Impressionism: the first warm breeze in spring

Impressionists are not loyal to the objects being painted-it doesn't matter if they are not, they are loyal to the process and results of observation.

Spring is coming! The Chinese parasol on the avenue sprouted, pushed open the window of the apartment, and heard birds singing from time to time, even the flow of the Seine seemed to be brisk. The ladies changed into light clothes, and the men's beards could not hide their smiles. 1874 should be a good year for Parisians.

just two or three years ago, the city finally bid farewell to the last emperor and the last Napoleon (Napoleon III, the nephew of the famous Napoleon the Great, also called the emperor), and ended the Prussian War. Bid farewell to the humiliating occupation of Prussia (the Prussians United Germany at Versailles and crowned the King of Prussia as the first king of Germany in the Mirror Hall) The bloodshed and riots caused by the Paris Commune have long since died down, and the city has awakened from hibernation and is heading for its golden age of prosperity.

in the past few years, Impressionist painters who fled to France and even other parts of Europe to avoid the war have also returned to Paris one after another and re-formed societies. These unknown young painters often get together to discuss the best way to push their paintings to the eyes of the world.

soon, this spring, they will become the most topical figures in Paris!

Jean-Fr é d é ric Bazille, The Artist\ & # 39 witch s Studio (artist's studio), 1870. Oil on Canvas; 98x128.5 cm. At the same time, the page of history seems to have turned into a new chapter. During the reign of Napoleon III, Baron George-Osman was appointed as the chief engineer of the transformation of Paris, changing the messy and crowded city inherited from the Middle Ages, improving sanitation and living conditions, and bringing "air and light" to Paris. After more than two decades of construction, Paris has doubled in size, with a wide avenue headed by the Champs Elysees, a towering apartment building with blue roofs and beige walls, squares, and parks scattered in the city, and the Paris Opera House, which is nearing completion.

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the small restaurants along the boulevard put out tables and chairs on the sidewalk every day for guests to enjoy the pedestrian carriages while drinking coffee, while Paris at night is attributed to a carnival of alcohol and song and dance. Every weekend, the well-developed railway network sends Parisians to the nature of the suburbs and the gardens of the old castles to enjoy the sunshine and serenity.

in 1874, New Paris has become the model of the modern city.

Camille Pissarro, Avenue de l\ & # 39; Op é ra, soleil, matin é e\ & # 39 TX Hiver (Opera House Avenue, Sunshine, Winter Morning), 1898. Oil on Canvas; Musi é e des Beaux-Arts, Reim, France

however, not everyone is happy to accept such a big change. Compared with the labyrinth of alleys and Gothic buildings in old Paris, the wide avenues are straightforward and boring, the uniform apartment buildings are unimaginative, and the renovation of Paris is controversial. And our protagonists, Impressionist painters, maybe the first to embrace the "New Paris". They are happy to depict the street view of Paris, and some even take the studio directly to the street!

this is such an exciting time, everything is changing, new things are emerging every day, and a new world is slowly opening up in Paris-before the eyes of these young people. Things in the old world, one by one, are revalued, given a new definition, and put into the new world. The same is true of painting. Aspiring Impressionist painters are not satisfied with the painting methods they have learned but are bent on creating a new kind of painting, one that conforms to the coming new era. But there are many challenges for them, and the hardest part is to let their works be seen and accepted by Paris.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Pont des Arts, Paris (Bridge of Art, Paris), 1867-68. Oil on Canvas; 60.9x100.3cm, Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California

in France at that time, if a painter wanted to succeed, he had to submit his painting to the French Academy of Art (Acad é mie des Beaux-Arts), which was appreciated by experts in the academy, and the selected paintings could participate in the painting and Sculpture Salon Exhibition (le Salon de Peinture et de sculpture) that year. This is the annual cultural event in Paris, and the participating paintings, together with the names of painters, will enter the eyes of all Parisians-being seen is what unknown painters need most because exposure can bring fame and the interest of art dealers and customers. During the exhibition, the Academy of Art will also award medals for excellent paintings, and the painter who won the gold medal will start a successful career. In Paris, then the center of world art, the aesthetic standard of painting was determined by the Academy of Art.

