Not only is Impressionism an absolutely aesthetically gorgeous movement, producing such deservedly famous paintings as Monet’s “The WaterLillies” (more on specific paintings later), the Impressionists live up to their creed and stated goals in a way that many art or literary movements do not. For example, during the same period, literary artists such as Ezra Pound, H.D., The Futurists, and Mina Loy published ‘manifestoes’ which stated their artistic goals for their poetry. The variously did and did not actually live up to these professed goals in the concrete art which they produced. Pound in particular has recieved much deserved criticism for NOT living up to the goals he states in his manifesto on imagism. He responded by creating the much more vague literary movement “vorticism,” whose vague goals he arguably did live up to!
The Impressionists on the other hand, state that they want to portray the ephemerality of the moment, of light and movement. They wildly succeed in doing so!
Here are some great examples with commentary following:
“Bridge at Villeneuve-la-garenne” was painted by Alfred Sisley in France in 1872.
In the above painting, you can really see the ‘transitory effects of light’ which the Impressionist aim to capture. The “messy” and broad brush strokes facilitate the effect, especially on the water, the way in which the shadow the bridge casts is portrayed also works towards this. Instead of seeing a kind of ‘crystaline’ or ‘crystalized’ moment in time as was previously common, where a horse might be mid-rear but frozen as though the artist had pressed pause, in this painting, the light, the shadows and the clouds seem to be between on moment and another.
“La Promenade” by Claude Monet was painted out of doors in the countryside (then) surrounding Paris in 1875.
The transitory light and motion effect here is gorgeously rendered via the clouds as above, and here via the grass as opposed the water. The technique used to characterize her veil is also lovely.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Sisley
Ramazani, Jahan, Richard Ellmann, Robert O’Sinclair, eds. “The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry: Vol. 1 Modern Poetry.” New York and London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2003.
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