Impressionism Bridge Between Past And Future Essay

Impressionism: Bridge Between Past And Future Essay, Research Paper

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IMPRESSIONISTS : THE BRIDGE BETWEEN THE PAST AND THE FUTURE

One critic described Impressionist painting as .tak[ing] a piece of canvas, colour and brush, daub[ing]a few patches of paint on it at random, and sign the whole thing with their name.. Manet, although never truly an Impressionist by style, he led artists including Monet, Degas, Renoir, Pisarro, Sisley and Cezanne, in a new artistic direction. This young group of artists, who had no real connection to each other until one critic lumped them together as .Impressionists., banded in a time when their country was in turmoil and would leave the world the greatest collection of artwork. Through times of favour and denunciation, friendship and animosity, the pastiche of artists were both a culmination of a an art period and a bridge to the next artistic discovery.

The France that most of the Impressionist artists were born into had experienced a .recent history…as dramatic and changeable as the era the painters were about to live through. (The Impressionists Handbook 12). By 1851 Emperor Napoleon III was firmly entrenched as a ruler of France. As a sign of his power, Napoleon III began his reign with press subjugation and a political assimilation. In juxtaposition to this harshness, he was also regulating bread prices and endorsing industrial and commercial growth in France in order for the country to follow the rest of Europe into the Industrial Revolution. Although traipsing behind most of the other surrounding countries, Napoleon III brought the .development of banking institutions, railways and factories. (Handbook 13) into France. Along with this new industrial growth came many sacrifices and gains for the people. With the steam engine and new modes of transportation, the power to work faster increased yet along with that increase the work day grew longer as well; as long as sixteen hours a day with very

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little personal time. Products were revolutionized and capitalism could thrive yet the worker.s role continued to diminish to a point where they were no longer an important person, simply a body to push along the industrial revolution. With these new technologies were new exploitation and a diminishing worker-employee relationship.

The 1861 American Civil War that led to the emancipation of slaves in the United States had a ripple effect from across the ocean. This would eventually cause the Second Republic to declare the proclamation of Universal Suffrage and the Abolition of Slavery.

In 1853, Napoleon III appointed Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann to design the reconstruction of Paris (Jordan 25). The goal was to transform the ancient city of narrow streets and medieval spaces in to a modern European capital city (Jordan 25). Haussmann built eighty-five miles of new roads, including the Rue de Rivoli and the Boulevard Saint-Michel (Jordan 32). Along these new streets modern architecture was soon developed in accordance to the Emperor.s authority. This .Haussmanization. created a city that became .the centre of the bourgeoisie., although the poor were not easily discarded and would soon reappear in the city in even more cloistered and squalid areas (Jordan 50).

For the advancement of France, Napoleon III launched a successful military campaign against Austria, Russia and China (Honour and Fleming 668). However soon after the Exposition Universelles in Paris, Napoleon III.s cursed ancestry caught up with him (Honour and Fleming 668). He miscalculated his country.s battle readiness and saw Paris fall to the Prussians in September of 1870 and soon saw his own empire fall shortly thereafter (Honour and Fleming 669). War continued to rage in Paris when the city erupted in revolution of the Commune of 1871. Victor Hugo called it the .annee terrible., deservedly so as 20, 000 Parisians were slain within a

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week and civil war broke out on the streets. (Honour and Fleming 670). The streets of Paris were stripped of trees that had been used for firewood, the animals in the zoos and the racehorses were slaughtered to feed the besieged city (Honour and Fleming 670). The bloody revolution of the Commune soon ended, closing the era of the Second Empire.

After the destruction of 1870-71 was disposed of, Paris reclaimed it.s status as the ville lumiere, as it had been in the Second Empire (Honour and Fleming 670). In just four years, Paris.s civil war memories were dimming and economic growth was being established once again, as Paris .reclaimed its place as the centre of European art. (Honour and Fleming 670).

In this time of bloody revolutions, science was evolving to new heights. With scientific advancements, society would change to make room for these discoveries. The 1859 Origin of Species by Darwin revolutionized the way we think about evolution and human placement in the universe. New modes of surgery lowered mortality rates and new ways of food preservation helped ensure a better diet. Science was investigating how everything worked, developing new theories of atoms, electricity and optics which would effect the way everyone would live and exist in the centuries to come.

This was a time of incredible change, that would continue for years afterwards. However looking at an Impressionist painting, we feel none of the turmoil of the Commune,