Impressionist painters also submitted their paintings many times, and most of them were returned. It is not difficult to guess that the aesthetic of the academic school is too traditional! They abide by the standards formed since the Renaissance and divide the paintings into several categories according to hierarchy. Each category has its own format rules in terms of subject matter, composition, color, characters, etc., in short, they should abide by the tradition. Even the grand prize during the exhibition was named: the Prix de Rome, a tribute not only to the Renaissance in Italy but also to the ancient Greco-Roman culture that is the root of painting.

this is the painting that won the Rome Prize in 1874: the death of Timothy Vance.

Albert Besnard, La Mort de Timophane (death of Timothy Vance), 1874. Oil on Canvas; Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris

the one in the red robe on the left is Timovans, who was stabbed in the chest by a soldier and lost his balance. He held the knife in one hand, held it high in the other, and bent his fingers into claws. His body was falling to the left, but his head tried not to look to the other side, looking at the man on the right, his eyes sad. There is also a fallen chair under his feet. It seemed that the knife took him by surprise, and he was not reconciled to death. The man who was stared at by Timovans was wrapped in a dark blue robe, turned his back to him, and raised his left hand to cover his head as if he did not want to see Timothy assassinated.

this man was Timothy Leon, the brother of Timovans, and the general of the ancient Greek city-state of Corinth, who was highly respected for his exploits. At that time, when Collins faced threats from the outside world, Timothy Vance was assigned 400 mercenaries to help guard the city-state, but he regarded these soldiers as entourage, dominating the city-state in an attempt to turn himself into a dictator. To maintain the democratic politics of Corinthians (demokratia), Timorion ordered the public execution of his brother Timovans. What this painting depicts is the scene of execution.

won the Rome Prize issued by the Art Academy. This work by Albert Besnard should be a masterpiece that can reflect the aesthetics of the Art Academy. As the only authoritative art institution in Paris, the Art Academy dominated the mainstream art aesthetics in the society at that time. So as long as it is compared with this painting, we can see where the Impressionist painters are "unorthodox".

Edgar Degas, Vicomte Ludovic Lepic and his Daughters (Place de la Concorde) (Nikon Road Dovicelepi and his daughters (Concorde Square)), 1875. Oil on Canvas; 79x118cm. State H

is the Place de Concorde in Paris painted by Edgar Degas. The picture looks a little strange. The theme of the picture is the gentleman on the right and two little girls and a pet hound. It can be seen from the title that they are a family, but none of the four pairs of eyes here look at each other. Each person (and dog) face in a different direction, immersed in his thoughts and vision, independent of each other. Even the father not only looked irrelevant but was about to walk out of the picture. The painting looks like a portrait, but the protagonist doesn't seem to know that he is being painted.

in addition, Degas's composition is also very casual. In general, the frame of the portrait will be cut into the protagonist's chest, waist, whole body, and other parts. In this painting, the picture is neither high nor low, cut in the protagonist's crotch and thigh! The painter also "carelessly" squeezed a "mirror-grabbing" passer-by on the left side of the picture. Behind the passers-by, a carriage was breaking into the picture. Some tree trunks and buildings can be seen at the back of the square, which is the Champs-Elysees, but the key parts of this busy street are cut out of the picture and are barely recognizable.

compared with these strange and casual compositions, the characters in the death of Movans steadily occupy the center of the picture, connecting through their eyes, each of which is carefully designed by the painter to express the storyline, and even clothes and objects carry a lot of information like stage props. Yes, such a painting is just like a stage performance, condensing a whole story, there are too many artificial traces, too out of touch with reality. Impressionist painters want to capture what their eyes see in daily life.

