FREE ESSAY ON AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISM

AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISM

American Impressionism
by Chris Nicholson
In the years following the Civil War, American art underwent a fundamental shift. The
traditional Romantic style of painting, which focused on portraying majestic scenes in
stark, vivid lines and shapes, gave way to a new concern for light and atmosphere. It was
the age of Impressionism.
Impressionism was not indigenous to America. In fact, its origins lay in France, which
had long been at the fore of artistic innovation. The French Impressionists threw off the
shackles of traditional painting in favor of an airier, lighter style. The purpose of
Impressionism was to convey the impression of an object by capturing the patterns of
light and color on and surrounding it. There were no sharp outlines or definite edges;
everything was very ephemeral, almost illusory. 
But what factors were responsible for this movement? Why did it become popular in America
so much more so than in any other country? Wherein lay the Impressionist appeal? These
are important questions. For some time during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries, American artists had scoffed at European art as too stuffy and urbane. The
Americans drew inspiration from the beauty of their native landscape, turning to
naturalist and romantic styles to portray the land they loved. The Literary World wrote,
"What comparison is there between the garden landscapes of England or France and the
noble scenery of the Hudson, or the wild witchery of some of our unpolluted lakes and
streams? One is man's nature, the other, God's." 
However, after the horrific Civil War, this proud view of a "New Eden" was shattered.
Soon Americans were turning elsewhere for inspiration. It is interesting to note that
while dozens of Americans were studying in Paris in the mid-1800's, thousands came there
in the post-war years. It was in this time that the Impressionist movement began in
France. Thus, many Americans were about to discover the new style in their studies at
Paris, Munich, London, etc.
Also, we see the seeds for Impressionism already taking root in America before the war.
Luminism, a primarily American movement of this era, was a sort of precursor to
Impressionism. Luminism was concerned with portraying atmosphere as colored light, and
the effects of this light on solids. In addition, the "glare aesthetic" was a movement
concerned with defining planar objects with vivid reflected light. This new focus on the
properties and effects of light paved the way for Impressionist art, and in fact, many
prominent Luminists' and glare painters' work sometimes resembled Impressionist art.
The artistic development of this period was further encouraged by the photograph. During
and immediately after the Civil War, photography became ever increasingly prevalent. This
technology filled the former niche of painters, especially portraitists, who were used to
depicting the world as they saw it. Now, however, photography offered a much simpler and
quicker way to depict the world, often with greater accuracy. Therefore, painters found
themselves free of any obligation to objective reality, and began experimenting with the
subjective. Impressionism was the first manifestation of this freedom; later came
Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. All owed their creation to the creative freedom
left by the invention of the photograph.
The early American Impressionists, like Mary Cassat and Willard Metcalf, were first
exposed to the art while studying in Europe. Later artists would encounter the art at
home, but virtually all traveled to France and Germany to study with the masters. Paris,
of course, was a major center for the emerging art, as became Giverny, home of Claude
Monet. A whole school of Impressionists, many of them Americans, studied with Monet and
came to be called "Givernois."
By the turn of the century, Impressionism could be further classified into French and
American schools. A shining example of the American Impressionists was Childe Hassam. A
contemporary art critic, Charles Gallatin, described Hassam as being "beyond any doubt
the greatest exponent of Impressionism in America." He continued, "Momentary effects
produced by sunlight is usually his theme, it is true, and equally true it is that he
paints by placing his colors in juxtaposition, in order to create effects to be seen at a
distance." Hassam tended to paint scenes of everyday life in America. A typical Hassam
depicts a small group of people, doing nothing extraordinary, but engaged in their own
business. In his own words, Hassam says, "I believe the man who will go down to posterity
is the man who paints his own time and the scenes of everyday life around him...There is
nothing so interesting to me as people."
So we see that many factors contributed to the fundamental shift in American art of the
late nineteenth century. It is important to understand that, while nearly all of the
great American Impressionists studied in Europe, they generally put their own unique
"American" spin on the art. Very few can be said to have "copied" the European masters.
It is also important to note that Luminism, in many ways a precursor to Impressionism,
had its heyday before the explosion of European influence in American art. Finally, it
was the effective use of photography which freed artists to explore their own creative
styles and escape the restrictions of objective reality. These factors led to the
creation of something great and beautiful, at once a part of a larger movement, but at
the same time very definitely American. It was the age of American Impressionism.
Bibliography
Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. Cross River Press, New York: 1984.
McShine, Kynaston. The Natural Paradise: Painting in America 1800-1950. Museum of
Modern Art, New York: 1976.
Novak, Barbara. American Painting of the Nineteenth Century. Praeger Publishers, New
York: 1969.
Unger, Irwin. These United States: Questions of Our Past. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle
River, NJ: 1995.