The Impressionists: Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gaugin, Toulouse-Lautrec
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The Impressionists: Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gaugin, Toulouse-Lautrec
This epic documentary does a wonderful job of recapturing the revolutionary impact the impressionists made while providing a historical and artistic context for this extraordinary group of painters. The work of Monet, Degas, Morisot, and their fellow impressionists has now become so familiar that its power to shock has all but disappeared.
Young and resolutely modern, these artists threw off the shackles of academic art to capture everyday life in paintings that were iconoclastic in both style and subject. At first they struggled to survive because their work was rejected by the conservative Paris Salon, but those with independent means helped those without (Monet in particular was frequently rescued from poverty by his friends), and gradually they became impossible to ignore. Bruce Alfred’s script thoroughly explains the development of the impressionists’ approach to art and reveals fascinating aspects of their individual personalities, while a combination of dramatic reconstructions, period photographs, and the paintings themselves creates a rich and informative visual tapestry. Anyone with an interest in the history of art will find much to enjoy. –Simon Leake
Customer Review: Fleeting Impressions, Eternal Beauty
The Impressionists: The Other French Revolution, a two-DVD set, introduces viewers to one of the most influential schools in the history of visual arts: The French Impressionists / Pointillists of the 19th century. Art scholars chronicle the life, historical context, and the most celebrated works of artists such as:
1) Edgar Degas
2) Edouard Manet
3) Claude Monet
4) Berthe Morisot
5) Camille Pissaro
6) Pierre Auguste Renoir
7) George Seurat
Alfred Sisley
What is remarkable in reviewing these names is to (re)discover how much artistic talent was present in France, especially in Paris, in the second-half of the 19th century.
To their credit, art scholars clearly explain the early struggles of the French Impressionists to overcome the artistic conservatism of the state-run Acad?mie. The annual juried art show, the Salon de Paris, was the embodiment of the Acad?mie’s reluctance to embrace change. In the end, the Acad?mie was no match to stop the eventual triumph of these engaged painters who broke many rules in revolutionizing painting techniques and subjects. The on-location photography in France gives viewers a better appreciation of the surroundings that were familiar to these artists. For all its merits, The Impressionists DVD-set cannot be a substitute for standing in front of these masterpieces that assure their authors a place in the artistic pantheon of humanity.
Customer Review: luminous paintings elegant music
Not only are the paintings themselves almost better than the original (just kidding, kinda) due to the luminosity imposed by the screen, the lovely score is transporting. This set places the Impressionists in a historical framework (though I didn’t hear mention of Monet’s studio being usurped as military storage during the war and his paintings used as linoleum-don’t know if this is true or not, but had heard it before.)
I was rather shocked that Monet got his friend and benefactor’s wife pregnant and had the audacity to move her and the baby in with himself and his wife. Monet’s wife got ill and died several years later, no doubt stressed out by the situation. Then Monet paints her dead.
This dvd really hits home how you may appreciate someone’s work, but not necessarily who they are as human beings.
