Impressionism is a detailed form of painting showing the effects of light and shadow on people and objects. Impressionist painters often portray real life themes in their paintings. "Nearly all the Impressionist artists painted people hurrying through busy streets and enjoying their leisure time on the boulevard, at the racetrack, in café-concerts, shops, restaurants, and parks" (16 Sep 2003 www.impressionism.org) Impressionist paintings often show the effect of people in their normal environment, instead of staged or forced settings. They often show people in the middle of a task such as playing an instrument or kneading dough. Many impressionist paintings have a style of rapid brushstrokes because these paintings are often made outside. The artist needs to work fast to capture the scene before the weather changes or the light moves. Impressionists paint their pictures with a lot of color and most of their pictures are outdoor scenes. Their pictures are very bright and vibrant. Impressionist artists like to capture their images without detail but with bold colors.
"L'Homme au balcon" by Gustave Caillebotte is an impressionist painting from 1880. The painting, which is of a man standing on a balcony, overlooking a street in Paris, has fast, almost sloppy, brushstrokes in vivid colors, making the scene almost too colorful to be real. However, this is a common trait among impressionist paintings. Impressionist artists often used overly bright or vivid colors to emphasize the "impression" or feeling of the scene. We can see sunlight coming from the right side of the picture and the effects of it on the mans jacket, the jacket is lighter on his back which is facing the right side of the picture and darker on the front which is facing toward the left side of the picture. This again is a feature common in impressionist works. The use of light and shadow on people and objects to convey a certain impression or feeling can be found in many impressionist paintings including this one.
