Modern Period

Question 1

Impressionism

Movement characterised by a move away from depicting local colours to depicting optical perception, typically by using small, thin, visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating effects of passage of time), ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as crucial element of perception and experience, and unusual visual angles.

Impressionism originated with group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence. The term is derived from the title of Monet’s painting ‘Impression, soleil levant’ (Impression, Sunrise) in the first of the independent exhibitions mounted by Monet and his associates as an alternative to the Salon de Paris.

Emerged in America following Major exhibitions of French impressionist works in Boston and New York.

Answer 1

France: 1860 - 1890
America: 1880

Question 2

Tonalism

Style emerging when American artists began to paint landscape forms with an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist. Dark, neutral hues such as gray, brown or blue, often dominated compositions. During the late Two of the leading associated painters were George Inness and James McNeill Whistler.

Also sometimes used to describe American landscapes derived from French Barbizon style, which emphasized mood and shadow.

Australian Tonalism emerged late in the period as an art movement in Melbourne

Answer 2

America: 1880 - 1915
Australia: 1910

Question 3

(European) Luminism

Could refer to multiple different, unrelated styles, but is broadly late-impressionist or neo-impressionist, devoting great attention to light effects:

• Belgian (mainly Flemish) painters: Emile Claus and Théo van Rysselberghe and their followers. Style close to great French impressionists (e.g. Monet). Emile founded the society Vie et Lumière (‘life and light’) and became known as the ‘sun painter’ and ‘painter of the Lys’
• Early pointillist work of Dutch painters: Jan Toorop, Leo Gestel, Jan Sluijters, and Piet Mondriaan. Characterized by use of large color patches, closer to fauvism.
• Valencian luminism: Work of Spanish painters led by Joaquín Sorolla, Ignacio Pinazo Camarlench, Teodoro Andreu, Francisco Benítez Mellado and Vicente Castell.

Answer 3

Belgium: 1890+

Question 4

Symbolism

Art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through metaphorical images and language as a reaction against naturalism and realism.

In painting, symbolism can be seen as a revival of mystical tendencies in the Romantic tradition, and was close to the self-consciously morbid and private decadent movement. Painters include Paul Gauguin, Gustave Moreau, Gustav Klimt.

The symbolist painters used mythological and dream imagery, which are not familiar emblems of mainstream iconography but intensely personal, private, obscure/ambiguous references. More a philosophy than an actual style of art, this influenced the contemporary Art Nouveau style and Les Nabis.

Answer 4

France/Belgium: 1880 – 1910

Russia: 1884

Question 5

Aestheticism

Intellectual and art movement supporting emphasis of aesthetic values more than social-political themes for literature, fine art, music and other arts. This meant art focused more on being beautiful rather than having a deeper meaning — “art for art’s sake” (e.g. free from narrative or moral or sentimental messages hence it falls outside the given definition.)

Artists associated with the Aesthetic style include Simeon Solomon, James McNeill Whistler, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Movement supported by notable figures such as Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde.

Answer 5

UK: 1868 – 1901

Question 6

Divisionism/Chromoluminarism

Answer 6

1884

characteristic style in Neo-Impressionist painting defined by the separation of colors into individual dots or patches which interacted optically

By requiring the viewer to combine the colors optically instead of physically mixing pigments, Divisionists believed they were achieving the maximum luminosity scientifically possible. Georges Seurat founded the style around 1884 as chromoluminarism, drawing from his understanding of the scientific theories of Michel Eugène Chevreul, Ogden Rood and Charles Blanc, among others. Divisionism developed along with another style, Pointillism, which is defined specifically by the use of dots of paint and does not necessarily focus on the separation of colors.

Question 7

Naturalism

Answer 7

1870-1890

Naturalism in art refers to the depiction of realistic objects in a natural setting. There are different degrees of naturalism, notably the Realism of Gustave Courbet and other seeking to represent the harsh realities of contemporary life.

The Realist movement of the 19th century advocated naturalism in reaction to the stylized and idealized depictions of subjects in Romanticism, but many painters have used a similar approach over the centuries. One example of Naturalism is the artwork of American artist William Bliss Baker, whose landscape paintings are considered some of the best examples of the naturalist movement. Another example is the French Albert Charpin, from the Barbizon School, with his paintings of sheep in their natural settings.

Naturalism began in the early Renaissance, and developed itself further throughout the Renaissance, such as with the Florentine School.

Naturalism is a type of art that pays attention to very accurate and precise details, and portrays things as they are.