Impressionism (impressionnisme) is a style of painting that appeared at the end of the 19th century in France and then spread throughout the world. The very idea of impressionism lies in its name: impression - impression. Artists who were tired of traditional academic painting techniques, which, in their opinion, did not convey all the beauty and liveliness of the world, began to use completely new techniques and methods of image, which were supposed to express in the most accessible form not a “photographic” appearance, but an impression from what he saw. In his painting, the impressionist artist uses the character of strokes and color palette tries to convey the atmosphere, warmth or cold, strong wind or peaceful silence, a foggy rainy morning or a bright sunny afternoon, as well as his personal experiences from what he saw.
Impressionism is a world of feelings, emotions and fleeting impressions. What is valued here is not external realism or naturalness, but rather the realism of the expressed sensations, the internal state of the picture, its atmosphere, and depth. Initially, this style was subject to strong criticism. The first Impressionist paintings were exhibited at the Parisian “Salon of Les Misérables,” where works by artists rejected by the official Paris Salon of Arts were exhibited. The term “impressionism” was first used by critic Louis Leroy, who wrote a disparaging review in the magazine “Le Charivari” about an exhibition of artists. As the basis for the term, he took Claude Monet’s painting “Impression. Rising Sun" He called all the artists impressionists, which can be roughly translated as “impressionists.” At first, the paintings were indeed criticized, but soon more and more fans of the new art direction began to come to the salon, and the genre itself turned from a rejected one to a recognized one.
It is worth noting that the artists late XIX centuries in France they did not come up with a new style out of nowhere. They took as a basis the techniques of painters of the past, including artists of the Renaissance. Painters such as El Greco, Velazquez, Goya, Rubens, Turner and others, long before the emergence of impressionism, tried to convey the mood of a picture, the liveliness of nature, the special expressiveness of the weather with the help of various intermediate tones, bright or, on the contrary, dull strokes that looked like abstract things. They used it quite sparingly in their paintings, so unusual technique did not catch the viewer's eye. The Impressionists decided to take these image methods as the basis for their works.
One more specific feature The works of the impressionists are a kind of superficial everydayness, which, however, contains incredible depth. They do not try to express any deep philosophical themes, mythological or religious problems, historical and important events. The paintings of artists of this movement are inherently simple and everyday - landscapes, still lifes, people walking down the street or going about their normal business, and so on. It is precisely such moments, where there is no excessive thematic content that distracts a person, that feelings and emotions from what they see come to the fore. Also, the impressionists, at least at the beginning of their existence, did not depict “heavy” themes - poverty, wars, tragedies, suffering, and so on. Impressionist paintings are most often the most positive and joyful works, where there is a lot of light, bright colors, smoothed light and shade, smooth contrasts. Impressionism is a pleasant impression, joy from life, the beauty of every moment, pleasure, purity, sincerity.
The most famous impressionists became such great artists as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro and many others.
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Alfred Sisley - Lawns in Spring
Camille Pissarro - Boulevard Montmartre. Afternoon, sunny.
Impressionist exhibition
First of all, I visited the exhibition for the third time in the wonderful Kiev Art Mall. I have already written about the miraculous technologies for displaying exhibitions on this site. I won’t repeat myself, I’ll just say that this time everything was great, there was no disappointment :). This latest exhibition featured paintings by all the leading masters of this artistic direction. If anyone doesn’t know, just in case, I’ll give a list of these same Impressionist masters:
- Edouard Manet. Although the artist himself constantly strived for official recognition, it was his scandalous famous painting“Breakfast on the Grass” has become a real symbol of the Salon of Rejects.
- Berthe Morisot. One of the few (I'm afraid to say that the only) female impressionist. In 2013, the painting “After Dinner” was sold at Sotheby’s for $10.9 million. This event made Morisot the most expensive artist.
- Camille Pissarro. I love his images of Parisian boulevards. The series with Montmartre Boulevard is considered one of the generally accepted symbols of impressionism.
- Claude Monet. Probably the most famous representative currents. In any case, it was his painting “Impression. Sunrise” at one time gave its name to the entire artistic movement.
- Edgar Degas. Here I would like to voice a slightly funny and exaggerated saying of the modern bohemian party: if there are a lot of little people, this is Bosch, if fat ballerinas are Degas :)
- Pierre Renoir. My favorite impressionist. And no more comments.
