Impressionism
Lesson 1: Origins of Impressionism
Classicism and the Salon
An established mode of painting was well entrenched at the time the Impressionists were forming their new approach. It was based in the Renaissance and the traditions of Italian and Flemish painting. Paintings in this tradition were highly realistic with smooth surfaces that gave the illusion of depth. This illusion was achieved by the use of perspective drawing and chiaroscuro (modeling of contours with gradations of light and shadow).
The painting below by Juste Francois Boucher is a good example of the academic style favoured by the Salon. Its slick, varnished surfaces, tight drawing, and especially the mythological themes seemed out of date to the more adventurous artists of the mid-19th century. These artists rejected the idealized world conjured by the "Salon artists" and instead focused their efforts on depicting nature and social realism.
Venus Asking Vulcan for Arms for Aeneas by Juste Francois Boucher (1736-1782), The Louvre, Paris.
The famous Odalisque painted by Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres in 1814 caused a minor scandal when it was first shown. However, the painting is a good example of the type of art that the Impressionists later reacted against.
In fact, the Impressionists abandoned the idealizations of Classicism to follow in the footsteps of Delacroix (more on him in the next topic). The almost photographic purity of the surface in the Ingres painting is the very antithesis of the rapid brushwork that came next, through Delacroix and Courbet to the Impressionists.
L'Odalisque, Ingres, 1814, The Louvre, Paris.
You can read more about Ingres at http://www.artchive.com/artchive/I/ingre...
The annual Salon, held each year in Paris, was the proving ground of artists in the 19th century. Important commissions and clients were arranged through their auspices and every artist in France coveted acclaim from a Salon jury. It was against the backdrop of this regulated academic system that Impressionism was born.
Suggested reading: pages 52-53 in Impressionist Art - A Crash Course.
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