Unit 44
Trees Are Violet
In 1874, fifty-five artists held the first independent group show of Impressionist art. Most of them, including Canne, Pissarro, Renoir, Degas, Monet, Manet, and his sister-in-law Berthe Morisot -- "a bunch of lunatics and a woman," remarked one observer -- had been rejected by the Salon, the annual French state-sponsored exhibition that offered the only real opportunity for artists to display and sell their work. Never mind, they told each other. At the Salon, paintings were stacked three or four high, and crowded too closely together on the walls. At their independent exhibition, mounted in what was formerly a photographer's studio, the artists could hang their works at eye level with space between them. Although the artists didn't call themselves "Impressionists" at first, this occasion would be the first of eight such "Impressionist" exhibits over the next twelve years.
An outraged critic, Louis Leroy, coined the label "Impressionist". He looked at Monet's Impression Sunrise, the artist's sensory response to a harbor at dawn, painted with sketchy brushstrokes. "Impression!" the journalist scoffed. "Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished!" Within a year, the name Impressionism was an accepted term in the art world.
If the name was accepted, the art itself was not. In impressionist paintings, trees are violet; the sky is the color of fresh butter... Although some people appreciated the new paintings, many did not. The critics agreed the Impressionists couldn't draw and their colors were considered vulgar. Their compositions were strange. Their short, hurried brushstrokes made their paintings practically illegible.
Impressionism broke every rule of the French Academy of Fine Arts, the conservative school that had dominated art training and taste since 1648. Impressionist scenes of modern urban and country life were a far cry from the Academic efforts to teach moral lessons through historic, and mythological themes. This tradition, drawn from ancient Greek and Roman art, featured idealized images. Symmetrical compositions, hard outlines, and smooth pain surfaces characterized academic paintings.
Despite the Academy's power, seeds of artistic and political unrest had been sown long before 1874. The mid-19th century was a time of political instability in France. During the Revolution of 1848, Parisian workers with socialist goals overthrew the monarchy, only to see conservatives seize the reins of government later that year. Fear of further uprisings created widespread distrust among the aristocracy, the poor, and the newly prosperous bourgeoisie or middle class. Meanwhile, the far-reaching Industrial Revolution fostered a new faith in the individual and his unlimited potential. Romantic painters began to celebrate individuality in terms of painting technique with warm colors and vigorous brushstrokes. The Impressionists brought together a variety of influences, beliefs, and styles when they first exhibited in Paris. Their rejection of the Academy and the Academy’s rejection of them united the group. |