The Art of Impressionism

by Fulcrum Gallery Staff 31. May 2013 14:32

Artists Garden at Giverny

Renoir, Monet, Manet, and Pissaro, are among the greatest artists of all time. Known as Impressionist painters, their art was and remains one of a kind.

 

The art of Impressionism immersed during the late 1800s in France. It is the style in which an artist will paint an image from a glimpse or a quick glance. Impressionism can be explained as either a subject matter or the painting technique. Landscapes and scenery were painted in bright, pure colors were typical. Impressionists often painted their paintings outdoors rather indoors in a studio. With obvious rapid brushstrokes often visible, the paintings made an impression, hence the "Impressionism" period.

 

Some of the greatest Impressionist artists were Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Camille Pissaro, Alfred Sistley, Berthe Morisot and Pierre Auguste Renoir from France where this style evolved.

 

Claude Monet enjoyed painting landscapes in subtle colors, whereas Edouard Manet fancied common objects, not scenery. Alfred Sisley liked to paint river scenes and the countryside, but Berthe Morisot enjoyed painting common women doing chores. However, a pioneer in the style, Pierre A. Renoir loved to paint the feminine beauty and women in the nude.

 

Of all the greats, Monet and Renoir were probably the best known. Monet has always been considered the founding father of the impressionist style. He was known as the most prolific in the genre. Renoir's impressionist nudes were his signature images with details that were suggested in brushed color, allowing the subject to blend with the surroundings as opposed to the vibrant crisp modern art of today.

 

One of Monet's most famous paintings and my personal favorites is the Water Lily Pond from 1899. The blues and purple blend beautifully in the greens making this a picturesque painting.

 

Renoir's is best known for the Bathers of 1887, of three nude women bathing in beautiful scenery, and the Umbrellas, from 1883, showing the faces of three simple women in a crowded street on a rainy day. Both simple paintings, but each made a bold statement.

 

 

To see some examples of Impressionism art, visit us at http://www.fulcrumgallery.com/c7769/impressionism.htm

Bring Light and Sunshine In, Through the Paintings of Claude Monet

by Fulcrum Gallery Staff 29. January 2013 10:27

Water Lilies Morning

 

Bring sunshine into your home with Claude Monet's clear, airy paintings of natural subjects. 

 Nature, and the clear beauty that changes in sunlight bring to everyday scenes, are main elements in Monet’s unique style. “I am following Nature without being able to grasp her…I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers,” he once wrote. His fascination with capturing sunlight’s nuances led him to found the Impressionist art movement, which takes its name from his painting, Impression, Sunrise

 On a visit to the Louvre as a young painter, Monet saw other art students faithfully copying the Old Masters. Instead of joining their ranks, he set his art supplies up by a window and tried to capture what he saw outside.

“For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life--the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value.” 

Monet's deep understanding of natural light channels a feeling of sunshine through his images, transforming even a windowless room. In his painting, Madame Monet and Her Son, the warmth of the sunshine beaming down on the lady’s parasol, and the love he felt for his wife and child, transcend the canvas. 

Many of his paintings pull the viewer into a natural landscape, using paths and other metaphors to create this illusion. In Garden at Giverny, leaves’ shadows dapple a path through a sunny garden, and entice the viewer into a mid-morning stroll through flowers, trees, and his or her own imagination. The painting Beach at Trouville uses a boardwalk to invite the viewer in, this time for a seaside promenade and a lingering feeling of being on holiday. 

As in the previous painting, the play of light on water fascinated Monet, and his many works featuring ponds, lakes, rivers and the sea illustrate this career-long interest. Antibes, showing a lone, wind-bent tree on the shore, is at once charming and melancholy.  Water Lily Pond, on the other hand, is as full of cheer as it is of color. Cliff Walk at Pourville, on the other hand, is a postcard from another time, a snapshot of a sunny day along the coast. 

To view more of Claude Monet's masterful works of art featuring light and shade, reflection and emotion, visit www.fulcrumgallery.com

 

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