I personally find Impressionism and Post-Impressionism art to be absolutely fascinating. The visual effects of the paintings catch your attention and seem to make the work more alive and invoke emotions. The art work was like nothing that had been seen before and at first was widely criticized. Some critics said the paintings were incomplete, merely “impressions” of a scene. Not only was the subject matter of the impressionism paintings very different from previous periods the techniques and colors were totally new and innovative. Impressionism was eventually embraced and became the foundation for modern art.
A great artist from the Impressionism Era was Vincent Van Gogh. His work embraced the new techniques of Impressionism and he chose to use colors to depict scenes rather than painting realistic detailed scenes. When compared to a painting from the Rocco Era we can see the vast difference in them. I have chosen to compare Van Gogh’s A Starry Night Over the Rhone to a painting by Thomas Gainsborough titled Sunset: Carthorses Drinking at a Stream.
Van Gogh painted A Starry Night Over the Rhone in 1888 while living in the South of France. At the time he lived in a rented apartment that overlooked the Rhone River. The painting is oil on canvas and is approximately 72.5 x 92 cm.
Gainsborough painted Sunset: Carthorses Drinking at a Stream over 100 years earlier in 1760. He painted this picture soon after he moved to the spa town of Bath, England. The painting is oil on canvas and is approximately 135 x 1537 mm.
A Starry Night Over The Rhone Sunset: Carthorses Drinking at a Stream
Vincent Van Gogh Thomas Gainsborough
Balance:
Impressionist painters painted more asymmetrical compositions while the Rococo painters painted a more balanced symmetrical picture. We can see in Van Gogh’s painting it is a little off balanced with the placement of the people in the right foreground. The people are not the focus of the painting; rather it is the effects of the lights from the stars and gaslights that is the focus. In Gainsborough’s painting the people and their wagon are the focus of the picture, they are almost framed by the circular design of the trees around them. You can also see how he uses the trees on each side of the painting to keep it balanced.
Colors:
Impressionism painters used colors to add shadows and shading in their paintings. They also used pure colors; they didn’t mix their colors to achieve different hues they simply applied the color directly to the canvas to be fused together by the viewer’s eyes. This effect created the illusion of flickering or intense light. In Rococo paintings colors were used more traditionally. They mixed their colors to create different hues and used dark neutral colors to create shadows and shading in their pictures. In Van Gogh’s A Starry Night Over the Rhone you can see how his colors are simply applied side by side to create the illusion of light shining out over the water. The picture almost looks and feels like it is moving, as if the lights are dancing on the water. Van Gogh also relies on many shades of colors to create the effect of shadows and shades in his picture. In Gainsborough’s Sunset: Carthorses Drinking at a Stream we see his more traditional use of colors. He has mixed his paints to create different hues and the painting appears still and motionless.
Painting Technique:
Impressionist painters employed a new technique of painting. They applied the paint in mosaic like pieces which is termed broken brushstrokes. The effect of this is a sense of movement and depth. The Rococo painters tended to paint very detailed work that left nothing for the mind to put together. While their paintings were beautiful they were very one dimensional. We can see in the Gainsborough painting that his work is a highly finished piece of art but is totally one dimensional and. Van Gogh’s painting while not the polished work that Gainsborough completed it appears to move and feels three dimensional.
From these two paintings we can see how art has changed and transformed over a period of time. But change and transformation can happen over a short time whithin the scope of one artists work.From Van Gogh’s A Starry Night Over the Rhone to his Starry Night we can see how his painting was evolving and his work was using more imaginative freedom. Less then a year seperated these paintings with Starry Night being painted in June 1889.Van Gogh painted Starry Night while in a sanitorium in Saint Remy in southern France. it is oil on canvas and is approximately 73.7 x 92.1 cm.
Starry Night
Van Gogh
In Starry Night we can see more abstact patterns in his work. There is also more feeling and more movement that has been developed with his techniques and use of colors. As you have probably guessed I am a Van Gogh fan. I truly enjoy his work and am impressed at how he continued to evolve his art even when he was in the midst of mental chaos.
