The impressionism movement occurred in both art and poetry. During this time people branched out from the original styles and ways. They strived to find different ways to presents their ideas. Art and poetry were the two most popular subjects of interest. Claude Monet’s Woman with a Parasol: Madame Monet and her son, and William Butler Yeats’s “The Wild Swan at Coole” both captured aspects that were seen important during the Impressionism Age.
“Impressionism” is a word that is mostly used within the artist community when referring to the artist movement. The first time the term impressionism was used was when a writer was talking about Claude Monet’s painting Impression: Sunrise. ...view middle of the document...
These paintings were more spontaneous and ‘on the spot’ so to speak and made them appear much less realistic, hence the word impressionism. Spontaneity and different light sources are some of the characteristics that set impressionism art apart from all other styles of art.
Impressionists, both in art and poetry, portrayed great images of their subject by using their style or techniques. Rich color, great light effects, and motion are all captured in the impressionist’s scenes. The impressionist painters tried to see their subjects not as what they really were, but as different areas of color, shapes and light molding together to make the image. They commonly practiced very quick, free brush strokes and avoided having detailed spots of color. By doing so, it created a light and sometimes dark mysterious mood. Artists from earlier periods mixed their colors but impressionists did not. Instead, they placed each color onto the canvas individually without mixing any colors. To create a strong contrast, they dropped
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primary colors and their complimentary colors on the canvas with great specificity. They used short brush strokes and tried not to blend the paint.
Impressionists knew that if someone was viewing from a distance, their eyes would blur the colors all together. One of the larger impacts created by impressionist painting was the great lighting techniques they used. Although their paintings were not as realistic as the classic style of painting, impressionists used light to give the piece a sense of realism. They did not try to portray exact shapes and forms. Claude Monet was a perfect example of an impressionistic artist who studied the way that light affected the subject of his paintings. Eventually he was recognized as the leader of the Impressionism Movement. Claude Monet tried to learn about transient effects of unarranged light. A way he did this was experimenting with light on painting individual scenes. He painted certain scenes many times but every time with a different lighting situations. Like other impressionists, Monet painted landscapes and portraits of people with quick strokes of bring color. His work shows the aspect of impressionism well because he portrayed spontaneous scenes with a lot of movement. Although he used all the techniques of impressionism, such as movement and color, light was always the most important part of his paintings. One of his most well know works, Woman with a Parasol, captures the importance of light, color, and technique. Although the panting’s subject is Monet’s wife and son, the light still dominates and impacts the viewer the most.
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Monet, Claude, Woman with a Parasol, 1875, Oil on canvas, 100 x 81 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington
Monet’s precise way of applying the paint causes the picture to come alive. He created texture by using a variety of different brush sizes and mixing up his stroke patterns. Monet used the wind to create a...
