Midterm Discussion

My section of our presentation was Impressionism/Post-Impressionism, ending with Pointillism. I explained the style and techniques of each, and provided examples of each. I referenced different works by artists like Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, etc. I also explained how Impressionism came to be. 

Pictured below are my slides I did for the presentation, and the descriptions I said aloud are below them. 

Following Rococo style came Impressionism in the mid to late 1800s.

Impressionism style took off after the invention of tube paint and the box easel. Before these innovations, artists were confined to their studios. However, now they could take their paint and easels outside with them and paint wherever they wanted. This style of painting outdoors was called Plein Air, and involved painting everyday outdoor scenes, or snippets of common life. This style was very Avant-garde for the time, and was soon used by artists everywhere. 

There were a few main concepts involved in the Impressionist movement. Artists started choosing what they wanted to paint, rather than what they were being commissioned to paint. Artists started depicting more leisure activities and were working more towards capturing the atmosphere of common life. They came up with new techniques to capture the movement. Brush strokes were more broken up and splotchy. Colors were more pastel and less blended out. We can see how the artists were moving further and further away from Realism in their art. 

The shift from Baroque style to Impressionist is best shown through examples. Here we have The Denial of Saint Peter by Caravaggio and La Grenouillère by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The Denial of Saint Peter has a lot of dark, black coloring all around. The colors are blended out to give the painting a more realistic look. The lighting is harsh and the painting was done in a studio. In contrast, La Grenouillère had no black in the palette, and the colors weren’t as blended out. The lighting is more natural, and less harsh. The scene also is a depiction of a slice of common life. 

Many artists came out of this period, but none quite as recognizable as these three men. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who we already mentioned, Claude Monet, and Edouard Manet. These three artists defined the Impressionist period, and have left names for themselves as some of the best artists the world has seen. 

Following the initial impressionist movement came Post-Impressionism. Artists of this time still thought Impressionism was too close to realism. They wanted to start pushing the boundaries of light and color in their work. Their focus started to shift more towards abstraction of images and ideas. Vincent Van Gogh and Georges Seurat were two of the artists that helped pioneer this movement. 

Springing from the tail end of Impressionism, pointillism became more popular. It was yet another step away from realism and closer towards abstraction. There were no strokes in this type of artwork, only dots (or points). Georges Seurat and Paul Signac were the founders of this style, effectively defining the era. Pointillism and post-impressionism kicked Impressionism into the new eras of modernism.