Impressionism

Hello!

It has been much too long.

A few weeks ago, I saw a pretty spectacularly amazing exhibit of Impressionism paintings at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. All of the paintings were from Musee d'Orsay, an amazing museum in Paris. The paintings ranged from the incredibly realistic and wondrous works of Manet to the well known scatters of brush strokes of Monet. Only one letter different in names, but quite different and distinct painters and styles. I got to see Whistler's Mother, or so it is known as. It was a nice painting and I appreciated the simplicity and details, but I have to say, it was slightly boring. I would have to say that of all the paintings, numbering over 100, that I saw, Manet's Fifer and Monet's Magpie and Saint-Lazare Train Station would have to be my favorites. Morisot's The Cradle was also up there. And props to her for being, if I'm not mistaken, the only female impressionist painter on display. Well, maybe there was one other, but still.

The whole night really made me want to roll up my sleeves, get a little paint on my nose, and paint a masterpiece. Oh if only I was a painting prodigy. Oh well, at least I can appreciate the works of true master painters. It really is amazing how talented some of those painters were. So many, like Morisot, painted some of their most well-known works in their 20s. That is just incredible. In addition to seeing the masterpieces that truly blew me away, I got to learn a lot about Impressionism as well. I think the story of how it began sort of symbolizes the Impressionist movement. It began when one critic called Monet an impressionist painter after his painting Impression: Sunrise. However, the critic meant it in a derogatory way. But Monet did not see it as an insult, but as a compliment, and he and his fellow painters embraced the term Impressionist as they began their fantastic movement that greatly contributed to the history of art.

Well that's enough of an art history lesson for one day.

Here are the paintings I was talking about:

Manet's Fifer:

Monet's Magpie:

Monet's Saint-Lazare Train Station:

Morisot's The Cradle

Farewell for now,

artsy_brainchild