since you want to break the traditional composition, why not do it thoroughly: Degas eliminated any possible "deliberate", pushed the protagonist to one side of the picture, and "accidentally" let passers-by and carriages break-in; fill every corner of the picture with a sense of instability, as if everyone's position is going to be out of order in the next second, the master association will leave the picture, and the carriage and passers-by in the background will occupy the visual center. Even if everyone stood still, the separation of the relationship between them made it impossible for the painting to tell a story, as if it were just the impression of a glance through the square in a carriage.

however, like the death of Timothy Vance, this painting is created by the painter on a blank canvas one by one, and the arrangement of each composition is decided by the painter. This seemingly random painting is the result of the painter's careful design, but contrary to the traditional painter's purpose of "telling the story", what he pursues is to capture a time slice of the present quiet life.

Edgar Degas, Absinthe, 1875-76. Oil on Canvas; 92x69cm. Musi é e d\ & # 39th Orsay, Paris

this is also Degas's painting, which is also off-center from the composition of the previous one as if the painter was sitting at the table at the bottom of the picture holding up his mobile phone and secretly taking a picture. But the most interesting thing about this painting is Degas's chosen theme. The focus of the picture is the woman with a glass of light green vermouth in front of her. With a tired look on her face, she sat there lazily, her feet stretched out lazily, not communicating with the man next to her. The whole picture looks like her. In the same way, they are all gray and listless. This kind of material selection is a bit baffling to the audience at that time. Can it be painted compared to the heroism in the death of Timothy Vance?

the selection of the death of Timothy Vance is very ingenious. At that time, France had just gotten rid of Napoleon III and re-established the Republic, which was the third Republic of France. Timothy Leon, who killed his brother to protect democracy, is a metaphor for the French people, while Timothy Vance, who intends to destroy democracy, represents Napoleon. But Bessner painted so cleverly that he wrapped the hero Timorion in a dark robe of grief, exposed the executed Timothy to the light in an eye-catching red robe, and painted him as a handsome, smooth-skinned young man, deepening the tragic effect. On the one hand, he praised the French people's determination to safeguard democracy, and on the other hand, he catered to the feelings of pity for Napoleon.

unlike Bessner, Degas is inadvertently ingratiating, let alone using ancient Greek stories to metaphorize the present. He looks directly at the most ordinary and uncharacteristic scene around the him-the protagonist of this painting is so inconspicuous that when it is framed, it is particularly eye-catching, which is almost humorous. However, Degas did not truthfully draw a glimpse of the coffee shop. the couple is Degas's painter and actor friends, and they are sitting here to model the painting. Once again, seemingly random paintings are designed consciously by painters.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Ball at the Moulin de la Galette (Pancake Mill Ball), 1876. Oil on canvas; 131x175cm. Orsay, Paris

this is an open-air ball painted by Renoir. On a sunny rest day in the afternoon, people are chatting and dance in the square. The picture is full of color and mobility, and Renoir's color painted with a pen brush is visible, these striped colors come together as if dancing in a spin, especially on the girl's skirt and dance floor on the left. The boundaries of the characters and scenery look hairy, the face of the child in the lower-left corner melts directly with the background, and the face and body of the person behind are also blurred. All kinds of colors are mixed, and there are several colors on everyone's face, hair, and even the black suit on the right side of the husband's back to us.

this is so different from the death of Timothy Vance! In the death of Timothy Vance, the red robe is red, the blue robe is blue, the human skin is flesh-colored, and the light and shadow are represented by the depth of color, which looks very reasonable. How can the brown hair in Renoir's painting still turn green?

this is because Renoir painted in a completely different way from traditional painters. Traditionally, the first step in oil painting is to make a draft with a pencil, outline the characters and some key objects and backgrounds, then put on a layer of the basic color, and then apply a translucent dark color to the areas that need to be shaded. The darker the shadow, the more the coating. In this way, the light color will naturally transition to the dark color, and the dark color can reveal the original light color, as if it cast a shadow, making a very realistic three-dimensional effect.

