Our second online lecture started with examples of early photography, and more generally the advent of the medium. We didn’t touch on Pictorialism, but Professor Plesch did note that the photos were important references for Realist painters trying to capture exactly what they saw in their everyday lives. We also touched on the popularity of photo portraiture and photojournalism in America as well.
We then stepped away from realism and into Impressionism with the work of Manet. A well-read man and noted flaneur, Manet sought to capture the change and vitality of mid-1800’s Paris with an equally modern art style. Though he took thematic cues from the old masters, Manet’s intentionally skirts their naturalistic and balanced construction. Employing bright colors and quick, thick brushstrokes, Manet’s space and figures are rendered flatly within the picture plane in a manner totally anathema to the huaghty curriculum of the Academy. In essence, Manet’s style was made for his period.
Other impressionists, like Monet, also captured the dreamy world they saw. Interested primarily with light effects, Monet’s paintings render the impressions of land and cityscapes. Painting primarily outdoors, Monet painted one color at a time, and allowed the paints to blend indirectly in our eyes and on the canvas, creating a twinkling, shimmering effect to many of his paintings.