French Impressionism H. Toulouse Lautrec Art Sov. Sheet of 2 Stamps Mint NH

Mali French Impressionism H. Toulouse Lautrec Art Sov. Sheet of 2 Stamps Mint NH

French Impressionism started as a rebellion of a few young artists in Paris around 1863 against a rigid art establishment. It took the Impressionist artists about 20 years before ridicule was replaced by recognition. French Impressionism had paved the way for all subsequent 20th century art movements.

The Essentials of French Impressionism
Impressionist art started with a rebellion by four art students and friends - Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and Frederic Bazille. They knew each other from common painting classes where they learned conventional painting. Conventional art in France was then done exclusively in studios with subjects centered around history and Greek mythology and with dominant dark colors.

The four young artists thought this was rather boring and one day they took their easels, went to the nearby forest of Fontainbleau and started painting in the open air. They painted with swift brush strokes trying to catch the impression of the moment.

Showing the effects of light on a subject was paramount for the Impressionist art movement. Claude Monet later painted several series of the same subject at different times of the day.

Another very visible difference of French Impressionism was the use of light and strong colors.

In the beginning the Impressionist painters were nothing but ridiculed by the public. Art critics called the paintings unfinished and declared the artists as madmen.

In newspaper cartoons pregnant women were warned not to enter an Impressionist art exhibition because of the danger of a miscarriage. In other caricatures it was proposed to fend off the Prussian enemy, who was marching towards Paris in 1870, by showing them Impressionist paintings.

It took nearly 20 years until Impressionism was finally recognized and appreciated in France.

Post Impressionism and Neo Impressionism
The terms Post Impressionism and Neo Impressionism are used to categorize later artists like Paul Gauguin or Vincent van Gogh. Their art style was bolder and more expressive than early French Impressionism.

Georges Seurat and his friend Paul Signac went their own way with Pointillism, a painting technique that uses many, many little dots to compose a painting.

Impressionist Artists
Alfred Sisley 1839-1899
Berthe Morisot 1841-1895
Camille Pissarro 1855-1903
Claude Monet 1840-1926
Edgar Degas 1834-1917
Edouard Manet 1856-1833
Frederic Bazille 1841-1870
Mary Cassatt 1844-1926
Paul Cezanne 1839-1906
Auguste Renoir 1841-1919
Neo Impressionists and Post Impressionists:

Georges Seurat 1859-1891.
Toulouse Lautrec 1864-1901.
Paul Gauguin 1848-1903.
Paul Signac 1863-1935.
Vincent van Gogh.

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