Intro to Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Intro to Art - Essay ExampleClaude Monet belonged to the Impressionist genre of artists who aimed to keep on the visual freshness of the first fleeting moment (Heinrich 32) of a depiction. In his portrayal, the artist did not categorise or differentiate the various objects in the scene through traditional artistic principles. Monets subject matter on canvas were the first impressions of a scene, composed of blocks of colours, surface patterns, and the very air as defined by light (Heinrich 32). The artist termed his concept as linstantaneite, and made it his lifes work. However, he experienced despair at times, payable to the unresolvable contradiction that is inherent in the aim to preserve permanently the passing moment.Boulevard des Capucines (Fig.1 below) is a distinctive portrayal of the busy capital of France boulevard from an aerial perspective, viewed through the cold and damp air of winter (Nelson-Atkins, 2008). The painting portrays crowds hurrying along the pavement, a nd has the blurred schematic look of an early word picture (Ruhrberg et al 7). The brushwork of all Impressionist paintings contributed to their looking like early photographs which had a coarse-grained texture. Further, Impressionist paintings emphasized light effects in the scene and this is obvious in Monets flickering representation of haze and light using vibrant dabs of paint for the snow-covered ground, the people and the background images. This is supported by Forgione (p.671) who believes that in this painting human bodies look hazy, distorted, and are reflective surfaces whose integrity is compromised by penetrating atmospheric vibrations.Other typically impressionist features of the painting are the dispirited shadows and the depiction of pedestrians using bold, individual brush strokes. The forms are made to appear blurred in order to represent motion with people walking briskly in the cold air. Nelson-Atkins (2008) reiterates that Monet depicted the elusive quality o f movement with