IMPRESSIONISM

Impressionists artists were not trying to paint a reflection of real life, but an ‘impression’ of what the person, light, atmosphere, object or landscape looked like to them. And that’s why they were called impressionists! They tried to capture the movement and life of what they saw and show it to us as if it were happening before our eyes. In the last quarter of the 1800s, the art world in France and Europe underwent radical changes. Impressionism was a fresh new direction.

WHO WERE THE IMPRESSIONISTS?

Some of the main impressionist artists are Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Auguste Renoir, Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas.

Homework Activity:

FIGURE 1a: Degas, Ballet Class, 1874

1. Refer to FIGURE 1a and the work of TWO other artists you have studied under Impressionism. Write an essay of one and a half page on Impressionism.

Pay attention to the:

-influences on this Movement,

-the stylistic characteristics,

-the subject matter

-and how artists treated light and colour.

(20 Marks)