- Toulouse de Lautrec. Singer of entertainment and everyday life of Parisian bohemia and the “bottom”. Cabarets and brothels are his thing.
- Henri Cross. I was surprised to discover that I heard this name for the first time at the exhibition!
- Paul Signac. His beautiful landscapes of bright, pure colors gave birth to a new movement of neo-impressionism - pointillism.
- Paul Cezanne. The main association I have with him is still lifes and a dislike for human models, and this is connected with my favorite funny situation.
- Paul Gauguin. One of the titans of post-impressionism. Almost complete lack of recognition during life and records for the sale of paintings after death.
- Vincent Van Gogh. Another star with an incredibly difficult creative and life destiny. And deafening glory after death...
These are all titans. You can look at their paintings (reproductions) for hours, which is what I did at the Kyiv exhibition. My photos don't represent anything artistic value, you will be able to find much better samples. But I’ll still post a couple of fragments from the exhibition:
Impressionist museums
As I already said, impressionism accompanies my entire adult life. Even on some resources, I impudently assign myself the nickname impressionism, thereby hinting not at my involvement, but at my special reverent attitude. That’s why I was wondering where you can see non-reproductions. and the originals? Mine personal experience quite small: while still a student I visited the glorious city of St. Petersburg and Hermitage. In the Hermitage I didn’t even try to grasp the immensity, but immediately found in which halls you can look at impressionist paintings. The meeting is quite big! I’ll just mention a few of my favorite paintings:
Camille Pissarro. “Boulevard Montmartre in Paris” 1897
Paul Signac “Harbor in Marseille”. 1906-1907
Painting by Claude Monet “Waterloo Bridge. (Fog effect)"
Paul Gauguin. “Woman holding a fruit.” 1893
Auguste Renoir. “Girl with a fan.” 1881
Auguste Renoir. “Portrait of the actress Jeanne Samary.” 1878
But in addition to my own information, I also have the impressions of my friends. They, infected with feelings for the Impressionists no less than I was, visited Paris twice. And twice a mandatory part of their program was visits to museums that have collections of paintings from this direction. The key points of this Parisian cultural expedition are:
- Orangerie Museum– the richest collection of impressionists and post-impressionists. The most famous painting is C. Monet’s “Water Lilies”. It was only from friends that I learned that this painting, it turns out, was painted by the artist right on the wall of the museum and completely occupies a separate room of the gallery.
- Orsay Museum is not considered specialized only in the works of the Impressionists, presented here various directions European painting and sculptures. But almost all of the masters who were included in the list that I posted above are exhibited in Orsay. What is worth at least one famous “Olympia” by Edouard Manet!
- Marmottan-Monet Museum has in its collection more than 300 impressionist paintings. Highlight: iconic painting Claude Monet “Impression. Sunrise". Yes, yes, exactly that one. Friends say that seeing her live is an enchanting feeling. I really envy them...
Claude Monet. Impression. Rising Sun
Impressionism is a movement in art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The birthplace of the new direction of painting is France. Naturalness, new methods of conveying reality, and ideas of style attracted artists from Europe and America.
Impressionism developed in painting, music, literature, thanks to famous masters - for example, Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro. Artistic techniques, used for painting, make the canvases recognizable and original.
Impression
The term "impressionism" initially had a disparaging connotation. Critics used this concept to refer to the creativity of representatives of the style. The concept first appeared in the magazine “Le Charivari” - in a feuilleton about the “Salon of the Rejected” “Exhibition of the Impressionists”. The basis was the work of Claude Monet “Impression. Rising Sun." Gradually, the term took root among painters and acquired a different connotation. The essence of the concept itself has no specific meaning or content. Researchers note that the methods used by Claude Monet and other impressionists took place in the work of Velazquez and Titian.
Impressionism
is the newspaper of the soul.
Henri Matisse.
Impressionism is a movement in painting that arose and developed in France in the second half of the 19th century - the first quarter of the 20th century. It was art school, which put in the foreground “to convey impressions, but in such a way that it is perceived as something material.” The task of the impressionist artist was to depict his own feelings from objects.
