Impressionism
October 25, 2009
I like the impressionism era of art work because of the free strokes, vibrant colors, and peaceful subjects. I like that most of the subjects are beautiful landscapes and the daily middle class activities instead of religious figures and portraits as in the Renaissance era. In Renoir’s painting, Ball at Moulin de la Galette 1876 shows just that, daily activities of middle class people.
1876: Musée d’Orsay in Paris
This makes it easy to enjoy just a simple, appealing painting and not have to know the figure in it or hidden messages. I did find a similarity between paintings in from impressionism and the era right before of Romantic in the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, Seashore by Moonlight and Claude Monet, Water-Lilies. Both of these paintings use light and reflection. The difference is in the technique it is painted, you can see in Monet’s painting up close it looks blurry but from a distance the water-lilies are easier pictured, in Friedrich’s painting it is crisp and clear.
1835-Friedrich
1907-Monet
October 27, 2009 at 4:41 am
Good job with your blog. Personally, i was not fond of this style of painting. However, i do agree that the images are easy to understand and somewhat simplistic. You made a good point about the different styles of paintings, and opened my eyes to this area more than i previously allowed with the painting of Friedrich’s. I still believe there are meanings and messages behind the paintings of this era, they may just be more obvious to the viewer.