Revolutionary paintersAt the turn of the 19th century, painting underwent many changes with new scientific discoveries and the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War. Artists such as Edouard Monet and Georges Seurat helped shape these transformations. Monet is usually seen as the father of Impressionism thanks to his debut at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874 with Impression Sunrise. Monet used shades that sometimes contradicted the actual color of the object. His technique was based on the observation of how objects and surfaces reflect light. Seurat conquered the world with his Grande Jatte in 1884-6, where the painting seems to dance with the use of divisionism. Divisionism was based on Blanc's scientific theories of color. Seurat's scientific approach and Monet's observational approach differed greatly from the academic standards by which they were surrounded. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayIn 1860 Monet began painting in the style of the Barbizon painters. The Barbizon school revolutionized landscape painting. Throughout history, painters have approached nature to practice painting from observation. First they went to the countryside with sketchbooks to try to replicate nature and then in their studies they put together idealized landscapes by referring to their sketches and archaeological journals. Therefore landscapes would appear symmetrical and clear in the recession of space. The late 18th century came with the invention of portable paints, so painters now painted on the spot on small canvases to train their hand and eye to accurately record color and texture. However, artists retreated back to their studios to form idealized landscapes, and the painting exercises served only as reminders on the wall. The biggest challenge was capturing something as transitory as running water. There are many studies of running water from this period. The Barbizon artists took it upon themselves to carry out these studies. Daubigny is one of the precursors of the impressionists. Explore the light and shadow of clouds to get a better sense of nature. He was the first to completely paint the scene. Monet was inspired by his example and decided to paint on the scene, but instead of just painting the landscape he tried his hand at including figures. Boudin had the greatest influence on Monet. His works were small scale and usually focused on tourists at the beach. Subsequently Monet painted series of tourists on the beach but his works are close-ups of the bathers while in Boudin's works the sky is dominated and the tourists are small. He dedicated a large part of the canvas to the sky because it is the most changeable element and therefore it seemed the most interesting to him. Although Courbet was not part of the Barbizon group, he contributed to the landscape revolution by applying color with a palette knife making the surface rougher and also the subject rough. Monet became increasingly interested in solid objects in relation to liquid and the way light and shadow play on water. He began painting seascapes because of the ever-changing pattern of elements he was attracted to. Monet works quickly and decisively on location in a boat. He painted quickly to capture the changes the water has every second. He would quickly make these changes and change the canvas to continue capturing water. Later in his studio he will work on the preliminary painting. He would have some that he would work on. The Green Wave demonstrated its research in capturing the liquid object instead of solid. The painting is alive in movement, likeunderlines Richard R. Berttell. "We seem to participate with Monet in his invisible boat... we experience the wave motion in the deep, dark green water, depicted with a thick, sucking paint that the boats seem to float on the paint rather than on the water... Monet didn't want restrictions in its medium.(p.109) The horizon line is very high, which makes the viewers feel as if they are included in the painting and as if the wave is about to crash over them of this painting, which could only have been achieved by observing it from nature, is what distinguishes Monet's works Paul Tucker writes in his article that “for the first time [on 15 April 1874], Paris had witnessed an exhibition on. large-scale independent exhibition of avant-garde art organized as a direct challenge to the salon, the academy and the official art world”. (p.465) This challenge consisted of the exhibition of impressionist works that included Degas, Pissarro, Renoir. and Sisley along with some more traditional people. The result was effective to see because on the one hand, as Tucker states, “it gave the show an academic look; on the other hand it made the advance of the Impressionists quite clear.” (p.469) The contrast between the works really made the Impressionists stand out, but the responses to their works were not always kind. Although most critics agreed that this new art form was what France needed after its bitter defeat in the war, they still could not overcome the feeling of incompleteness of the works presented in the exhibition. However, among the negative comments there were also some praise. For example, Monet's Boulevard des Capucines received a glowing review from the critic Chesneau. “'Never,' he stated, '... has the prodigious animation of a public street... the stirring of the trees along the avenue in the light and dust, the fleeting, the instantaneous... ever been understood and fixed with a fluidity as prodigious