It is well known that the very word “impressionism” in relation to artists was first used by the journalist Louis Leroy, who was inspired by the title of a painting by Claude Monet “ Impression. Sunrise", where the port of Le Havre is depicted in the bluish pre-dawn haze.
The painting is in the Marmottan-Monet Museum in Paris. There are more than three hundred paintings by the Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists, which means that once you visit the museum, you will come away with some understanding of the ideas of Impressionism. And you can continue at the Musée d’Orsay, whose collection is the envy of many.
Impressionist artists transferred onto their canvases only their perception of reality and its various manifestations, and not what they knew: for example, the earth in their paintings could be purple, lilac, blue, pink or orange, but never black or dark brown.
Impressionism, so criticized by its contemporaries, was appreciated fifty years later, and today the Impressionists are considered and appreciated as masterpieces of world painting. We present to your attention the most memorable representatives of impressionism.
Renoir, Pierre Auguste (1841 - 1919).
Art critics say that Renoir’s important achievement was the use of the theory of the impressionists and their technique not only when painting landscapes and still lifes or people in the open air, but also when painting nude models and portraits.
Renoir often turned to the image of a naked female body. He conveyed the play of light and sun on the skin, which seemed alive in his paintings. He painted a naked female body, with frozen drops of water, pearlescent sparkling skin, pink, tanned, and at the end of life - orange, shimmering in the fire of the sun's rays.
Renoir rejected all theories, saying: “ Theories do not help paint a good picture; most often they are used to cover up the lack of expressive means».
It is interesting that Renoir's first works were made in a realistic manner. For example, “Diana the Huntress” and “Mother Anthony’s Tavern”.
Renoir was friends with Monet, an impressionist artist, who will be discussed below. This friendship, in fact, led to the fact that Renoir would use the Impressionist technique.
However, art critics and painting historians draw attention to the fact that, following the example of the Impressionists, Renoir refuses dark tones, but from time to time he still makes small inclusions in his paintings. Among the works of this period, first of all, one can name “Pont Neuf”, “Grand Boulevards”, “Pathway among the Tall Grass”.
The artist, suffering from attacks of rheumatism, spent the last years of his life in the south of France in Cagnes-sur-Mer at the Colette estate. Works of this period, from 1903 to 1919. permeated with sensuality, Renoir’s canvases are dominated by warm colors - pink, red, orange.
The influence of the masters of the past is very noticeable - Rubens Boucher and others. For example, “ Judgment of Paris», « Bather wiping her foot" The best and last job The painting “Bathers”, painted in 1918, is considered. Today his estate, in the shade of an olive and orange grove, is open to visitors. You can look into the living room and dining room, go upstairs to the artist’s bedroom, which preserves the atmosphere of his last days: wheelchair, easel and brushes. On one of the walls in his wife’s room hangs a photograph of Renoir’s son Pierre, and from the window there is an amazing view of Antibes and Hautes Cannes.
Thanks to French cinema, you can immerse yourself in the last period of Auguste Renoir's life, meet his son and see the struggle of art with harsh reality. In March, the film by French director Gilles Bourdot “Renoir: Last love" The artist is just finishing “Bathers”.
Cote d'Azur, great artist, his muse... the French are masters of their craft, and the opportunity to actually see with your own eyes a great master at work, and then see the result of his work, is worth a lot. It was this picture that closed the last Cannes Film Festival.
Monet Claude (1840 - 1926).
Claude Monet called the father of impressionism. The future artist was born in Paris, but his childhood and youth were spent in the north of France, in the city of Le Havre. Eugene Boudin had a great influence on Monet, French artist, considered the precursor of impressionism. It was he who taught him to work in the open air (in the lane, in the open air).
Cezanne said: " Monet is just an eye, but what an eye!» It’s hard to argue and not fall in love with the Parisian streets, coastlines and landscapes of Normandy, on Monet’s canvases.
His famous painting"Breakfast on the Grass" was written in 1863. in the village of Chailly-en-Bières, located on the outskirts of the Fontainebleau forest; its central part, damaged by dampness and cut out by the author, is kept in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, and a repetition of the painting in the museum fine arts them. A. S. Pushkin in Moscow.
