Impression, soleil levant

[Equinoxe]

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Monet_Impression_Sunrise.jpg

Claude Monet's Impression: Sunrise, the work from which the Impressionist movement acquired its name. It is a vague, in a sense, very imprecise, it suggests the subject to the viewer, rather than recreating it perfectly, it impresses upon the viewer the theme of the painting.

Another by Monet,
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/The_Garden_in_Flower.jpg
The Garden in the Flower

There were others within the movement of course, even those who pre-dated Monet, such as Edouard Manet, whose works were initially rejected by the Academies of the time, the formalistic bodies which ruled the art scene in France at the time. Here we have a few works of his pursuing a similar theme, portraits of women with a seasonal idea, Autumn and Spring.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Autumn_Study_of_Mery_Laurent.jpg http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Spring_Study_of_Jeanne_Demarsy.jpg

In these works of the prolific Pierre-Auguste Renoir we see both his individuality and the elements of the Impressionists in general; there is the use of light and colour and the soft blending of everything, but unlike many in the style, he did not focus on landscapes. Exploring a certain thematic element, we have Dance in the City and Dance in the Country.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Dance_in_the_City.jpg http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Dance_in_the_Country.jpg


P.S. I recommend some Impressionist music to go along with it, Debussy, Ravel, or Satie.

Other pieces in this series can be found at the following locations:
I'm feeling Baroque
I'm in the mood for a Renaissance
Isn't it Romantic?
It's quite Classical at the Academies
A Byzantine Web of Gothic Horror and Romanesque Decadence

 

[Equinoxe]

A few works of Edgar Degas,
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/singer_with_glove.jpg
Cafe Concert Singer

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Orchestra_at_the_Opera.jpg
The Orchestra of the Opéra

We see scenes that are quite different from the history painting so common in earlier eras and yet they're not the mystical sort one might see in the Romantic period, they are real and contemporary, but with an individualistic strain.

 

[Equinoxe]

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Sisley_Alfred_Windy_Day_At_Veneux.jpg http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Sisley_Alfred_Villeneuve_la_Garenne.jpg

Above are Windy Day at Veneux and Villeneuve-la-Garenne; in these works of Alfred Sisley we see a fairly typical theme and style of the Impressionists, the vibrant use of colours, the fuzzy imprecision and the naturalistic theme, a landscape scene.

 

[Equinoxe]

A few by an American artist, Mary Cassett:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Two_Women_Throwing_Flowers.jpg
Two Women Throwing Flowers During Carnival

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Cassatt_Mary_Young_Woman_In_Green_O.jpg
Young Woman in Green, Outdoors in the Sun

 

[Equinoxe]

Another Monet, The Women in the Garden
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/The_Women_in_the_Garden.jpg

 

[Equinoxe]

Manet, again:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Baudelaires_Mistress_Reclining_Stud.jpg
Baudelaire's Mistress Reclining

 

[Equinoxe]

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Pissarro_The_Artist-s_Garden_at_Era.jpg
The Artist's Garden at Eragny

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Pissarro_Sunset_at_St.jpg
Sunset at St. Charles, Eragny

Some classic Impressionist landscape scenes by Camille Pissarro.

 

[Equinoxe]

A few scenes of city life by Gustave Caillebotte:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Paris.jpg
Paris Street

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Bridge_of_Europe.jpg
On the Europe Bridge

 

[Equinoxe]

A Degas, very interesting in that it has a certain greyness to it, a certain drabness to the colour:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Ballet_Rehearsal.jpg
Ballet Rehearsal on Stage

 

[Dionysian Beast]

Very well done.

 

[Equinoxe]

Very well done.

Thank you. It was starting to get lonely in this thread.

 

[Dionysian Beast]

I noticed.

It's good to see someone with a good knowledge of arts. I, myself, am in the dark when it comes to certain areas and subjects. Thanks for sharing.

 

[cjh]

it's hard to believe, with the benefit of hindsight, that impressionism was snubbed initially.

 

[Equinoxe]

And another work of Degas, again with a sort of everyday city-life scene (and like the above, this is also a scene relating to dance):
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/dance_class.jpg
The Dance Class

The colours are vibrant and stark, the painting has a greenish hue which permeates the whole of the piece. In the people we see the style of the artist, they are still fairly detailed (as Degas often departed from the stricter elements of the Impressionist style into more realistic approaches), but they are not so linear, they have a free style to them.

 

[Equinoxe]

Thanks for sharing.

You're very welcome.

 

[Equinoxe]

it's hard to believe, with the benefit of hindsight, that impressionism was snubbed initially.

Yes it is. Impressionism is the foundation upon which Modern Art stands, there are so many elements of it that are the standards of art these days, it seems so strange that it was looked down upon. Monet's work from which the movement takes its name, Impression: Sunrise, was compared, unfavourably, to wallpaper in a review.

 

[Pookie]

Excellent thread. Sometimes it's more fun just lurking.

 

[Equinoxe]

Excellent thread. Sometimes it's more fun just lurking.

Thank you very much! I do understand about the lurking though.

Creating this whole series has actually involved some work -- which I generally try to avoid in posting, but I've enjoyed making them.

 

[nitengale]

I love good art! I wish I had the money and walls... to obtain more of it!

 

[Equinoxe]

Another work of Alfred Sisley, a lovely natural scene of the river Seine in France,
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Seine.jpg
The Seine at Suresnes

The heavy, short brush strokes and the use of colour are very much in following with the Impressionist archetype.

 

[Equinoxe]

I love good art! I wish I had the money and walls... to obtain more of it!

I do understand and I quite agree.

 

[Equinoxe]

A work from another female artist, Eva Gonzales:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Gonzales_Eva_White_Shoes.jpg
White Shoes

 

[Equinoxe]

A work of Camille Pissarro:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/Pissarro_Bather_in_the_Woods.jpg
Bather in the Woods

 

[Equinoxe]

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y256/equinoxe/The_Ball_at_the_Moulin_de_la_Galett.jpg

One of Renoir's most famous works, The Ball at the Moulin de la Galette, this open air scene of a crowd of people at a ball sold for 78 million dollars at auction in 1990.

 

[Oscuridad]

No Pre-Raphaelite thread?

...

Should I be dissapointed?