The artistic movements and their representatives presented the topic for discussion throughout history. Distinguishing peculiar features that make one style different is the scope of research for many specialists. Some art traditions, including impressionism and expressionism, emerged from the freedom of expression, a fundamental human right. Despite certain superficial similarities, the two art styles are opposed in several key elements. The main points of comparison are the history of development, which include artists of the movement, and the central ideas and motivation of the new style. Regardless of the similarities between impressionism and expressionism, they have entirely different backgrounds and core values shared by their representatives.
The history of emergence presents the fundamental differentiation between the two styles. The art school known as impressionism began its development in Paris in the late nineteenth century as a creative response to the rapidly evolving urban environment. The trend also marked a significant divergence from convention in European painting. The researchers claim that classical artists in France severely condemned the impressionists (Dombrowski, 2020). Impression, Soleil levant by Claude Monet is the source of the term impressionism (Kalba, 2017). The impressionist movement was popularized by artists including Alfred Sisley, Mary Cassatt, Claude Monet, and Edgar Degas. In such an approach to painting, an artist tries to portray the sensation of light in a situation in a natural manner.
At the same time background of expressionism has its roots in German history. The concept started to develop in the late 1800s. However, it developed in Germany and other areas of Europe in the first few years of the 20th century. It was established as an artistic reaction to industrialization’s dehumanizing consequences. Instead of depicting objective reality, the artist tries to capture the subjective feelings and reactions that things and events evoke in them (Yang, 2018). The Expressionismes paintings, which Julien-Auguste HervĂ© displayed in Paris in 1901, are where the title for the style first appeared (Yang, 2018). As a result, such art responds to positivism and other aesthetic movements like naturalism and impressionism.
The core concept of impressionism is based on the idea that it encourages creativity in painting and uses brilliant colors to capture a fleeting moment. The theme is usually exterior, and little attention is paid to details. In contrast, to seamlessly applied blended colors, paint is typically applied in small strokes using primary color (Kalba, 2017). Impressionists depict the scene as if they had only briefly glanced at it, despite the paintings being based on the actual world. In contrast to painting the subject realistically, this style allowed the artists to emphasize the impression of their theme.
Expressionism uses exaggerated dimensions, strange angles, and paintings in bright, intense hues directly focused on the artist’s emotional reaction to the outside world. Fantasy, aggression, fear, loss of sincerity, and spirituality are frequent topics. Vivid, unpredictable tones, agitated or expressive brushstrokes to portray extreme emotions, disconnected spaces, deformed subjects, and the utilization of subjects from industrialized urban life are notable painting features of expressionism (Kalba, 2017). Some researchers saw expressionism as a reaction to impressionism and its intellectual ancestors.
Therefore, the 20th century marked the emergence of the European impressionist and expressionist art movements. Expressionism began in Germany and Austria at the beginning of the 20th century, while Impressionism originated in Paris in the late nineteenth century. They have distinguishable attributes and techniques, such as colors, subjects, and values, even though they initially appear to be similar painting styles because of the theme of opposition to industrialization.
References
Dombrowski, A. (2020). Impressionism and the Standardization of Time: Claude Monet at Gare Saint-Lazare. The Art Bulletin, 102(2), 91-120.
Kalba, L. (2017). Color in the age of impressionism: Commerce, technology, and art. Penn State University Press. Web.
Yang, L. (2018). The world of psychological and symbolic complexity: The expressionist style. The Formation of Chinese Art Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan. Web.