Impressionism vs. Post-Impressionism

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Impressionism began in the 19th century as a rebellion against the Academie des Beaux-Arts. The Academie set the standards for the works of art. Once an artist exhibited his work at the Salon de Paris, where the Academie held its annual exhibition, he/she would earn recognition and be on his/her way to commissions and fame. On the contrary, anything that was not approved by them, any new technique that an artist wanted to experiment with, met with their disapproval and the artist was unable to sell the art.
In 1874, a group of thirty artists called the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers, organized an exhibition at the studio of photographer/journalist Felix Nadar of a movement that will soon become known as Impressionism (“Impressionism”).
The techniques and colors used in the paintings did not follow the patterns that the Academie was used to and approved. These were made using short, broken, lighter brushstrokes, thus giving the appearance of unfinished sketches. The fact that there was less attention to detail contributed to this and masked the effort the artist put in the painting. The colors used were brighter and the effect of light was emphasized. One of the members of the group was Claude Monet, who painted the famous Impression Sunrise (Impression, Soleil Levant) (Monet, 1872). This is the painting that gave impressionism its name. The art critic Louis Leroy, of the newspaper Le Charivari, said that the painting was an “impression”, merely a sketch and not a finished work of art. Leroy compared the painting to a wallpaper and stated that, in its embryonic state, the latter was more finished than the first (“Impressionism”). “While Impression, Sunrise and Monet’s artistic technique fell under harsh criticism at their outset, Monet’s masterpiece gave birth to a new movement and created a revolution in the world of art.”

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