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Feel ―Impressionnisme de France‖
By Huang Jialiang
PKU NEWS 2004—11--27
http://ennews.pku.edu.cn/news.php?s=101956358
Peking University, Beijing, Nov. 27th, 2004: ―Close to Europe‖—lectures on European
humanism has come to its fourth station—Impressionism in France. Today‘s host is
deputy professor from the French department, School of Foreign Language, Dong
Qiang. Prof. Dong is specialized in French literature and art, especially
impressionism. He keeps frequent contact with impressionists home and abroad.
At the beginning of the lecture, Prof. Dong says it is really a coincidence that the
ongoing French Impressionism Exhibition in Beijing is going to reach its ending
tonight at nine o‘clock which is the time when this lecture is to end. Appreciating
impressionism works requires a well knowledge of the school of art. He hopes that
his lecture will help the audience to understand the world-famous style of art well,
though we all have to wait until next exhibition comes.
Prof. Dong introduces that since there is no specific creeds of impressionism, the
origin of the impressionism is the eight exhibitions of significance held continually
from 1874 to 1886. And the main impressionists did their work either in Paris or
around Paris plus the northeastern Normandy. And in Paris, they mostly stayed in
the north of the Seine and never went to the Latin district. Prof. Dong shows
representative works by some famous impressionists such as Claude Monet,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, etc.
Impressionism is the most important school of art at the end of the 19th century. The
impressionists have done a huge amount of work on the exploration of new themes
and painting techniques different from the traditional ones formed and becoming
popular from renaissance, Prof. Dong says. It can be seen as the revolution in the
formality, which leads painting to the innovation, and then brings about the
modernism and abstractionism. Without the function of impressionism, it would be
hard for the western painting to transfer into the modern era. Briefly speaking,
impressionism can be regarded as a process of transition from tradition to modernity.
Prof. Dong says that impressionism is the most important school of painting during
the period when the European society was converting from a traditional to a modern
one, from the agricultural one to an industrial one. It has broken the conventional
method in western painting, which emphasizes clairvoyance and individual lines, but
paid much attention to the connection between man and the surrounding
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