as in the extraordinary, marvelous sketch... the Boulevard des Capucines.” (p.470)However the major work, which later became legendary, was neglected by most critics and derided by others. The Impression, Sunrise, from which the movement is said to have taken its name. This painting is extremely patriotic because it celebrates the reconstruction and industrialization of Paris after the Franco-Prussian War. The setting is Le Havre, one of the busiest ports in the country; therefore it was a source of pride for every Frenchman. It represents Le Havre at the time of dawn. Sunrise was a widely used motif in painting and represents the beginning of a new day. In this context Monet says that it is a new beginning for France. The sun sits directly above the construction site and further heralds the promise of France regaining its strength. The reflection of the sun in the water extends towards the viewer. In the front row it is easy to distinguish a boat with workers because they are painted black-blue. The workers represent the reinvigoration of the economy and show undefeated Parisians working to rebuild France. In the background Monet very confusingly indicates the industrialization of Paris by depicting the billowing smoke coming out of the pipes on the right and on the right he shows the reconstruction of Paris mentioning the construction cranes. Impressively, the sunrise shows Monet's interest in the relationship between water, sky and earth. Here it blends almost all three elements except the sun which stands out more in contrast with the “robin's egg blue”. The rest of the background is painted in deeper blues, warm grays, and reddish oranges. The colors seem almost artificial, but the texture of the water created by Monet with a few blue-green touches and the dark silhouette of the boatmen in the forefront along with the perspective and depth created by the reflectionof the sun make this scene very believable. This painting was definitely painted on site. The Impression, the Dawn was one of six canvases created by Monet to represent the port. He painted it during sunset, sunrise, day and darkness from various points. The appeal of a series is that it doesn't have to be finished and has an unlimited number of possibilities. “They convey the idea that a canvas could never fully capture the characteristics of a given pattern, raising even more serious aesthetic questions about the very nature of the pattern,” Berttell writes in his article. (p.118) This feeling that a motif of nature can never truly be captured in a single painting gives us a greater sense of nature's magnificence. It forces us to observe the unlimited power that nature holds. The series method seems the only logical solution to show the ever-changing water and the sky in its relationship to the earth. It also demonstrates Monet's dedication to the goal of capturing nature in its truth, a goal he shared with his teacher Boudin and contemporary Bazille. They transformed landscape painting that moved from the fields and villages to be shared in city studios and cafés. (Berttell, p.104)Georges Seurat was more interested in the deeper meaning of a painting rather than the representation of nature in its full reality. His subjects mainly focused on the representation of Parisians in "their essential aspect" in "harmonies of colors". Seurat regarded his paintings as the essence of his subjects that only color harmonies could produce. Seurat's style is usually nicknamed post-impressionist because he uses some impressionist ideas about color and combines them with Blanc's philosophies. Indeed La Grande Jatte can be dissected according to the theories that Blanc wrote in his book Grammarie with which Seurat was very familiar. The people in La Grande Jatte are anonymous and therefore make this painting a commentary rather than a direct depiction of an afternoon in the park. The rigid approach is reminiscent of the style of Egyptian art. The figures are even arranged according to the class hierarchy in the park. According to Blanc, Egyptian art lacked life because it was focused on the character of a society trapped in superstition that makes the society tense and conservative. (pp.16-17)The Egyptian style layout is easy to spot in La Grande Jatte. The stoic figure of a bourgeois woman in front seems stiff and immobile, just like the statues of Egyptian pharaohs. It is also painted in profile, characteristic of the Egyptians. There Seurat makes fun of a woman's rigidity. The soldiers are called to attention by someone who isn't even a captain; he's just a flute player in uniform. Here Seurat comments on how soldiers blindly follow orders even if they do not come from their senior. The only person relaxing in the scene is a worker in the foreground. He leans on his arm and looks at the Seine. This figure is reminiscent of Seurat's earlier work The Bath at Asnières, where he shows workers relaxing after a hard week's work. The location where the Grande Jatte takes place is actually across the river from where the Bath at Asnières takes place. The worker represents a contrast between the Egyptian hierarchy and Greek democracy. La Grande Jatte seems incredibly artificial. However he tries to capture nature in terms of color theory. For example, grass looks almost yellow where the sun hits it. as mentioned in Smith's article, Feneon, who was one of Seurat's contemporaries and wrote extensively about his works, says that Seurat's color contains reflections of light so green grass appears yellowish when exposed to light..