Impressionist and Post Impressionist Art and Sculpture (Essay Sample)

Name Institution Instructor Course Date Impressionist and Post Impressionist Art and Sculpture Impressionism was an art movement started by a group of Parisian artist. They demanded independence in art. Their prominence grew in the late 18th century after they gained international recognition. This met harsh opposition from the art community of France. This name of the art style came from the title of Claude Monet’s work named as the “impression, Sunrise”. Claude Monet provoked the critics of Louis Leroy who had published an article to coin in a satire in the Parisian newspaper. Impressionist painting includes a relatively small but visible brush strokes that changes the qualities of the ordinary subject matter by unusual visual angles (Lewis, 58). On the other hand, the Post-impressionism is a term used by the British artist in the early 1990s to describe the French art development from the time of Claude Monet. Post Impressionist extended from the impressionism though eliminating its limitations. It included vivid coloring, thick painting, and distinctive brush strokes but had more inclination to the geometric forms. The Post Impressionist much emphasized on the expressive effect and the use of the unnatural arbitrary color (Fleming and Honour 534). Many artists gave a hand in the exhibition and Impressionist painting but the main figures were Claude Monet, Pierre Renior, Pissarro, Edgar Degas, and Henri Marie who formed the backbone of the impressionist. Impressionist painting in the 19th century encompassed a variety of disciplines and display works from the French and the international artists. The work was an art and highlighted the skills of architects who successfully had adopted the original design to the museum light and space requirements. The first impressionist painting was that of Monet and the related works. Monet had an impressive collection that highlighted the development of the impressionism. Among the most important works were the over 20 impressionists’ paintings by Monet that included the entire favorites, like the blue water lilies and regatta at Argenteuil and London houses of parliament (Robertson 127). In France the popular form of woodblock prints were the bold designs from the Japanese. This form of art had an asymmetrical arrangements with contrasting large areas and intricate patterns that offered a compositional format that succeeding impressionists used to develop their ideas about color. This was very helpful as the artist required assurance of following traditional rooted path. Renoir, Degas, and Lautrec made impressionist portraits composition, which had identifiable individuals (Lewis 47). Their figure strongly influenced the photographic cropping of the Japanese design. In this work, Lautrec included a self-portrait beside a tall cousin who seemed to walk away from a can-can dancer while La Goulue is seen fixing her hair. At their fronts sits a group of entertainers, writer, and a photographer Paul Sescau. There is another woman with green lamp lit and cropped by the edge of a picture thought to be of another dancer, May Milton. Another hugely popular impressionist was the still life as it had “Plein air” subject fitted to capture the atmospheric qualities of light and color. This has few outstanding examples like Renoir’s fruits whose vegetables carefully selected to range the prismatic colors in the impressionist spectrum. Generally, the impressionists painting and sculptures were celebrated and transformed in the commonplace but finding their beauty in the misty harbor. Another alternative exhibition mounted comprising the painting and sculptures that rejected the official salon but ironically attracted more attention than the original form (Robertson 167). It also provided a platform for displaying of any newly invented impressionist art to the entire public. Some of the rejected artist organized an alternative exhibition in the studio of the Parisian photographer named Nada (Lewis 57). This exhibition unearthed the name that embodied a new approach to painting. Journalist and satirical magazine writers wrote a scratching review called “The exhibition of the impressionist” which aimed at ridicule over Claude Monet’s painting. The sarcastic title by Le Harve appealed as the most public name that ever stuck. It was among the first impressionist exhibitions to be shown in the periods between 1874 and 1886. Post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism is a French Art movement in the early modernism also known as synthetics. The Post-Impressionism artists had influence from impressionism but rejected by constraints that embarked on artistic styles and based on impressionist works. The most famous impressionist artists were Paul Gauguin and Paul Cezanne. Paul Gauguin was a French postimpressionist who experimented on bold colors and found much inspiration from the South Seas (Lewis 67). Gauguin was an important artist in the symbolist movement and his bold color use invention led to the synthetic use as a style of art. Paul Cezanne led the way from 19th century art to the 20th century art that included the style of cubism. He repetitively used the exploratory brushstrokes in his well-known landscapes, still life, and portraits. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a French postimpressionist, captured the Parisian nightlife in his paintings where he drew and painted from his young age. He had a promising talent though physical problems that plagued his body forced him to leave the job permanently. All these artistic design either occurred in the periods of the 18th century and 19th century before the outbreak of the Second World War. They therefore perfectly fit as either of impressionist style or as post impressionist style. Paul Gauguin also made a the yellow Christ sculpture which was termed as a quintessential colonialist work. The image had reduced areas of pure color separation of heavy black outlines. Gauguin intended to classical perspective and boldly eliminated subtle gradation of colors, which dispensed the two most characteristic principles of post-Renaissance of painting. This painting later evolved towards synthetics, which later evolved into non-color dominance but with equal roles. Gauguin also painted another sculpture that depicted the Tahitian lif...