What's that: Impressionism sheds light on nature, emotions

Media Credit: Courtesy of ART.PRO.TOK2.COM MONET MONET - Claude Monet's painting "Impression, Sunrise" inspired the title of the artistic movement that dominated the late 19th century to early 20th century. Monet found his muse in nature, like other artists of the period.

From Degas' poised dancers to Monet's prismatic water lilies, Impressionism is one of the most pervasive and widely enjoyed art forms. Its vivid-color and evocative imagery allows impressionism to be immediately appreciated and enjoyed. However, understanding the questions that drove the movement places the paintings in a more complex frame than their ubiquitousness suggests.

Impressionism took hold in France between 1860 and 1900. While regional varieties, such as American Impressionism, eventually flourished, the movement's roots are distinctly French. The movement's name is derived from a painting by the father of Impressionism, Claude Monet. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Art, "Impression, Sunrise," painted in 1873, meditates on the dynamism of light, and gives a visual context for the vivid, natural world that Impressionist artists create.

Other famous Impressionists include Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet and Auguste Renoir. Mary Cassatt, with her paintings of pink-cheeked children, is one of the most renowned U.S. impressionists, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Art.

With its images adorning everything from picture post cards to dentist offices, Impressionism today is often dismissed as one of the most conventional of art forms. At the time it captivated France, however, the movement was revolutionary.

Impressionism emerged from a history of French landscapes and Realism, painting styles that demanded precision. Contrastingly, Impressionist paintings are non-narrative in nature and don't rely on traditional techniques of perspective. They depict dynamic scenes of nature or of bourgeois recreation. The paintings seem unfinished and hastily painted , suggesting, fittingly, the impression of a scene rather than an exact replication, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Art.

Accordingly, Impressionism flirts with the senses. Light and vibrant color reveal the fleeting sense of the scene. Pink melting in the morning sky, deep yellow flashing in the night, pale blue easing into afternoon: the color and richness of the light establishes the time of day and the season, but also the painting's emotional tone. Impressionist artists use light to sketch a hazy outline of emotion.

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