Autumn 1908 and 1909 the artist spent time in Venice, captivated by the charm of the city, its constantly changing reflection on the water surface of the canal. Here Monet painted Venice: The Doge's Palace and Venice: The Grand Canal. The genius Monet incredibly managed to depict the city as if covered in a light pre-dawn haze.
At sunset creative path Monet created sophisticated paintings inspired by the water lilies in the pond at his home in Giverny.
When the artist moved in 1883 in search of a quiet place in Giverny, it is unlikely that he suspected how much life would change the sleepy village in Normandy. Soon after his arrival, the city, eighty kilometers from Paris, was flooded with young artists from different parts of Europe in search of the Master.
Nowadays, artists and art lovers in search of inspiration come to take a walk in the gardens of Giverny and visit the restored house. Therefore, if you fell in love with the beautiful paintings of Monet in the d'Orsay, Marmottan and Orangerie museums, then Giverny will be in first place on your must-see list.
Sisley Alfred (1839 - 1899).
Being an impressionist Sisley He paid particular attention to conveying nuances and sensations. He loved to paint the water surface, sky, fog, snow. “The painting needs to evoke in the viewer the same feelings that overwhelmed the artist when he looked at this landscape,” said Sisley.
Notice how light, almost weightless the houses, the surface of the water with light ripples, the pastel sky and the foliage of the trees seem. His paintings, written with thin, airy strokes, set the mood for a poetic, romantic mood.
A significant collection of the artist’s paintings is in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Don't ignore it when you're in the capital of France. You'll enjoy not only Sisley's work, but also paintings by other Impressionist artists on display at this museum on the banks of the Seine.
Pissarro Camille (1830 - 1903).
Art critics write that if Claude Monet and Sisley most loved to imagine water and changing reflections on its surface in their paintings, then Pissaro gave preference to land. His art is free from fleeting impressions - everything about it is more thorough. Notice how often scenes from rural life. The artist used the color scheme in such a way that when studying his canvases, it seems as if they are filled with light from within. Pissarro loved to paint orchards and fields, amazingly conveying the changes in nature.
Pissarro knew Monet, with whom they loved to paint together in the vicinity of Paris. “Gare Saint-Lazare”, “Pavilion of Flore and Pont Royal”, “Place Comedie-Française”, “View of the Louvre, Seine and Pont Neuf” were written here.
Cezanne called him “modest and great”, quite deservedly, what do you think?
Seurat Georges (1859 - 1891).
One of characteristic features Seurat had a desire to bring a fresh spirit to impressionism.
His work - both drawings and paintings- based on the theory of contrasts. The most famous painting, of course, is familiar to you, this is the masterpiece “Sunday Stroll on the Island of La La Grande Jatte,” kept at the Art Institute of Chicago. This painting became an expression of new trends in art, an expression of the ideas of neo-impressionism. A feeling of complete peace was achieved by combining cold and warm tones, light and shadow.
“Cancan,” a no less famous painting by the artist, on the contrary, conveys a feeling of joy and movement, using warm shades and bright colors.
I would like to end with the words of Claude Monet “ People discuss my art and pretend to understand as if it were necessary to understand, when it"s simply necessary to love ». ( People discuss my paintings, trying to understand. Why do you need to understand if you can just love??)
Details Category: Variety of styles and movements in art and their features Published 01/04/2015 14:11 Views: 10587Impressionism is an art movement that emerged in the second half of the 19th century. His main goal was to convey fleeting, changeable impressions.
The emergence of impressionism is associated with science: with the latest discoveries in optics and color theory.
This trend affected almost all types of art, but it was most clearly manifested in painting, where the transmission of color and light was the basis of the work of impressionist artists.
Meaning of the term
Impressionism(French Impressionnisme) from impression - impression). This style of painting appeared in France in the late 1860s. He was represented by Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley, Jean Frederic Bazille. But the term itself appeared in 1874, when Monet’s painting “Impression. The Rising Sun" (1872). In the title of the painting, Monet meant that he was conveying only his fleeting impression of the landscape.
K. Monet “Impression. Sunrise" (1872). Marmottan-Monet Museum, Paris
Later, the term “impressionism” in painting began to be understood more broadly: a careful study of nature in terms of color and lighting. The goal of the impressionists was to depict instantaneous, seemingly “random” situations and movements. To do this, they used various techniques: complex angles, asymmetry, fragmented compositions. For impressionist artists, a painting becomes a frozen moment of a constantly changing world.
