Impressionism
When I see an impressionist painting I think of Paris, home of the impressionists. Impressionists like Van Gogh and Monet did not want to stick to traditional classicalism and therefore decided to paint their own ideas and thoughts of people, landscapes, etc… The museums that my group went to had a good amount of impressionist paintings.
The first museum that we went to was the musee d’orsay. The museum used to be an old train station, (now an art gallery), and was quite a spectacle. My favorite part of the museum was of course the impressionist paintings. There was a special exhibition that was showing several Van Gogh paintings. What I noticed with all the impressionist paintings is that most focused on color and not paying as much attention to detail. Van Gogh’s style truely amazed me. His unique use of line differed from all other impressionists. His use of color also brought out certain emotions inside me. His self portrait was basically painted in all cool colors. His face looked depressed and when I looked upon this painting it made me a little sad. I believe that impressionism catches the eye of the people because of the break away from tradition and is a style that is completely different from all others.
Monet’s paintings were soft and gentle. I loved looking at his art and some of my favorites of his dealt with snow or cool colors. I loved looking at Monet’s lily pond series. (One or two are in London). I felt at peace when I looked at this painting. When I looked at a matisse painting I almost jumped back. His painting jumped right out to me. The painting was an extremely color painting of women and the style was pointillism.
Overall I enjoyed the softness of the brushstrokes and the use of color done by the impressionists in that museum. Our group went to the Louvre, but I don’t recall seeing any impressionist paintings. As an artist I have been exposed to many different styles, but impressionism really speaks to me and will help me become a more creative artist.
-Catherine Curtis
