Colour and pointillism in Impressionism PDF

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Colour and pointillism in Impressionism...

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Colour and pointillism in Impressionism! A painting movement that appeared in France in the second fifty years of the 19th century and opposed the established rules of academic painting, the value of creative spontaneity and the impressions caused by colours as manifestations of natural light. Before Impressionism, painters maintained lines and contours even in landscapes, or to achieve colour harmonies they started with a basic tone and created intermediate halftones with colour blends. 1863, the year Delacroix died, is considered to be the beginning of the 20th century art. The Impressionists, wanting to give more shine to the paintings, simplified them, limited their palette to the colours of the solar spectrum and did not mix them but placed them on the canvas next to each other, thus increasing the brightness of the works. In addition to the revolution in technique, they also revolutionized subject matter. While neoclassical and romantic artists drew their themes from mythology and history, the Impressionists depicted their modern urban environment, landscapes with mountains, trees, water and clouds, everyday scenes with human figures always in motion, with an emphasis on the moment , the uninterrupted changing, in the constant becoming. In order to reach a convincing rendition of their view, the Impressionists had to challenge the academic tradition that wanted the defining factor of painting, the line. Differing at this point from all previous currents, even from the realistic one, their purpose was not to present the objective materiality of the physical world, but to express the joy caused by the subjective sense of coloured light. Until then the paint had to be subordinated to the lines, just to coat the surfaces they define. The Impressionists remained essentially romantic, in the sense that they retained their subjective perception, individual artistic expression, and lyrical style. Despite the differences, elements that foreshadow Impressionism are also found in older painters, in the landscape painters of the late 18th century, in Delacroix, in the school of Barbizon, in Corot, in Courbet, in the gentle coastal landscapes of Buden (teacher of Monet). in the transparent and subtle tones of Yonkind landscapes. The discovery of Japanese chromolithographs, which highlighted colour tones and were indifferent to the rendering of perspective depth, as well as the portable camera, also had a significant effect. The Impressionist method was based on small touches of mixed colour, resembling iridescent light. The artist created the impression of form, distance, depth and shadow. The whole technique was based on the knowledge of the laws of physics and chemistry concerning light and colour. That's why the shadows stopped being black or dark brown and turned blue or purple, as it really is.

More impressive was the use of complementary colours, red on green, blue on orange and yellow on purple. The Impressionists sketched in the countryside and completed their work in the laboratory, painting from beginning to end in front of their subject, with the main aim of capturing the impression that things gave them, the data of visual experience at a certain moment and in certain atmospheric conditions. This was a subjective choice, which is why Impressionism is also called "Subjective Realism". The physical world is not a set of fixed and immovable quantities, but a moving whole with infinite colour gradients. There is interpenetration of light and form, abandonment of closed contours, fluidity and determination in the joy of life. "Salon" was the name of the official exhibition of works of art held in Paris at the initiative and under the protection of the state. It included two to three thousand paintings, engravings and sculptures. In addition to the huge number of visitors it gathered, especially on Sundays when admission was free, it also gave collectors and critics the opportunity to have full oversight of the performance of French art. It was obviously the place where artists could gain publicity, recognition, fame, awards and orders. The Salon of 1863 would take place at the Palais de l 'Industrie, a large metal and glass building built on the Champs Elysees for the 1855 Paris World's Fair. On April 12, 1863 the jury announced the results of participation. Of the five thousand works submitted, only two thousand two hundred and seventeen were accepted, the rest were rejected. These include the three works of Manet and other artists, some of whom have won awards in previous exhibitions. This intensified the protests, which were intervened by the emperor Napoleon III and ordered that the works of the rejected be exhibited in another area of the Palais de l 'Industrie so that the public could judge them. Thus was born the Salon des Refuses which would operate until 1881 and would play an important role in promoting new trends. Manet's contribution was quite special, as he was not only a forerunner of Impressionism, but at least in part, an Impressionist himself. It is mainly due to the decisive turn of aesthetic preferences towards the new painting, he was the first revolutionary, who managed to break free from the slavery of the traditional subject, the leader of those excluded from the Salon, the theoretical fighter of the Gerboua cafe. As early as 1863, with "Olympia" and "Breakfast on the Grass", he inaugurated the artist's release from the official theme, the simplification of form, the bright painting, the contrasts of colours. Although he never took part in the exhibitions of the Impressionist group, nor did he completely dismantle the outline of the figures, it is undeniable that his painting was the necessary precedent of Impressionism.