Impressionist artistic method
The most popular genres of impressionists are landscapes and scenes from city life. They were always painted “in the open air”, i.e. directly from nature, in nature, without sketches or preliminary sketches. The Impressionists noticed and were able to convey colors and shades on canvas that were usually invisible to the naked eye and inattentive viewer. For example, transfer blue in the shadows or pink - at sunset. They decomposed complex tones into their constituent pure colors of the spectrum. This made their paintings appear bright and vibrant. Impressionist artists applied paints in separate strokes, in a free and even careless manner, so their paintings are best viewed from a distance - it is with this view that the effect of living flickering of colors is created.
The Impressionists abandoned the contour, replacing it with small, separate and contrasting strokes.
C. Pissarro, A. Sisley and C. Monet preferred landscapes and city scenes. O. Renoir loved to depict people in the lap of nature or in the interior. French impressionism did not raise philosophical and social problems. They did not turn to biblical, literary, mythological, historical subjects that were inherent in official academicism. Instead, an image of everyday life and modernity appeared on paintings; an image of people in motion, while relaxing or having fun. Their main subjects are flirting, dancing, people in cafes and theaters, boat rides, beaches and gardens.
The impressionists tried to capture a fleeting impression, the smallest changes in each object depending on the lighting and time of day. In this regard, Monet’s cycles of paintings “Haystacks”, “Rouen Cathedral” and “Parliament of London” can be considered the highest achievement.
C. Monet “The Cathedral of Rouen in the Sun” (1894). Orsay Museum, Paris, France
“Rouen Cathedral” is a cycle of 30 paintings by Claude Monet, which represent views of the cathedral depending on the time of day, year and lighting. This cycle was painted by the artist in the 1890s. The cathedral allowed him to show the relationship between the constant, solid structure of the building and the changing, easily playing light that changes our perception. Monet concentrates on individual fragments of the Gothic cathedral and selects the portal, the tower of St. Martin and the tower of Alban. He is solely interested in the play of light on the stone.
K. Monet “Rouen Cathedral, Western Portal, Foggy Weather” (1892). Orsay Museum, Paris
K. Monet “Rouen Cathedral, portal and tower, morning effect; white harmony" (1892-1893). Orsay Museum, Paris
K. Monet “Rouen Cathedral, portal and tower in the sun, harmony of blue and gold” (1892-1893). Orsay Museum, Paris
Following France, impressionist artists appeared in England and the USA (James Whistler), in Germany (Max Liebermann, Lovis Corinth), in Spain (Joaquin Sorolla), in Russia (Konstantin Korovin, Valentin Serov, Igor Grabar).
About the work of some impressionist artists
Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Claude Monet, photograph 1899
French painter, one of the founders of impressionism. Born in Paris. He was fond of drawing since childhood, and at the age of 15 he showed himself to be a talented caricaturist. TO landscape painting it was introduced by Eugene Boudin, a French artist, a predecessor of impressionism. Later, Monet entered the university at the Faculty of Arts, but became disillusioned and left it, enrolling in the painting studio of Charles Gleyre. In the studio he met the artists Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Frédéric Bazille. They were practically peers, held similar views on art, and soon formed the backbone of the impressionist group.
Monet became famous for his portrait of Camille Doncieux, painted in 1866 (“Camille, or Portrait of a Lady in a Green Dress”). Camilla became the artist's wife in 1870.
C. Monet “Camille” (“Lady in Green”) (1866). Kunsthalle, Bremen
C. Monet “Walk: Camille Monet with her son Jean (Woman with an Umbrella)” (1875). National Gallery of Art, Washington
In 1912, doctors diagnosed C. Monet with double cataracts, and he had to undergo two operations. Having lost the lens in his left eye, Monet regained his sight, but began to see ultraviolet light as blue or purple, causing his paintings to take on new colors. For example, when painting the famous “Water Lilies,” Monet saw the lilies as bluish in the ultraviolet range; to other people they were simply white.
C. Monet “Water Lilies”
The artist died on December 5, 1926 in Giverny and was buried in the local church cemetery.
