by Lynda Kohn

Created on: January 17, 2010   Last Updated: January 18, 2010

Impressionism. My article is on impressionism in the fine arts, particularly painting. There is impressionism in music; however, my writing is exclusively on impressionism in painting. The school of Impressionism is mainly from the last half of the nineteenth century. The painters involved with the movement were predominantly from France. There were a few from Germany, Holland and the US. It was one of the few styles where women were prominant. More on that later. This is meant to be a general introduction and not so much a history of the movement.

Impressionism was the first artistic movement where the emphasis was on the artist's artwork and was based on their personal perceptions of what they observed. What I mean by this is what the artist saw, the objection was, no matter the subject matter was one of a viewpoint based on total honesty. This didn't mean necessarily what was there but how it was honestly perceived by the painters. In other words, the painters painted as precisely as possible what they truly, sincerely felt they perceived. Their interpretation was that of complete honesty and integrity. However, it was a complete honesty and integrity dealing with honest perceptions and not necessarily objective reality. It was a dichotomy of objective truth vs truthful subjectivity. For example,one of the earliest proponents of Impressionism, Claude Monet, painted many scenes where practically the only difference was how the sun shone on the subject matter. One such example was the painting "Cathedral of Rouens" sp? The style encouraged outdoor or plein art paintings as opposed to paintings done in a studio. In fact Impressionism was the antithesis of studio artwork of academic style artist with its emphasis on exactness in form.

Two great painters who greatly influenced the style of impressionism were Turner and Diego Velesquez. The former for his swirling brush strokes that suggested swift movement, especially in his seascapes, and the latter for his displays of the influence of light on his subjects, especially of the current Spanish royalty family. Both Degas and Manet thought very highly of the artwork of Diego Velasquez. Joseph Mallerd William Turner painted with his emotions and his personal view.

One such painter was Bougereau. Adolph William Bougereau is undergoing somewhat of a popularity boost in the late twentieth century/early twenty-first century. Whatever the general public thinks of him fairly recently in books, especially textbooks on fine

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