Impressionism and modernity:re-evaluation of art, as a social mirror

The 18-19 century features caused a harsh shift in art traditions that had been followed so far. The raise of industrial, technical aspects of living made it a pressing factor on artists and their outlook at the surrounding reality. Emerging demand of factory work power, development of railways and technical progress, predisposed an economical raise of middle classes and caused a rapid change in art, as in a reflective activity. For French art scene, modernity was the period when the main playground for artist was bubbling  social setting of the big city lifestyle. It was the beginning of cafe culture when a weekend promenade was not just a walkabout, but a means of social interaction. With this, an interest to paint 'the passengers in masses', and the mood of the crowd emerged. An interesting peculiarity of this phenomenon is that most artists turned to the theme of night life, as it was a remarkable social feature of that period. 

'A Bar at the Folies-Bergère'

Édouard Manet

1882

The famous work of E. Manet 'A Bar at the Folies-Bergère' demonstrates the typical features of the art period. We can see the social setting, a bar, as the title states. In the background there is a blurry, almost careless depiction of the bar visitors - 'affluent classes'. It is the reflection from where we can find out about what's going on at the place. Even though the representation is quite realistic, we can see how the depiction becomes distorted at the back. It seems that the artist picked one person from this bubbling crowd, and made it the only still point in the paint. It is a girl-bartender. Her figure seems to be 'feeling in solitude on account of the very denseness of the company around'. She seems to be on another wave, quietly opposing to the others. We get this impression because she's the only one figure that we can watch as straightforwardly, not as a reflection. As well, by the bartender there are some drinks, oranges and flowers that creates some feminine charm of seduction, gives a clue that she may be a prostitute. Similarly as in his 'Olimpia', Manet depicts a woman of this profession in a defiant stance and breaks the long-term, however outdated, stereotypes of female representation.  

As the development of technologies moved, the one important invention in 1841 broadened the horizons for contemporary painters. The invention of paint tubes made it possible to work plein air, being wrapped up in a whirlpool of public sphere. An opportunity to paint straight from the freshly experienced impressions. As the opportunity to work fast emerged, the technique had to become more efficient and fluent as well. Eventually the artists like moved toward more messy, less detailed depiction. That's when impressionism started to be shaped.

Impressionism, obviously derived from 'impression' - thanks to Manet who used the word to describe one of his works -  in an approach in art that hardly could be found in earlier art history.  One of the main characteristics of it, was an apparent presence of emotional component. Moreover, that component could dictate general mood of a painting and even influence the technique. In other words, it let the subjectivity be present within artworks, which was previously restricted by the standards of classical art academy. It was provocative in a sense of it's fluency and sketch-like technique. The brushstrokes became gentler and smaller. Impressionism demonstrates an absolute supremacy of colour over line.

'The Japanese Footbridge and the Water Lily Pool'

Claude Monet

1899

Probably one of the most recognizable examples of Impressionism. It is a plein air, one of many from water lilies series. The paint strokes are hardly blended and give a feeling of the painting is built up brick-by-brick. As we move up to the trees, the strokes become more smeared, as the light makes them less detailed. No solid lines can be fined here, the shapes and borders of the objects are created by virtuous color combination. Altogether the painting creates an impression of glimpsing at the pond for no longer than a couple of seconds.  

The selection of colours, in it's turn, was rather a question of subjectivity than reality. Nevertheless, much attention was given to the matter of combination of colours. The principles of impressionism developed another movement within, called Pointillism that was more structured and scientific approach to impressionism technique. The strokes became more accurate and similar to each other. They were positioned precisely that made a painting look more like a mosaic. A remarkable figure of the movement was  Georges-Pierre Seurat. Besides of practicing pointillism, he was deeply interested in interconnection of colours and how they can be combined. 

'La Seine a la Grande-Jatte'

George-Pierre Seurat

1888

Sources:

E.A. Poe (1845). A man of the Crowd.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Edouard_Manet,_A_Bar_at_the_Folies-Berg%C3%A8re.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Monet_-_Water_Lilies_and_Japanese_Bridge.jpg

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-seurat-georges-artworks.htm#pnt_3