Linda Nochlin’s seminal piece on late nineteenth century western art, “Impressionist Portraits and the Construction of Modern Identity”, seeks to analyze and reconcile the unique role of the Impressionist movement in the change towards modern aesthetics and understandings of depicting people versus personalities in portraiture. The essay considers myriad events and ideologies, which influenced and arguably catalyzed the style. Through analyzing the works of Manet and Degas in particular, the author identifies a “wide range of pictorial strategies” constituting an emerging aesthetic grammar (p74). The tension between competing conceptions of tradition and technique, as well as the shifting nature of narrative roles and social relations ultimately
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Unconsciously self-referential artists painted themselves in the guise of philosophers, the counterpoint of the masculine and debonair flâneur, at once keenly aware yet aloof. These depictions reinforced the cult of personality surrounding artists and the ideals of heroism and nobility inherent in the profession. For after all, they “are the chosen” (p56). Yet, the depictions remained largely part of the same visual grammar, one heroic figure might be substituted for another, but such depictions were still in a similar vein. The portrayal of those outside of the artistic group shows a greater variation both among and between the groups. Nochlin illustrates how pieces are held together by centrifugal tensions: female and male, internal and external, passive and active, domestic and public. Subversions of roles are subtle but striking, such as the unstable composition of a Degas family portrait or the delicate strength of a Cassatt matron. This innovation is the combined result of various social pressures, the pull of modernity increasingly emphasized the role of the individual while simultaneously creating an environment …show more content…
Technological advancements in the craft made it possible for artists to make their studios portable, giving rise to an obsession with light and the popularity of painting en plein air. The reinterpretation of classical pieces by the Impressionists serves as a form of revisionist history, both a rejection of tradition and an embrace of the imagined past. Rejection came in the form of new techniques; rapid and seemingly unstudied brushstrokes are the hallmark of the movement. Colors moved away from the primary palettes of Poussin to the bold blacks used by Manet, Degas’s moody pastels, and Cassatt’s porcelain symphonies (p64). Manet used shades of green in particular as a subversive element by coding them as urban rather than organic as per tradition (p68). Compositionally, artists rejected and reinterpreted the structures of the Renaissance. Traditional pyramidal forms were inverted, central arrangements forced outward. The instability and unease created a sort of psychological narrative in response to modernity. Often, “surface play creates its own profundity” and the formal aspects of a canvas rather than the subject itself gives a sense of narrative within the work
Unconsciously self-referential artists painted themselves in the guise of philosophers, the counterpoint of the masculine and debonair flâneur, at once keenly aware yet aloof. These depictions reinforced the cult of personality surrounding artists and the ideals of heroism and nobility inherent in the profession. For after all, they “are the chosen” (p56). Yet, the depictions remained largely part of the same visual grammar, one heroic figure might be substituted for another, but such depictions were still in a similar vein. The portrayal of those outside of the artistic group shows a greater variation both among and between the groups. Nochlin illustrates how pieces are held together by centrifugal tensions: female and male, internal and external, passive and active, domestic and public. Subversions of roles are subtle but striking, such as the unstable composition of a Degas family portrait or the delicate strength of a Cassatt matron. This innovation is the combined result of various social pressures, the pull of modernity increasingly emphasized the role of the individual while simultaneously creating an environment …show more content…
Technological advancements in the craft made it possible for artists to make their studios portable, giving rise to an obsession with light and the popularity of painting en plein air. The reinterpretation of classical pieces by the Impressionists serves as a form of revisionist history, both a rejection of tradition and an embrace of the imagined past. Rejection came in the form of new techniques; rapid and seemingly unstudied brushstrokes are the hallmark of the movement. Colors moved away from the primary palettes of Poussin to the bold blacks used by Manet, Degas’s moody pastels, and Cassatt’s porcelain symphonies (p64). Manet used shades of green in particular as a subversive element by coding them as urban rather than organic as per tradition (p68). Compositionally, artists rejected and reinterpreted the structures of the Renaissance. Traditional pyramidal forms were inverted, central arrangements forced outward. The instability and unease created a sort of psychological narrative in response to modernity. Often, “surface play creates its own profundity” and the formal aspects of a canvas rather than the subject itself gives a sense of narrative within the work