Art 102
Impressionist Style
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Characteristics of Impressionist Style
Impressionism is a style of painting which, with paint on canvas, reproduces the optical effects
of light and color.
The properties of color that the Impressionist artists employed in their paintings are explained in
the Starter Kit at the beginning of your textbook. Look for the use of primary, secondary and
complementary colors.
See also, this excellent website on color: http://www.worqx.com/color/index.htm. On the left
side of the screen, click on Color Wheels and Complementary Colors. Explore the rest of the
web site at your leisure.
Other color properties that play a part in the Impressionist style are complementary contrast and
simultaneous contrast.
Techniques of Impressionist painters include the divisionist technique, optical mixing and the
visible brush stroke.
Some of the properties of color that the Impressionist artists employed in their paintings are:
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Primary Colors—red, yellow and blue. Theoretically, primary colors cannot be created
by mixing any other hues.
Secondary Colors—orange, green and violet, made by a mixture of two primary colors.
Complementary Colors—a primary color and the secondary color made from the two
remaining primaries, for example, blue and orange.
Complementary Contrast—When placed side-by-side, complementary colors enhance
the brilliance of each other.
Simultaneous Contrast— a flickering effect that occurs when complementary colors are
juxtaposed, because one of the complementary colors is warm and the other is cool. The
warm color advances in the visual field, and the cool color recedes. As the eye adjusts to
the contrast in advancing and receding colors, a flickering effect is created.
Negative After-Images— After-images may be at work in some Impressionist paintings,
enhancing the colors. Go back to this excellent website for an explanation of how afterimages work: http://www.worqx.com/color/after_image.htm.
A 20th century American artist, Jasper Johns, used this phenomenon in his painting, Flags.
Scroll to the next page to see the painting.
Stare at the white dot in the center of the green, black and orange flag for several
seconds, then look at the black dot in the pale flag below it. Theoretically you should see
the flag in its complementary colors—red, white and blue.
Art 102
Flags, 1968
Jasper Johns (American, born 1930)
Lithograph with stamps; 34 x 25 in. (86.4 x
63.5 cm)
Impressionist Style
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Art 102
Impressionist Style
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Techniques of Impressionist Painters
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Divisionist Technique—The Impressionists applied pure pigment to the canvas in little
daubs. Seen from a distance, the colors appear to flow together. For example, blue and
yellow placed side-by-side will appear to be green. This visual effect is called Optical
Mixing, and produces a more brilliant color than can be achieved by mixing the paint on
the palette.
Visible Brush Stroke—The divisionist technique resulted in a visible brush stroke. This
led to an appreciation of the brush stroke as an aesthetic element in painting.
One variation of the divisionist technique is Pointillism. In the paintings of Georges Seurat, the
paint is applied, rather mechanically, in tiny dots.
Below is the painting, Model from the Back with a close-up view showing the pointillist
application of paint. Model from the Back, 1887
Georges Seurat
All images by permission of ARTstor.
Art 102
Impressionist Style
Terminology
primary, secondary and complementary colors
complementary contrast
simultaneous contrast
negative after-images
divisionist technique
pointillism
optical mixing
visible brush stroke
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