Renoir doesn't have to paint layers to create shadows at all, he paints different colors directly on the light and shadow. With the painter's keen eyes, he found that when the sun shines on an object, the object will bring a different color from the original, and the shadow is not simply darker but may have some other colors. He enlarged the subtle colors he had captured and applied them to the canvas.

many people say that Impressionists always faithfully paint scenes reflected in their eyes, but the pictures we usually take are very different from Impressionist paintings, and we have never seen the sunshine on black suits turn into spots one by one. The Impressionists are not loyal to the object being painted-it doesn't matter if they don't like it. They are loyal to the process and results of observation, painting the subtle colors captured by their eyes on the canvas freely, and finally painting them, not the scenery in front of them, but the scenery captured by their eyes bit by bit.

Claude Monet, Poplars, 1891. Oil on canvas; 93x74.1cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia

when it comes to painters using their eyes to capture subtle color changes in light and shadow, no one is better at it: Monet. He has painted a series of paintings, from the straw pile to the poplar here to the cathedral. He repeatedly draws the same thing from the same angle in different seasons and times to experiment with different colors under different light conditions. For him, it doesn't matter what he paints. What he paints are color and light. Even he doesn't care about the boundary between the object and the object, the only difference is the color. In this picture, we can tell where the leaves are and where the sky is, just because the sky is blue and the leaves are red and yellow. at the same time, we can not see the boundary between the shore and the water, because the grass on the shore and its reflection in the water is green and the colors blend.

there is also a mystery hidden in this painting: it was painted by Monet on the water! He used the boat to build a studio floating on the water! In the past, painters used to be locked up in an indoor studio, relying on windows and other light sources to paint models. To capture the more abundant and complex light and shadow of nature, Impressionist painters often went outside to paint, whether, on the streets of Paris or the mountains and rivers, they moved the studio to the open air, thus forming a school (En Plein air).

Claude Monet, The Garden of the Princess (Princess Garden), 1867. Oil on canvas; 91.8 x 61.9 cm. Oberlin College, Ohio

the last one is by Monet, showing a view of Paris from a building. The bottom 1/3 is an empty garden, separated by a busy road, with trees and distant houses in the middle, and clouds at the top 1/3. At first glance, this painting seems more neat and neat than many of his works, and there is nothing particularly prominent about it. But the most wonderful thing about this painting is actually on the opposite side of the picture, where the painter was painting: this painting was painted in the Louvre!

copying famous works is an important way for painters to hone their painting skills. What is the purpose for young painters to go to the Louvre? of course, they are going to learn from their predecessors. But Monet refused: he came to the Louvre Museum, set up an easel, grasped the brush and palette, but turned his back to the masterpiece and painted the scenery out of the window.

this painting is almost an impressionist manifesto: put aside the shackles of traditional painting, leave the dark studio, and paint what is reflected in the eyes at the moment.

back in 1874, on April 15th, at 35 Casipina Avenue, not far from the Louvre, in the photography studio of "Father of Photography" Nadar, the first Impressionist exhibition opened, featuring more than 200 works by 114 painters.

left: the brochure cover of the first Impressionist exhibition

right: the photography studio of Nadal, the venue of the first Impressionist exhibition

the Paris art world was shocked because the paintings were too "avant-garde". The merciless mockery of the paintings by the critics aroused the curiosity of many Parisian citizens, and finally, the month-long exhibition welcomed more than 4000 visitors.

maybe it will take some time for these paintings to be accepted by the public, but this exhibition is intended to explore the modern art expressed by the painter for the first time in front of the world, and it is also the artist who officially broke away from the authoritative art organization and exhibited on his own. it marks the starting point of art in the new era.

the story of modern art starts here.