The first step of this unit will be to teach my student what Impressionism and Post–Impressionism mean, and how the artists convey their message to the audience. When the Impressionist theory is clear and they know how to read and analyze an Impressionist painting, they will begin to understand Roger Fry's argument and how his belief has affected Virginia Woolf's writing style.
The Impressionists believe that one object can be seen in many different ways according to where it is situated and to what other objects appear next to it. They state that "a mutual interaction takes place between" the object which is the focus of the painting and the viewer. The artist's responsibility is to paint this object in a way that its quality appears. In order to do that, the artist uses a combination of colors and light which help convey very specific visual sensations. This belief has led the impressionist artists to aim at a "new unity of color harmony in their pictures" as it exists in nature.
1
At the same time, the first characteristic of this new style in painting is also characterized by short brush strokes of bright colors and fewer specific details or ornaments. The initial reaction to these paintings is one of a great surprise and even of rejection because of the intense colors and the unusual ways of interpreting and representing nature or a human figure. They paint a picture from a single focus or fixed point that is what the artist calls center of interest. Because of this fixed focus, the surrounding images are blurred. At the same time, these blurred surrounding are not meaningless because they represent the artist's impressions on his canvas. "If the artist is painting a portrait, he keeps the face in focus and only represents the vague and generalized impressions" he perceives.
2
The goal of the Impressionist painters, according to Christopher Reed, is the truth, but this truth is the truth that the artist perceives.
Post–Impressionism does not differ so much from the Impressionism from which it has developed. The Post–Impressionists are still interested in analyzing the play of colors, light, and shade, but they are less concerned with the recording of impressions, colors, and light. They are interested in discovering and exploring the emotional significance which lies in things. This belief has brought the artist to an oversimplification of nature with the consequence that the details are completely ignored. In fact, some of the most important paintings by Cezanne and Monet seem masterpieces of primitive art. The design is of an astonishing geometrical simplicity to give space to the emotions perceived by the painter and conveyed through the wildest and strangest images.
3
