoir, Berthe Morisot, and Mary Cassatt.

Camille Pissarro played a leading part as contributing artist, organizer and theoretician.

Claude Monet was the most radical of the group. The title painting, Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant, 1972) was coined into the name of the movement Impressions by a conservative critic Louis Leroya to ridicule the whole movement, and published in a satiric review in the art journal Le Charivari. August Renoir defended throughout his career his belief in the superiority of intuition over intellect and craftsmanship. Berthe Morisot was an enthusiastic member of the Impressionist group.

Her colleagues praised Morisot's pictorial technique, her loose brush strokes, unfinished backgrounds, and light-infused color, as exemplifying the Impressionist's aesthetic aims.

Mary Cassatt, an unusually

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