John+Christian

=John Christian's Wiki on Impressionism=

Impressionism was a 19th century art movement, and derived it's name from Claude Monet's work, //"Impression, Sunrise".// Impressionism was present in both music and litterature, however, it is mostly regarded as a visual arts movement which was introduced by French radical artwork, breaking the rules of academic painting. However, it was later followed by movements in other media, such as Impressionist music and Impressionist litterature.

2. Art in the Impressionism in general
Impressionist art, both during and after the Impressionist period was characterised by visual brush strokes, unusual angles and an emphasis on //light and it's changing qualities,// and broke the rules of academic painting. The art was about giving the viewer an impression, rather than a subjective image, and which later led to Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism and Cubism.

3.Monet
Claude Monet, born Oscar Claude Monet in 1840 is considered the most prolific painter of the Impressionism, an artistic movement with it's name derived from Monet's work, //Impression, Sunrise, (Impression, soleil levant).// In April 1851, Claude Monet entered Le Havre secondary school of arts. In 1857, his mother died, and at the age of 16 he left school, and spent the next years with his aunt, Marie-Jeanne Lecadre. He later spent many years in Paris where he visited the Louvre. After serving two years in the army, he completed an art course at an art school, encouraged by his aunt, where he met, amongst others, Renoir. They started painting together, what was to be the beginning of Impressionism. Following the outbreak of the Franco-Prussion war, he moved to London, and later the Netherlands, and during this time period, he painted more than twenty five paintings. At the end of 1871, Monet moved back to Paris, which was where he painted his most famous works, such as //Soleil levant// (1872). He is also famous for //The Waterlillies// (1920-1926)(Below). Claude Monet died of lung cancer the fifth of December 1926, at the age of 86.



4.Renoir
Pierre-August Renoir was one of the greatest painters within the Impressionist movement, and was born February the 25th, 1841. He was born into a working class family, and as a boy he worked in a porcelain factory. However, his artistic talents led him to Louvre, where he studied French master painters, and in 1862, he began studying art under Charles Gleyre in Paris. This was where he met Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and Frederic Bazille. Renoir first started exhibiting paintings in 1864, but the Franco-Prussian war delayed his recognition. However, ten years later it came, as six of his paintings hung in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. Following 1881, he travelled a lot. First to Algeria, then Madrid, then to Florence, Italy and then to Rome, to see Raphael's paintings, and then Sicily, where he met the composer Richard Wagner. However, in 1882, he contracted pneumonia, and therefore spent six weeks in Algeria. After this period he painted a lot of artworks. Though he developed rheumatoid arthritis in 1892, he painted for the remainder of his life, until his death, December the third, 1919. Before he died, Renoir visited the Louvre to see his paintings hanging with the old masters. //Renoir's paintings are notable for their vibrant light and saturated color, most often focusing on people in intimate and candid compositions. The female nude was one of his primary subjects. In characteristic Impressionist style, Renoir suggested the details of a scene through freely brushed touches of color, so that his figures softly fuse with one another and their surroundings.//

His most famous artwork includes //Diana// (1867), //Girls at the Piano// (1892) and his most recognised piece of art, //Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette// (1876) (Below).





Camille Pissarro was a French Impressionistic, Post-Impressionistic painter, born July 1830 on the Virgin Islands. In 1855, he travelled to Paris where he studied at several artist institutions. In 1870, he moved to London due to the Franco-Prussian war, where he painted many of his more famous paintings. He was known for his landscape paintings, portraying the French rural life. He died in Paris, 1903, 73 years old.

Similar to the Impressionist art, the impressionist music is intended rather to create an atmosphere, than to display a subjective image or feeling. The whole tone scale is used a lot in Impressionist music, and in addition to this, Impressionist composers favoured short composition forms, such as preludes, nocturnes and arabesques, rather than concertos. Many famous composers belonged to the Impressionist movement, such as Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy and Frederico Mompou. Since this was a movement most marked in France, many musical works were written with French musical instructions, rather than the standard Italian.

Claude Debussy was one of the most famous composers of the Impressionism, and many of his piano works are still very popular today. Achille-Claude Debussy was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye the 22nd of August, 1862, was the eldest of five children, and to Manuel Achille-Debussy and Victorine Manoury Debussy. They lived in Paris for some time, but during the outbreak of the Franco-Prussion war, Victorine and her children moved to Cannes, and it was there, at the age of seven, that Debussy started taking piano lessons.