Photo Credit:
http://www.vggallery.com/painting/p_0474.htm
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gainsborough-sunset-carthorses-drinking-at-a-stream-n00310
http://www.vangoghgallery.com/catalog/Painting/508/Starry-Night.html
References:
Perkins, Diane. Thomas Gainsborough. TATE July 2001 WEB 21 March 2014
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gainsborough-sunset-carthorses-drinking-at-a-stream-n00310/text-summary
Characteristics of American Impressionism. On-Line Learning The Fox Chase WEB 22 March 2014
http://www.flogris.org/learning/foxchase/html/about_impressionism.php
Vincent Van Gogh: Starry Night. Van Gogh Gallery 2013 WEB 22 March 2014
http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/starry-night.html
Shabi, K. Meaning and Analysis: Starry Night Over the Rhone. Legomenon June 2013 WEB 19 March 2014
http://legomenon.com/meaning-analysis-starry-night-over-the-rhone-van-gogh.html
jhmtodd 
I love how you put the pictures side by side for comparison; my mouth about dropped at first actually. The colors are so contrasting on these pieces. I didn’t think about how much pure colors would look when compared to mixed colors. 100 years can make a huge difference in artwork. Great thoughts!
In The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, the sky appears to be moving which reminds me of T.S. Elliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” where he describes the yellow smoke giving it cat-like characteristics. The painting is riddled with swirls that captivate the essence of light projected from the night sky, floating and moving above the homes that are nestled below. While the world goes to sleep, the earth does not rest, building and constructing a wondrous masterpiece for those insomniacs to appreciate.
Reading Vincent van Gogh’s (1853-1890) life as a Dutch painter (considered a post-Impressionist) really is inspiring and devastating at the same time. Although, in his early years he worked for a firm of art dealers and traveled between London and Paris, he actually aspired to become a pastor and worked as a missionary in Belgium where he painted his first work, The Potato Eaters. It is stated that Van Gogh suffered from extreme mental illness and that his paintings are a reflection of his mental instability.
He died at a young age (37) and it is speculated that the gunshot wound that ended his life was self-inflicted; however, no gun was ever found. During his short lived life he completed more than 2100 works.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh
Viewing his artistry there is no doubt that Van Gogh was absolutely extraordinary!
I really enjoyed reading your blog! The comparison between Impressionism and Rococo is in depth and I especially liked how you broke down each element of the paintings and compared/contrast. Placing the pictures side by side really benefitted your stance and allowed the reader to see things from your perspective. Although I love deep dark blended colors such as Gainsborough’s painting, I also adore the Impressionist style.
Thank you for sharing! =)
Isn’t it funny how newer art styles such as impressionism can look so simplistic compared to older art styles? Now, don’t get my wrong, impressionism is one of my absolute favorite styles, and, like many others, I love Van Gogh. However, I always think about how art evolved, or rather, devolved in certain ways. Impressionism lets the viewer mix the images in his/her own mind, trying to make sense of the shifting colors. Your comparison with a later work was spot on, the ways that their artistic styles differed. I especially enjoyed how you mentioned that impressionist painters generally made use of pure colors, while Rocco painters tended to do everything in their power to make the scene look at realistic as possible. Why do you think Van Gogh started painting in his style? Did he want people to form their own ideas about his paintings? Or did he want the painting to be a mystery, so that people could try and discern the meaning behind the painting that HE saw, but wanted others to discover?
I personally love Rococo art in comparison with Impressionism. I actually compared the two styles in part of my own blog as well. Curious why did you choose that particular Rococo painting? The only reason I ask is I was surprised it was from that era. Most of the paintings I had seen were a bit lighter in palette. I do like the Starry Night Over the Rhone. The movement of the water in this picture is very similar in my opinion to the movement of the sky in Van Gogh’s later Starry Night. It helped me understand the application of color a lot better. Positioning the pictures right next to each other was a smart idea. It really helped develop the differences looking at them so close together. I have found that many artists stuck to what they knew; for example Claude Monet was the first to have a painting known as an impression. He continued to maintain that specific style throughout his artistic career. For that reason I like that you focused on Van Gogh. He made an exceptional shift into the Abstract style. I feel that Starry Night is a pleasant combination of both styles.