In today's visit, we're continuing our exploration of 19th-century art. Last week, we traveled out to the forest of Fontainebleau to take a closer look at the Barbizon School painters who set into motion some major revolutions in art-making practices in the 1840s and 50s by moving out into the "real world" and painting directly from what they experienced there. Today, we're shifting our attention to the generation of artists who followed the Barbizon School in the 1860s, 70s and 80s: the Impressionists. We'll see that these artists were inspired by the shifts in both subject matter and style that the Barbizon School had initiated. Motivated to look to the "real world" rather than staid narratives drawn from Greco-Roman antiquity, the Impressionists became "painters of modern life" and documented the rapidly-changing world around them.
The usual note: the primary venue for this content is the stories feature on my Instagram page. All of the virtual visits will be saved in my story highlights. The purpose of the blog posts is to allow a greater audience (especially those without social media accounts) to benefit from the same content.
With that in mind, let's look at the painters who documented modern life in the 19th century!
That's it for today. Tune back in on Wednesday, when we'll turn our attention to understanding the Impressionists' painting styles and how they were a reaction to the changing place of art in the modern world.