Task 1: Impressionism In Art

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IWT1 Task 1 Emily Campbell 000452383 Western Governor’s University A1: Realism Realism in its earliest form appeared in the 18th century in reaction to the excesses of Romanticism and Neoclassicism. It then became an organized movement in France in 1848 after the fall of the monarchy of Louis-Philippe. During this period of Napoleons Second Empire, Realism flourished. Realism focused more on the real life depictions of its subjects. The artists tried to be as straightforward as possible and not idealize the subjects. Realist painters, like Gustav Courbet and Jean-Francois Millet, sometimes used their works as political statements. Artwork of the period was criticized for being too mundane due to the subject matter, often of lower class people doing everyday things. The artists were criticized for depicting subjects doing everyday tasks, often in “gritty detail” (Finnochio, 2004, p.1). A2: Impressionism Impressionism was a…show more content…
Both paintings are depicting a scene from everyday life. Courbet shows the life of what appears to be upper class ladies out for a stroll in the country. Degas depicts a day in the life of the ballerina, more specifically what appears to be a break in rehearsals. The Impressionist painting allows you to see more than one specific subject. In the foreground there is a dancer at rest, in the middle a couple of dancers chatting, and in the background there are more dancers resting as well. The Realist painting only has the one focal point of the three ladies and the little shepherd girl as well as the dog and the cattle but they are all spotlighted in the center of the piece. The Dance Lesson allows the eye to move along the painting and take in what is happening in a dance studio. The dancer in the foreground looks exhausted. She has her head down and gives you the feeling that she is relieved to finally be sitting down to

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