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
C. Pissarro “Self-Portrait” (1873)
French painter, one of the first and most consistent representatives of impressionism.
Born on the island of St. Thomas (West Indies), in a bourgeois family of a Sephardic Jew and a native of the Dominican Republic. He lived in the West Indies until he was 12 years old, and at the age of 25 he and his entire family moved to Paris. I studied at school here fine arts and at the Suisse Academy. His teachers were Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet and Charles-François Daubigny. He started with rural landscapes and views of Paris. Pissarro had a strong influence on the Impressionists, independently developing many of the principles that formed the basis of their painting style. He was friends with the artists Degas, Cezanne and Gauguin. Pizarro was the only participant all 8 impressionist exhibitions.
He died in 1903 in Paris. He was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery.
Already in early works artist special attention paid attention to the image of illuminated objects in the air. Light and air have since become the leading theme in Pissarro's work.
C. Pissarro “Boulevard Montmartre. Afternoon, sunny" (1897)
in 1890, Pizarro became interested in the technique of pointillism (separate application of strokes). But after a while he returned to his usual manner.
IN recent years During his life, Camille Pissarro's vision noticeably deteriorated. But he continued his work and created a series of views of Paris, filled with artistic emotions.
C. Pissarro “Street in Rouen”
The unusual angle of some of his paintings is explained by the fact that the artist painted them from hotel rooms. This series became one of highest achievements impressionism in the transmission of light and atmospheric effects.
Pissarro also painted in watercolors and created a series of etchings and lithographs.
Here are some of his interesting statements about the art of impressionism: “The Impressionists on the right track, their art is healthy, it's feeling-based, and it's honest."
“Happy is he who can see the beauty in ordinary things, where others see nothing!”
C. Pissarro “The First Frost” (1873)
Russian impressionism
Russian impressionism developed from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. It was influenced by the work of the French impressionists. But Russian impressionism has a pronounced national specifics and in many ways does not coincide with textbook ideas about the classical French impressionism. In the painting of Russian impressionists, objectivity and materiality prevail. It is more loaded with meaning and less dynamic. Russian impressionism is closer than French to realism. French impressionists They focused on the impression of what they saw, and the Russians also added a reflection of the artist’s inner state. The work had to be completed in one session.
A certain incompleteness of Russian impressionism creates the “thrill of life” that was characteristic of them.
Impressionism includes the work of Russian artists: A. Arkhipov, I. Grabar, K. Korovin, F. Malyavin, N. Meshcherin, A. Murashko, V. Serov, A. Rylov and others.
V. Serov “Girl with Peaches” (1887)
This painting is considered the standard of Russian impressionism in portraiture.
Valentin Serov “Girl with Peaches” (1887). Oil on canvas. 91×85 cm. State Tretyakov Gallery
The painting was painted at the estate of Savva Ivanovich Mamontov in Abramtsevo, which he acquired from the daughter of the writer Sergei Aksakov in 1870. The portrait depicts 12-year-old Vera Mamontova. The girl is drawn sitting at a table; she is wearing a pink blouse with a dark blue bow; there is a knife, peaches and leaves on the table.
“All I was striving for was freshness, that special freshness that you always feel in nature and don’t see in paintings. I painted for more than a month and exhausted her, poor thing, to death; I really wanted to preserve the freshness of the painting while being completely complete, just like the old masters” (V. Serov).
Impressionism in other forms of art
In literature
In literature, impressionism as a separate movement did not develop, but its features were reflected in naturalism And symbolism .
Edmond and Jules Goncourt. Photo
Principles naturalism can be traced in the novels of the Goncourt brothers and George Eliot. But Emile Zola was the first to use the term “naturalism” to refer to his own work. The writers Guy de Maupassant, Alphonse Daudet, Huysmans and Paul Alexis grouped around Zola. After the release of the collection “Medan Evenings” (1880) frank stories about the disasters of the Franco-Prussian War (including Maupassant’s story “Dumpling”), they were given the name “Medan group”.
Emile Zola
The naturalistic principle in literature has often been criticized for its lack of artistry. For example, I. S. Turgenev wrote about one of Zola’s novels that “there is a lot of digging in chamber pots.” Gustave Flaubert was also critical of naturalism.
