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Impressionism Painting

Impressionism, a movement in painting that developed in late-19th-century France in reaction to the formalism and sentimentality of academic art. Impressionism painting arose out of dissatisfaction with the classical subjects and painting techniques of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, which set French art standards. Rejecting these standards, impressionists painted outside, choosing landscapes, street scenes, and figures from everyday life. Impressionists were concerned more with the effects of light on an object than with exact depiction of form. Using short brushstrokes, they juxtaposed primary and complementary colors, which blended in brilliant hues and luminous tones when viewed from a distance.

Édouard Manet, sometimes called the first impressionist, demonstrated that light could be shown in painting by juxtaposing bright, contrasting colors, rather than by shading with intermediary tones. The various impressionists developed individual styles but, as a group, benefited from their common experiments in color. Claude Monet painted many series of studies, each done at different times of the day and in different seasons. Camille Pissarro used a subdued palette and concentrated equally on the effects of light and on the structure of forms. Edgar Degas caught the fleeting moment, especially in ballet and horse-racing scenes. Pierre Auguste Renoir preferred to paint the female form. Berthe Morisot painted subtle landscapes that gained strength from brushwork rather than color.

French impressionism influenced artists throughout the world, including Americans J. M. Whistler, Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, Willard Metcalf, John Twactman, Child Hassam and Englishman Walter Sickert, Italian Giovanni Segantini, and Spaniard Joaquín Sorolla and Richard Earl Thompson. Impressionism also affected the development of painting. Painters who began as impressionists created other techniques that started new movements in art, including pointillism, postimpressionism, cubism, expressionism digressing to modernism.

In 1986, the deservedly popular Impressionist exhibition title, "The New Painting: Impressionism, 1874-1886" stimulated curiosity about artists who have continued this art form. Richard Earl Thompson (1914-1991) was one of these artists. A dedicated Impressionist, he devoted a lifetime of effort to capturing the quality of nature's light on canvas for all to see and enjoy. Challenged by questions and statements such as, "Impressionism today? Who needs it? It's been done," dedicated painters such as Richard Earl Thompson could and did answer, "We all do."

Always a favorite with the public, "fresh-air" painting with its loose brushwork, pleasing images, and particularly, the sparkling light quality which is inherent in the best of the past works, is equally pleasurable when found in the best of contemporary work. Richard Earl Thompson strengthened and modified through personal expression these tenets of Impressionism. Using pigment available today which the early Impressionists lacked, he achieved even greater variations of light and color - exuberant color - which in the hands of this gifted artist inspired masterful works.

The current resurgence of interest in Impressionism, following years of erroneously being referred to all too frequently as just another "pretty picture," is welcome. This fine art, when painted with consummate skill, marked by dedication to color and form is once again receiving recognition. Requiring no text to explain the art and being free from politics, Richard Earl Thompson's canvases reveal the beauty and truth or our world as seen through the eyes of an accomplished 20th century painter. History has been recorded in an individualistic manner for future generations.

A multiplicity of art forms make up our heritage; no one form invalidates another, but the components of skillful compositions, fine draftsmanship, a sure knowledge of and inspired use of color, showing clearly the painstaking training in the fundamentals marks the work of Richard Earl Thompson. A serious and competent painter, his large body of work illustrates the technical growth and development of his own style. in the Impressionistic manner.

Growth in the field of Impressionism did not end with the eighth Impressionist group show, and with the widely disseminated knowledge available to the general public today, quality is readily apparent which explains why there has always been an enthusiastic audience for the work of Richard Earl Thompson. His ability to capture the color of things as the sun changes and "recreates" them makes his powerful and pleasing canvases a life affirming refreshment to the senses and a continuation of the work begun by those innovative and courageous 19th century painters revered by the world today.