IMPRESSIONISTS : THE BRIDGE BETWEEN THE PAST AND THE FUTURE One critic described Impressionist painting as tak[ing] a piece of canvas, colour and brush, daub[ing]a few patches of paint on it at random, and sign the whole thing with their name. Manet, although never truly an Impressionist by style, he led artists including Monet, Degas, Renoir, Pisarro, Sisley and Cezanne, in a new artistic direction. This young group of artists, who had no real connection to each other until one critic lumped them together as Impressionists, banded in a time when their country was in turmoil and would leave the world the greatest collection of artwork. Through times of favour and denunciation, friendship and animosity, the pastiche of artists were both a culmination of a an art period and a bridge to the next artistic discovery. The France that most of the Impressionist artists were born into had experienced a recent history...as dramatic and changeable as the era the painters were about to live through (The Impressionists Handbook 12). By 1851 Emperor Napoleon III was firmly entrenched as a ruler of France. As a sign of his power, Napoleon III began his reign with press subjugation and a political assimilation. In juxtaposition to this harshness, he was also regulating bread prices and endorsing industrial and commercial growth in France in order for the country to follow the rest of Europe into the Industrial Revolution. Although traipsing behind most of the other surrounding countries, Napoleon III brought the development of banking institutions, railways and factories (Handbook 13) into France. Along with this new industrial growth came many sacrifices and gains for the people. With the steam engine and new modes of transportation, the power to work faster increased yet along with that increase the work day grew longer as well; as long as sixteen hours a day with very #little personal time. Products were revolutioni...
