Impressionistic and Post-Impressionistic Visual Art

Monet, Cassatt, Rodin, and Van Gogh

Impressionism Light and atmosphere spontaneous/capture a single

moment Outdoors Name from insult of

Journalists/Impression – Sunrise (Monet)

French movement

Monet Credited w/ creation

of Impressionism Did several series at

various times of day Liked controled

nature (his garden – lillies, pond, bridge)

Also liked the Seine River

Later paintings have red hue/cataracts

Cassatt Only American/ woman

in movement Degas introduced her to

Impressionism/ and invited her to join

Also influenced by Japanese prints

Nearly 1/3 of works have mother and child in a comfortable domestic atmosphere

Stopped in 1914/blindness

Rodin Often show negative

side to humanity Never accepted to

Ecole des Beaux-Arts Free schooling and self

taught Very realistic forms He considered his

fragmentary sculptures the essence of his artistic vision

Post-Impressionism Less interested in light and

atmosphere Still interested in color – use it

differently though Also not as interested in nature Bridge between Impressionism and

Modern art

Van Gogh Most of work in France Art shows objects,

people, and places done in bold and distorted colors

Used rough or broken brushwork

“Tortured artist” Over 900 paintings and

1000 drawings in 10 yrs. – 90 paintings in the 2 months before death

Debussy and RavelImpressionist Music

General Information In music, Impressionism as a title means little

(time period only) Reaction to emotion of Romantic music (kept

using it/not against) Use of symbolism Musicians were basically Romantic composers

who stretched and expanded harmony Also explored ways to evoke emotion about

ideas and give meaning to objects or imagery

New techniques Multi-modality – using multiple keys Planing – use of voices moving in

parallel motions Tonality – key center Whole tone scales – no half steps -

used to make music dreamy and hazy

Overall, harmony and musical forms were intentionally vague

Debussy French Studied 11 years at Paris

Conservatory Developed a new fluidity of

form and explored unusual harmonic relationships and dissonance

Used whole-tone scale to give a new mood to his music

Embraced the symbolism of Poe and other period poets to inspire his music

Ravel

French Born in the Pyrenees Also attended the Paris

Conservatory Similar style to Debussy Helped lead music away

from Wagner’s Romantic style

Used outlines of classic form in his compositions

Excelled at piano pieces and orchestration