REALISM and IMPRESSIONISM - History, Causes, Artists, Sketch

artedelic
Oct 14, 2015
2 min read

AIP2, Session 10

REALISM - France, 1850s, after the 1848 Revolution

Realism rejected the Romanticism art movement, with its exotic themes, exaggeration and drama. Realism sought to portray real and typical contemporary people and situations with truth and accuracy. It attempted to depict people of all social classes in a similar manner, a result from the social changes triggered by the Industrial Revolution. It also rejected the idealism of classical art, putting greater focus on subject matter outside the high art. It also grew with the introduction of photography, which sparked a desire in people to produce representations that look objectively real.

IMPRESSIONISM - a 19th century art movement led by Paris-based artists, mostly in individual exhibitions

small, thin, loose brushwork ("broken" brushstrokes)
open composition
emphasis on accurate depiction of light and its changing qualities, or transitoriness, as artists became less and less concerned with the nature of the object, and more conscious of the appearance of the object at a particular moment of time
ordinary themes
inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience
unusual visual angles
values immediacy, candid poses and compositions
en plen air, or painting in the open air

The Impressionism art movement faced harsh opposition from the conventional art community in France. It wasn't acknowledged as an important style of painting, and as a result Impressionists suffered financial hardship. Even the term "impressionism" was originally derived from a satirical review.

The art movement developed when a common attitude spread among several artists towards the basic flaws of academic art. Impressionists sought to SEE the true appearance of nature, which had become falsified by the scientific visual understanding of classicism. Painting right at the scene allowed them to achieve different results than what would have been achieved in a studio. They looked at nature freshly and forgot techniques they had been taught in academies. Composition was downplayed, drawing was forgotten--all that mattered was light and colour. Also influenced by Japonism and Ukiyo-e woodblocks.