Impressionism 1615

Impressionism Impressionism is classed as one of the most important artistic movements of the nineteenth century. The style of work, which the impressionists produced, changed the way a lot of people approached art. Most art critics would agree that the Impressionists pioneered what is known today as Modern Art (20th Century Art). Some of the fore-figures of the movement are Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir and Edgar Regas. Although at the time that the Impressionists (who called themselves The Realists) lived, they were not really appreciated. Their work is now immensely popular and can often be seen on teh front of greeting cards, address books, diaries, mugs and even posters advertising companies. Most people will recognise many of the famous paintings produced by the Impressionists. I think that the members if the Impressionist group could see how popular their work is todat they would be greatly shocked, as during their lives they recieved nothing but scorn and abuse. Claude Monet was born on November the 14th 1840, in Paris. Monet is regarded as a French painter, initiator, leader and unanswering advocate of the Impressionist style. He is regarded as the archetypal Impressionist in that his devotion to the ideals of the movement were unwavering throughout his logn career. His youth was spent in Le Havre, where he first excelled as a caricaturist but was then converted to landscape painting by his early mentor, Boudin, from whom he derived his strong affection for painting "en plein air" (out of doors). In 1859, he studied in Paris ar the Atelier Suisse and formed a friendship with Pissarro. After two years' military service in Algeirs, he returned to Le Havre and met Jongkind, to whom he said he owed ' the definitive education of my eye '. He then, in 1862, entered the studio of Gleyre in Paris and there met Renoir, Sisley and Bazille, with whom he was to form the heart of the Impressionist group. Monets devotion on paiting en plein air is illustrated by the famous story concerning one of his most ambitious early works, Women In The Garden. The picture is around 2.5 metres high, and to enable him to paint all of it outside, he had a trench dug in the garden, so the canvas could be raised or lowered by pulleys to the height required. Courvet visited him while he was working on it and daid Monet would not even paint the leaves in the background unless the lighting conditions were exactly right. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), Monet took refuge in England with Pissarro: he studied the work of Constable and Turner, painted the Thames and London parks, and met the dealer Durand-Ruel, who was to become one of the great champions of the Impressionists. From 1871 to 1878, Monet lived at Argentieul, a village on the Seine near Paris, and here was painted some of the most joyous and famous works of the Impressionist movement, not only by Monet, but also by his visitors Manet, Renoir and Sisley. In 1878 he moved to Vétheuil and in 1883 he settled at Giverny, also on the Seine, but about 40 miles from Paris. After having experienced extreme poverty, Monet begain to prosper. By 1890 he was successful enough to buy the house at Giverny which he had previously rented and in 1892 he married his mistress, with whom he had started an affair in 1876. From 1890 he concentrated on a series of pictures which he painted the same subject at different times of the day in different lights-- Haystacks or Grainstacks (189091) and Rouen Cathedral (1891-95) are the best known. He continued to travel widely, visiting London and Venice several times, but increasingly his attention was focused on the paintings of Water-lilies, that began in 1899 and grew to dominate his work completely, and in 1914 he had a special studio built so he could work on the huge canvases. In his final years, failing eyesight troubled him, but he painted til the end. And he sadly passed away on December 5th, 1926. He was enormously prolific and many major galleries have examples of his work. The picture that I have chosen to analyse by Claude Monet is "The Bridges At Argenteuil," 1873. This

particular painting is completed in oil on canvas. The foremost aspect that appeals to me about this picture is the varying tones of blue that have been used. There are so many different shades used that the viewer is drawn to the painting. The painting is of a railway bridge and has a steam train going over it. There is a yacht sailing down the river, and two men are standing on the riverbank observing the scenery, in a very relaxed manner. The atmosephere of the painting is bright and happy and I think the bright colours make the painting even more attractive. One of the main visual elements that Monet has used in this painting is texture. Monet creates an excellent impression of the water and cotrasts this with the texture of the grassy banks and trees. Monet has crossed over nature with technology at this point, where he has executed fantastically the image of a railways bridge with natural surroundings. I feel that he is trying to put the message across that even though technology is progressing - life as beautifully as we know it continues. The visible brushstrokes, a trademark of Impressionist paintings, make the painting even more beautiful. The way, in which Monet has made the colours overlap each other, creates a fantastic texture, it's as if the colours are standing out of the canvas. Edward Hopper was born in 1882. He was an American Realist, active mainly in New York. Hopper trained under Robert Henri, 1900-1906 and between 1906 and 1920 made three trips to Europe, though these had little influence on his style. Hopper exhibited at the Armoury Show in 1913, but from then until 1923 he abandoned painting, earning his living by commercial illustration. Thereafter, however, he gained widespread recognition as a central exponent of American Scene Painting, expressing the loneliness, apathy and stagnation of town life. Yet Hopper remained always an individualist, as he once said, "I don't think I ever tried to paint the American Scene; I'm trying to paint myself."

Paintings such as Nighthawks (Art institute of Chicago,1942) convey a mood of loneliness, solitude and desolation by their emptiness or by the presence of anonymous, non-communicating figures. But of this picture Hopper said, "I didn't see it as particularly lonely... Unconsciously, probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city." Deliberately so or not, in his still, reserved and blandly handled paintings, Hopper often exerts a powerful psychological impact - distantly similar to that made by the Metaphysical painter, De Chirico; but while De Chirico's effect was obtained by making the unreal seem real, Hoppers was rooted in the presentation on the familiar and concrete. Edward Hopper painted American landscapes and cityscapes with a disturbing truth, expressing the world around him as a chilling, alienating and often vacuous place. Everyone in a Hopper painting appears terribly alone. Hopper soon gained a widespread reputation as the artist who gave visual form to the loneliness and boredom of life in the big city. This was something new in art, perhaps an expression of the sense of human hopelessness that characterised the Great Depression of the 1930's. Edward Hopper has something of the lonely gravity peculiar to Thomas Eakings, a courageous fidelity to life as he feels it to be. He also shares Winslow Homers power to recall the feel of all things. For Hopper, this feel is insistently low-key and deliberate. He shows the modern world unflinchingly; even its gaieties are gently mournful, echoing the disillusionment that swept across the start of teh Great Depression.

Cape Cod Evening should be idyllic, and in a way it is. The couple enjoy the eveing sunshine outside their home, yet they are a couple only technically, and the enjoyment is wholly passive as both are so isolated, and not making any contact. Their house is closed to intimacy, the door firmly shut, and the windows covered. The dog is the only alert creature, but even it turns away from the house. The thick, sinister trees tap on the window panes, but there will be no answer... Through my studies of these two artists, I have found that although their styles of work are very different, they have a lot in common. Such as the way they both had such dedication to perfection of their work, and the way they would put their love of painting before anything else, nothing could come between them and their work. Also, they both lived on riverside towns, where they gained a lot of their inspiration. Monet and Hopper both had verying subject matter, although Monet's paintings have a more relaxed feel to them, looking at them gives us the feeling of being laid-back and carefree. Whereas Hopper's tended to be more realistic, containing images of solitude, and emptiness. They give you a cold, chilling feeling when you look at them because they often contain unknown, anonymous people, who never seem to be enjoying themselves, to me they reflected the toils and hardship of how city life must appear to be when you are on your own. Although both artists are different in many ways, their work is still as amazing as each others, in my eyes. With Edward Hoppers incredible talent of the perfect, realistic detail, where paintings could be mistaken for photographs, and Monet's desire for perfection in the smallest aspects of his work, these artists work will be remembered for many years to come...