"La Japonaise" Claude Monet
I was an art major in high school and my first year of college. I switched to English Lit graduating with a B.A. as well as extensive study of music history and art history. I once wrote an essay on the Impressionist period and the manner in which the music, poetry and art overlapped and reflected one another.
"Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe" Edouard Manet
The Impressionist movement was a rejection of the Romantic movement which emphasized emotion, nationalism, mythology. Impressionist art was all about the play of light and movement on the subject matter; the way a picture would look with a fleeting glance. It was the opposite of realism. Impressionist music also rejected the complete story of the Romantic era music, emphasizing emotion through dissonance rather than major or minor chords. Debussy and Ravel are the most famous but I prefer Erik Satie. Listen to his "Lt Kije". It's incredible. Familiar impressionist writers include Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf and Rainer Maria Rilke who is enjoying a resurgence in popularity right now. I've already read some very fine TT posts, poetic and photographic impressions and the like. Find them here.