Zola maintained friendly relations with many impressionist artists.
Symbolists used symbols, understatement, hints, mystery, enigma. The main mood captured by the symbolists was pessimism, reaching the point of despair. Everything “natural” was represented only as an “appearance” that had no independent artistic significance.
Thus, impressionism in literature was expressed by the author’s private impression, the rejection of an objective picture of reality, and the depiction of every moment. In fact, this led to the absence of plot and history, the replacement of thought with perception, and reason with instinct.
G. Courbet “Portrait of P. Verlaine” (circa 1866)
A striking example of poetic impressionism is Paul Verlaine’s collection “Romances without Words” (1874). In Russia, Konstantin Balmont and Innokenty Annensky experienced the influence of impressionism.
V. Serov “Portrait of K. Balmont” (1905)
Innokenty Annensky. Photo
These sentiments also affected dramaturgy. The plays contain a passive perception of the world, analysis of moods, states of mind. The dialogues concentrate fleeting, scattered impressions. These features are characteristic of the work of Arthur Schnitzler.
In music
Musical impressionism developed in France in the last quarter XIX V. – early 20th century He expressed himself most clearly in the works of Erik Satie, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
Erik Satie
Musical impressionism is close to impressionism in French painting. They not only have common roots, but also cause-and-effect relationships. Impressionist composers sought and found not only analogies, but also expressive means in the works of Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Puvis de Chavannes and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Of course, the means of painting and means musical art can be connected with each other only with the help of special, subtle associative parallels that exist only in consciousness. If you look at the blurry image of Paris “in the autumn rain” and the same sounds, “muffled by the noise of falling drops,” then here we can only talk about the property artistic image, but not the real image.
Claude Debussy
Debussy writes "Clouds", "Prints" (the most figurative of which, a watercolor sound sketch - "Gardens in the Rain"), "Images", "Reflections on the Water", which evoke direct associations with famous painting Claude Monet "Impression: Sunrise". According to Mallarmé, impressionist composers learned to “hear light,” to convey in sounds the movement of water, the vibration of leaves, the blowing of wind and the refraction of sunlight in the evening air.
Maurice Ravel
Direct connections between painting and music exist in M. Ravel in his sound-visual “Play of Water”, the cycle of plays “Reflections”, and the piano collection “Rustles of the Night”.
The Impressionists created works of refined art and at the same time clear in expressive means, emotionally restrained, conflict-free and strict in style.
In sculpture
O. Rodin “The Kiss”
Impressionism in sculpture was expressed in the free plasticity of soft forms, which creates a complex play of light on the surface of the material and a feeling of incompleteness. The poses of the sculptural characters capture the moment of movement and development.
O. Rodin. Photo from 1891
This direction includes sculptural works by O. Rodin (France), Medardo Rosso (Italy), P.P. Trubetskoy (Russia).
V. Serov “Portrait of Paolo Trubetskoy”
Pavel (Paolo) Trubetskoy(1866-1938) – sculptor and artist, worked in Italy, USA, England, Russia and France. Born in Italy. Illegitimate son Russian emigrant, Prince Pyotr Petrovich Trubetskoy.
Since childhood, I have been independently engaged in sculpture and painting. He had no education. In the initial period of his creativity, he created portrait busts, works of small sculpture, and participated in competitions for the creation of large sculptures.
P. Trubetskoy “Monument Alexander III", Saint Petersburg
The first exhibition of works by Paolo Trubetskoy took place in the USA in 1886. In 1899, the sculptor came to Russia. Takes part in a competition to create a monument to Alexander III and, unexpectedly for everyone, receives first prize. This monument has caused and continues to cause conflicting assessments. It is difficult to imagine a more static and ponderous monument. And only positive feedback imperial family allowed the monument to take its appropriate place - in the sculptural image they found similarities with the original.
Critics believed that Trubetskoy worked in the spirit of “outdated impressionism.”
Trubetskoy’s image of the brilliant Russian writer turned out to be more “impressionistic”: there is clearly movement here - in the folds of the shirt, the flowing beard, the turn of the head, there is even a feeling that the sculptor managed to capture the tension of L. Tolstoy’s thought.
P. Trubetskoy “Bust of Leo Tolstoy” (bronze). State Tretyakov Gallery
