1、Unit 44Trees Are VioletIn 1874, fifty-five artists held the first independent group show of Impressionist art. Most of them, including Canne, Pissarro, Renoir, Degas, Monet, Manet, and his sister-in-law Berthe Morisot - a bunch of lunatics and a woman, remarked one observer - had been rejected by th
2、e Salon, the annual French state-sponsored exhibition that offered the only real opportunity for artists to display and sell their work. Never mind, they told each other. At the Salon, paintings were stacked three or four high, and crowded too closely together on the walls. At their independent exhi
3、bition, mounted in what was formerly a photographers studio, the artists could hang their works at eye level with space between them. Although the artists didnt call themselves Impressionists at first, this occasion would be the first of eight such Impressionist exhibits over the next twelve years.A
4、n outraged critic, Louis Leroy, coined the label Impressionist. He looked at Monets Impression Sunrise, the artists sensory response to a harbor at dawn, painted with sketchy brushstrokes. Impression! the journalist scoffed. Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished! Within a year, the name
5、Impressionism was an accepted term in the art world.If the name was accepted, the art itself was not. In impressionist paintings, trees are violet; the sky is the color of fresh butter. Although some people appreciated the new paintings, many did not. The critics agreed the Impressionists couldnt dr
6、aw and their colors were considered vulgar. Their compositions were strange. Their short, hurried brushstrokes made their paintings practically illegible.Impressionism broke every rule of the French Academy of Fine Arts, the conservative school that had dominated art training and taste since 1648. I
7、mpressionist scenes of modern urban and country life were a far cry from the Academic efforts to teach moral lessons through historic, and mythological themes. This tradition, drawn from ancient Greek and Roman art, featured idealized images. Symmetrical compositions, hard outlines, and smooth pain
8、surfaces characterized academic paintings.Despite the Academys power, seeds of artistic and political unrest had been sown long before 1874. The mid-19th century was a time of political instability in France. During the Revolution of 1848, Parisian workers with socialist goals overthrew the monarchy
9、, only to see conservatives seize the reins of government later that year. Fear of further uprisings created widespread distrust among the aristocracy, the poor, and the newly prosperous bourgeoisie or middle class. Meanwhile, the far-reaching Industrial Revolution fostered a new faith in the indivi
10、dual and his unlimited potential. Romantic painters began to celebrate individuality in terms of painting technique with warm colors and vigorous brushstrokes. The Impressionists brought together a variety of influences, beliefs, and styles when they first exhibited in Paris. Their rejection of the Academy and the Academys rejection of them united the group.
