For most, our visit to the art museum cannot be complete until we tour the Impressionist Gallery. Visitors of all ages from around the world enjoy the visual legacy created by these distinguished artists.

Most of us have enjoyed these works for as long as we can remember. Grade school publications informed and often highlighted this period hoping to engage some awareness from within our young minds. Thereby hoping to cultivate an early appreciation of the arts. But most of us are unaware of the struggle that was necessary to completely break with 400 year old restrictive regulations. These changes were necessary for the new emerging art form that had its beginnings in France during the 1860’s and a group of young aspiring artists’ desire for artistic independence.

During the Renaissance the knowledge of anatomy, perspective and superior drawing skills were the acceptable intellectual achievements and supported by the established institutions. Because color was associated with the senses and considered a sensual element further study was rejected. Thus, during this period mastering the color palette was neither promoted nor encouraged.

Unlike those who studied the higher scholarly pursuits of music, mathematics and literature, the artists of the Italian Renaissance around 1475 who favored painting as their form of expression were considered manual laborers. Since the Middle Ages Guild members representing the trades and craftsmanship were allowed to promote and advertise but their Renaissance counter parts were not. All acknowledgment needed to procure sponsors came from having association and acceptance from the Academy.

The Royal Academy of the 1640’s only approved of historical, religious, historical landscape and classical mythology themes. Whereas still life painting, animal painting, rural landscapes, genre and domestic scenes were not considered desirable subject matter.

The 1840’s had the Academy’s four hundred year old established restrictions remaining unchanged and unchallenged. The approved choices for appropriate presentation subjects remained as before. Idealized representation of the ancient Greek, Roman and Renaissance periods still remained as the only acceptable subjects. Through history the Academy always required the artist to paint inside. Restrictions as to how the canvas would be prepared and how the painting was executed were strictly followed. The winner of the French Beaux-Arts yearly competition would be guaranteed a successful future and receive lifetime support from the Academy. Those who were not even accepted by the established Academy would see their future as unclear, unstable and their ability to earn a living would prove most difficult.

By 1860’s change occurred within the art community. The young independent artists began to rebel against these long established rules. The group began to paint out-of- doors, established a new brighter color palette and redefined acceptable subject matter. After the Academy refused to hang their paintings at these annual exhibits the revolution began. Their first independent Salon exhibition was in 1874, during which a critic titled the work “Impressionism” after Monet’s painting titled Sunrise. Major artists who were responsible for this change who worked closely together and to whom the world would be forever grateful were, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Bazillle and Morisot.

The Art Historian 2009