Impressionism

Impressionism is the result of simultaneous vision that sees a scene as a whole, as opposed to consecutive vision that sees nature piece by piece. Another way of putting the matter is to say that in an Impressionist picture there is only one focus throughout, while in an academic picture there is a different focus for every detail. These two methods of painting represent different ways of looking at the world, and neither way is wrong, only whereas the academician looks particularly at a series of objects, the Impressionist looks generally at the whole.

The science of colour

Every colour has its complementary, that is to say, an opposing colour is evoked by the action of the human eye after we have been gazing at the said colour; consequently, all colours act and react on one another. Delacroix discovered that to obtain the full brilliance of any given hue it should be flanked and supported by its complementary colour. It became clear to him that colour was not a simple but a very complex matter. For example, we say that grass is green, and green is the local colour of grass, that is to say, the colour of grass at close range, when we look down at it at our feet. But grass-covered hills seen at a great distance do not appear green, but blue. The green of their local colour is affected by the veil of atmosphere through which we view it in the distance, and the blue we see is an example of atmospheric colour. Again, the local colour of snow is white, but everybody who has been to Switzeland is familiar with the "Alpine glow" when the snow-clad peaks of the mountains appear a bright copper colour owing to the rays of the setting sun. This "Alpine glow" is an example of illumination colour, and since the colour of sunlight is changing throughout the day, everything in nature is affected by the colour of the light which falls upon it.

The impressionist palette.

The new intensive study of colour brought about a new palette and a new technique. For centuries all painting had been based on three primary colours: red, blue and yellow, but science now taught the painters that though these might be primary colours in pigment, they were not primary colours in light. They learnt that the primary colours of light were green, orange-red, blue-violet. They discarded black altogether, for, modified by atmosphere and light, a true black did not exist in nature, the darkest colour was indigo, dark green, or a deep violet.

The impressionate technique

Further, the Impressionists used these colours with as little mixing as possible. Every amateur in water-colour knows that the more he mixes his paints, the more they lose in brilliancy. The Impressionists refrained, therefore, as much as possible from mixing colurs on their palette, and applied them pure in minute touches to the canvas. Various names have been given to this technique. It has been called Divisionism, because by it the tones of secondary and tertiary colours were divided into their constituent elements. It has been called Pointilism, because the colour was applied to the canvas in points instead of in sweeping brush strokes. It has been called Luminism, because the aim of the process is primarily to express the colour of light with all its sparkle and vibration.

Answer the following questions:

1/. What is Impressionism? How different is it from the academic style of painting?

2/. What is a complementary colour?

3/. What is local /atmospheric, illumination/ colour?

4/. What colours are primary in light and in pigment?

5/. How did the Impressionists use colours?

6/. What names have been given to this movement in painting

and why?