Impressions

[sleigh]

Denise and I went to see an exhibit of several Monet paintings at the Art Museum yesterday -- some gorgeous paintings, though I tend to prefer the earlier, atmospheric Monet to the 'thicker' paintings of his later years. I like both, though, and it was wonderful to be able to be able to closely examine the brushstrokes on the canvas.

Made me wonder, though, why the Impressionists remain so popular over a century on. Impressionist exhibitions are always well-attended, and both Denise and I found the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, with its spectacular range of Impressionist art, to be delightful.

What is it about the Impressionists that make them possibly the most beloved period of fine art?

Comments

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but the deciding moment for me was when I visited the Jeu de Paume (this was before the Musee D'orsay existed). I was standing in the middle of one room, looking around, and there was one painting that just stood out as clearly better than the paintings around it. So I walked over, and discovered that it was a Monet. I'm not sure what the appeal of the Impressionists is, but Monet is, in my uninformed opinion, a clearly superior painter.

Of course, I then went up a few levels, and had the closest thing I've ever had to religious ecstasy when I viewed Van Gogh's L'église d'Auvers-sur-Oise.

And later, after I saw more of Picasso's work, it was clear that he, too, was a superior painter (an opinion that mizzlaurajean does not share).

I've read some, well, OK, one

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Critic who claim we still live with the impressionist's palette. He claimed we've had no great art movement afterwards that has been able to replace it. I saw several of Monet's water lilies at the Met once in one large room and felt at home in the colors.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

Darned good question. Pure speculation here... Orson Scott Card once said that the most successful science fiction is "strange, but not too strange". Maybe the same is true for Impressionism. The images give us literally a different way of seeing the world, but we do see our familiar world in them. We're challenged without being threatened.

The subject matter may be a factor, too. The formal portraits and religious/mythological subjects of older genres may not appeal to modern audiences. But we can relate to the everyday scenes and everyday people in Impressionist paintings.