Four Creativity Lessons From the Impressionists

(“Manet: Luncheon on the Grass”; courtesy of Schumata)

“Impressionism” is an art movement which began in Paris in the 19th century. The Impressionists ignited a revolution with their use of color and movement.  Their style perplexed critics, created scandal, and ushered in modern art. They broke the rules of academic painting and concentrated on relaying the immediate visual effect of the world around them. Below you will find four creativity lessons from the Impressionists.

Be Bold and Be Immune to Scandal

The Salon of the Académie de Beaux-Arts (held in the Palais de l’Industrie after 1855) was held in early Spring and opened the Parisian season.  Painters dreamed of being selected to hang their paintings at the Salon.  In 1863 Edouard Manet’s “Luncheon on the Grass” (Le déjeuner sur l’herbe) was rejected by the Salon.  He therefore exhibited his painting elsewhere, at the Salon des Refusés, where it became the principal attraction, generating lots of scandal.

Although nude women were a popular theme at the time, the painting was shocking because the men in the painting were fully clothed.  The presence of a nude woman among clothed men–and men dressed in the bourgeois style of the day–was justified neither by mythological nor allegorical precedents.  This rendered the strange scene obscene in the eyes of the public of the day, where painters were expected to copy the works of the old masters.

Manet’s style and treatment were considered as shocking as the subject itself.  He introduced two important innovations: he made no transition between the light and dark elements of the picture, and he deliberately excluded both depth and perspective, thus rejecting the photographic illusion which was so popular at the time.  In this painting Manet was manifesting his refusal to conform to convention and his initiation of a new freedom from traditional subjects and modes of representation.  Another scandalous painting by Manet soon followed: Olympia.  Manet’s work can be seen as the departure point for modern art.

Create a Signature Style

Claude Monet–whose painting “Impression, Sunrise” led the critic Louis Leroy to coin the term “The Impressionists” to refer to Monet and his circle of painter friends–conceived the idea of creating various series of paintings to represent movement and different moments in the same scene.  Each scene changed and altered depending on the time of day, the weather, and the season.  He used this technique in his Rouen Cathedral series, “Poplars”, views of the “Thames” in London, as well as in his famous Waterlilies series.  Another of his series is entitled “Haystacks”, where the primary subject of all of the paintings in the series are stacks of hay stacked in the field after the harvest season.

In her blog post “Modish Marketing: Finding your Niche, Part 2″, which I found through “One Pretty Thing”, blogger Jena Coray writes about artists and crafters who have found the one thing that really works for them and have narrowed it down to a very specific niche which they have become known for. I consider this to be a modern application of Monet’s series of paintings. Some examples she uses are:

• “Trixiedelicious” creates vintage plates with snarky text on it.

• “Rachel Austin” creates map paintings that are instantly recognizable.

Go Out Into the World and Record What You See

Though some would classify Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec as a post-Impressionist, he shared many of the same interests as the traditional Impressionists. Toulouse-Lautrec descended from the Counts of Toulouse, a family which had once been as powerful as the kings of France.  Unfortunately, as a boy he fell twice, once breaking his left leg and the second time, just one year later, breaking his right leg.  Due to an inherited genetic disease–his parents were first cousins–he had brittle bones and the bones in his legs did not knit together properly after his accidents. He was left a cripple.

Despite his deformity, Toulouse-Lautrec loved the Parisian nightlife, and he frequented the Moulin Rouge and other cabarets, the theatre, cafes–such as the Cafe de Divan Japonais–, race-meetings, and the circus. Toulouse-Lautrec was particularly drawn to Montmartre, an area of Paris famous for its bohemian lifestyle and for being the haunt of artists, philosophers, and writers.  He was an ardent observer of the contemporary scene and he was one of the foremost chroniclers of the Parisian life at the turn of the 19th century (fin de siècle).  He once said: “I paint things as they are. I don’t comment. I record.”

Follow Your Bliss, Even if it Means Changing Careers Mid-Life

Henri Paul Gauguin is another painter who is often grouped with the Impressionists but is categorized by some as a Post-Impressionist. He began his career as a stockbroker in Paris in 1872 and worked at this career conscientiously for ten years. Gauguin met the Impressionist Camille Pissarro in about 1875 and began to study under the supportive older artist. Painting was one of his hobbies.  However, in 1883 he suddenly resigned from his job and announced to his family that he would devote himself full time to being a painter. His wife left him, taking his children with her, and the period that ensued was difficult for Gauguin.

After some wandering around–including a brief stay in Panama–he arrived in Tahiti, French Polynesia. His subject matter became idealized everyday life, as depicted in the Polynesian tales which he heard or read. He employed Tahitian titles, such as Fatata Te Miti (1892; “Near the Sea”) and Manao Tupapau (1892; “The Spirit of the Dead Watching”) for his paintings. His work was characterized by exaggerated body proportions, bold colors, animal totems, geometric designs and stark contrasts. He had found his true calling. To quote Gauguin:

“Life is merely a fraction of a second.
An infinitely small amount of time to fulfill
our desires, our dreams, our passions.”

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