Impressionism.

Impressionism. THINGS TO LEARN * Impressionism impressionism, in paintingimpressionism,in painting, late-19th-century French school that was generally characterized by the attempt to depict transitory visual impressions, often painted directly from nature, and by the use of pure, broken color to is a style of painting in which artists paint theordinary scenes that lie in front of them. The original Impressionistswere interested in everyday sights found on nearby streets, in the quietcountryside or inside cafes and theaters. They usually completed apainting on a single occasion, unlike most artists of the time who firstmade sketches and then went back to their studios to complete a picture. * While most artists of the time painted objects very carefully,Impressionist painters recognized that daylight caused the appearance ofimages to continually change. As a result, they tried to capture oncanvas what was happening in a fleeting moment of time. To do this, theyfocused attention on the effects created by light as it was reflectedfrom objects, rather than on the solidness of the shapes themselves.Buildings, trees, bridges and people, therefore, usually had indistinct in��dis��tinct?adj.1. Not clearly or sharply delineated: an indistinct pattern; indistinct shapes in the gloom.2. Faint; dim: indistinct stars.3. outlines. * Because Impressionist painters had to work quickly, oil paint wasusually put on the canvas in small dabs or short strokes, often withlittle color mixing. These bright, frequently unmixed colors appeared toblend together in the finished painting to make people think the painthad really been mixed in advance. * Many people believe that Impressionism was the most importantidea to happen to art since the Italian Renaissance, 500 years before.At that time, Classical art had been rediscovered after being forgottenfor 1,000 years. But Impressionism did not just happen. The leaders ofthis new movement developed their ideas by studying the pictures ofother artists, most importantly Adv. 1. most importantly - above and beyond all other consideration; "above all, you must be independent"above all, most especially two Englishmen, John Constable andJ.M.W. Turner. Further ideas came from a group of landscape artists who had workedin the village of Barbizon, near Paris, France, and also Edouard Manet,who believed that art should portray what an artist actually saw. * The names of the original French Impressionists are Claude Monet,Camille Pissarro, Pierre Renoir, Alfred Sisley Alfred Sisley (October 30, 1839 – January 29, 1899) was an English Impressionist landscape painter who lived and worked in France. BiographySisley was born in Paris to affluent English parents, William Sisley and Felicia Sell. and Edgar Degas. Pissarrowas their leading thinker. However, each artist painted quitedifferently while working toward similar goals. * Later, three other artists took the ideas of Impressionism andchanged them to create other art movements. Paintings by Paul Cezanneare called "Post-Impressionism." Those by Paul Gauguin areexamples of "Symbolism." And a group of artists, under theleadership of Georges Seurat, used a system of painting called"Pointillism pointillism(pwăn`təlĭz'əm): see postimpressionism. pointillismIn painting, the practice of applying small strokes or dots of contrasting colour to a surface so that from a distance they blend together. " (or "Neo-Impressionism"). * Probably the best-known American Impressionist is Mary Cassatt,who worked in France with the original French artists. Many Americanartists adopted Impressionism, however, and in 1898, Childe Hassam andnine other New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Impressionists joined together and called themselves"The Ten." THINGS TO DO * In order for students to develop a clear understanding ofImpressionism, they need to become familiar with as many examples aspossible. Fortunately, the popularity of this art movement continues tobe very great and all libraries are likely to have at least one book onthese artists. The first goal is to become familiar with the appearance ofImpressionist paintings so that students can recognize them at a glance.A second goal is to see enough Impressionist works so that students canidentify the individual styles and choices of subject matter of thebetter-known painters. * Painting outdoors is an experience that all students should have.Wether WETHER. A castrated ram, at least one year old in ark indictment it may be called a sheep. 4 Car. & Payne, 216; 19 Eng. Com. Law Rep. 351. or not they choose to work in an Impressionist style is much lessimportant. However, the act of working outdoors is unique and studentsneed to focus their attention if they are to be successful. If they planto portray busy city streets, they will usually be better advised doingas Hassam did: painting from an upstairs window. * Students often fail when faced with the need to draw or paintlarge buildings or people clustered together in crowds. They typicallytry to include too much detail. The lesson to be learned from studyingthis painting by Childe Hassam is to observe how he avoids detail andonly shows as much as is necessary to tell viewers what the scene isabout. * Hassam makes numerous uses of perspective in this picture, themost noticeable of which are "convergence" and"foreshortening foreshortening,n See distortion, vertical. "--both are described in "ThisPainting" on page 36. He also uses size and color changes toindicate distance. One way for students to learn more about perspective is for them todraw the main outlines of Hassam's picture on a sheet of paper. Or,if drawing freehand See Macromedia FreeHand. is too difficult, they could make a tracing. Theyshould then paint their drawing, all the while thinking aboutHassam's use of perspective methods. BUILDING I PICTURE FILE WITH THIS CLIP & SAVE ART PRINTREPRODUCTION This painting by Childe Hassam may be used to serve as anexample of Impressionism and various other art-teaching needs.Potentially useful picture-file categories include: Impressionism;American Impressionists: Childe Hassam; City Scenes: New York; PaintingCrowds; Tall Buildings; Repetition; Convergence; and Foreshortening. For ideas about collecting and retrieving pictures to help inteaching art and other subjects, readers are invited to write to: GuyHubbard c/o Arts & Activities, 591 Camino de la Reina, Suite 200,San Diego, CA 92108.