The duration of Impressionism covers the short period of about ten years. The beginning of Impressionism is placed around 1870 to 1880 in France, a difficult period due to the economic crisis that followed the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. While after 1880 the various painters of the group are divided and continue the common goals according to their individual artistic nature. In the period from 1860 to 1870, the preparatory phase of Impressionism evolved, the phase of meetings of young painters, who, despite differences in education and temperament, had a common desire for new aesthetic pursuits and proceeded together and individually to independent young people. The first nucleus was formed before 1860 by Pissarro and Monet in the Swiss Academy and was later supplemented by Cézanne. In 1862 Monet met Renoir, Bazignan and Sisley in Glor's workshop, where he went to study. The war waged by the Salon of the Excluded in 1863 strengthened the group. Another place of meetings and lively discussions was the Gerboua café where they gathered, in addition to Monet, Pissarro, Cézanne, Bazignan, Renoir, Sisley, Manet, Degas and critics such as Durady and Deere and where Sez brought Zola in contact with the others. The leap from realism to impressionism took place from 1867 to 1869. The Franco-Prussian War divided and dispersed young artists. Cézanne returns to Provence, Degas, Renoir and Bazignan are recruited, Bazignan is killed in the war, Pissarro and Monet go to England, meet the French art dealer Durand-Riel and exhibit their works in his shop. The group work of the Impressionists continued with greater activity after the war. At this time, Cézanne, painting in Over-sur-Oise with Pissarro, ends his short but unquestionable Impressionist period, as does Manet, who works in Argentina with Monet and Renoir. The first exhibition of the group took place in 1874 at the Nadar photo studio. Although nonImpressionist painters also took part in the exhibition, the critics immediately recognized the character of the new current, and Louis Leroy, of the Charivari newspaper, disparagingly called these painters Impressionists, or "impressive", from a painting by Moneto "," Impression, sunrise ". The painters liked the characterization "Impressionists" and officially adopted it. In 1876 they presented their second group exhibition, from which Manet and Cézanne were absent. The third exhibition of 1877 and the most important, was called "Exhibition of the Impressionists". All the Impressionists took part in it with a large number of works, except Manet. After 1877, Cézanne was the first to feel the need to go beyond Impressionism and provide morphological solutions to the problem of tumor imaging, as had been the case with the problem of light. Thus he did not take part in the exhibition of 1878, nor in the subsequent ones of 1880, 81, 82,

86, in which, however, the young Gauguin participated. In the exhibitions after 1880 the differences of the painters become more noticeable, not only in their works but also in their beliefs. In 1883, the year of Manet's death, the Impressionists had already paved separate paths. Renoir, to whom the expansion of the Impressionist style in the depiction of the human form is due, is going through a period of classic crisis. Sisley returns to the lessons of Corot that he had never forgotten. Degas seeks the relationship between light, colour, line and motion. Monet, the strong spirit and animator of the team, leads Impressionism to its ultimate consequences, with its series of "Water Lilies" and "Metropolises". Pissarro ends up experimenting with stigma and neo-impressionism. Impressionism was the ultimate affirmation of art in the triumph of 19th century materialism, the swan song in a course that had glorified the exclusivity of sensuality. The reaction to Impressionism was conceived within his own bosom. Impressionism showed that great art can be made from even the simplest experiences. Man not only has vision, he has thought, imagination and the ability to relate things and situations and to systematize. This world was traced by Georges Seurat, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne. The term "Post-Impressionism" refers to Impressionism, that is, to the immediately preceding style, on a common basis on which Georges Serra, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne built. Cézanne had participated in the first exhibition and the Impressionists' Tuesday in 1874 and 1877, Gauguin in four in 1879-1882, Seurat in the latter in 1886 and Van Gogh had been amicably influenced by the Impressionists. After the dissolution of the Impressionist group, the work of Gauguin and Van Gogh, who gained from Impressionism what they needed in order to proceed with symbolism, composition and Expressionism, is imposed. Seurat was a proponent of Neo-Impressionism. As a basic unit of his technique he used the "point", and the name of the movement "Pointillism" and as the main principle the visual mix....