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Impressionism

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Impressionism changed art it influenced a subsequent generation of artists it spawned a multitude of art movements
Modern Art was firmly modern from the Impressionists on

Impressionism was about a light
Impressionists studied light to the -nth degree. They looked long and hard at how light is reflected or absorbed, and how this interplay registers colors in our brains. They observed and sketched endlessly.
They then tried to recreate light itself with paints and brushes.

Color theory was a key component of Impressionism new science, formulated by the French Chemist Chevreul. His theory divide colors in 2 groups, primary colors (blue, yellow, red) and secondary colors (made by mixing two primary colors. (The Impressionists grasped his findings and put it into practice. According to this principle, a secondary color is strengthened when appended next to the non component primary color. Let me be clear, purple is strengthened next to yellow, as green next to red and orange next to blue.
The Impressionists put that theory in practice: they gave up the old idea that the shadow of an object was made up from the color of the object with some brown or black added. Instead, they thought that the shadow of any colour could be mixed from pure hues and broken up with its opposite color.

Impressionism was about technique
Here, too, Impressionism was bold and daring. These artists broke from smooth convention and let anyone who cared to look see full evidence their brushwork (unthinkable!).
Because they now had tubes of paint that could open and close, they began mixing colors right on their canvases instead of their palettes (unheard of!).

The final break from academic traditions was that impressionists painted ordinary subject matters. They lost interest in royalty and history, to spend their time painting daily life

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