History of Western Art ③ – From Impressionism to Cubism

Capturing the Moment of Light — Impressionism

In the late 19th century, artists emerged who rebelled against the normative painting styles of Classicism and Realism. They sought to transform the canvas not into a showcase for emotions and ideologies, but into a sensory space for capturing moments of light and colour. This marked the beginning of Impressionism.

Through works such as Impression, Sunrise and his Water Lilies series, Claude Monet depicted the flickering of objects existing within the shifting light, rather than fixed forms. He viewed nature as a ‘sensation observed in time’ and believed that painting should capture that fleeting impression.

Edgar Degas visualised the private moments of city dwellers by capturing dancers and women bathing in snapshot-like forms, Pierre-Auguste Renoir expressed the vitality and warmth of groups of people bathed in sunlight at venues such as the Moulin de la Galette.

Reconstructing Form and the Inner Self — Post-Impressionism

The sensory focus of Impressionism heralded the formal deconstruction of painting. However, some artists went beyond the mere depiction of sensory impressions to attempt a new form of painting that reflected form, structure and inner psychology. These artists are classified as Post-Impressionists.

Paul Cézanne analysed the structure of nature—as seen in works such as Mont Sainte-Victoire and A Basket of Apples—through colour fields and geometry, declaring that “all of nature can be reduced to cylinders, spheres and cones”. This would later form the basis for Cubism and abstract art.

Vincent van Gogh revealed his inner emotions and anguish through intense colours and swirling brushstrokes in works such as *The Starry Night*, *Sunflowers* and *Self-Portrait*. This demonstrates how painting can be an expression not only of the external world but also of the inner world. In works such as *Where Do We Come From?* and *Tahitian Women*, Paul Gauguin experimented with critiques of civilisation, primitivism and symbolic imagery, expanding painting into a realm of philosophy and mythology.

Breaking Form and Deconstructing Perspective — Cubism

In the early 20th century, Cubism directly challenged the traditional conventions of perspective, linear perspective and contour lines in painting. The artists adopted a method of depicting subjects by breaking them down into simultaneous viewpoints and structures, rather than from a single fixed perspective.

Pablo Picasso showcased geometric fragmentation, the influence of African sculpture and the deconstruction of perspective in *Les Demoiselles d’Avignon*, a work hailed as a revolution in painting. Georges Braque realised a parallel unfolding of visual space through the fragmentation of colour and form in works such as *Mandolin and Bottle* and *Painter at His Easel*.

Cubism gradually evolved from Analytical Cubism (the decomposition of objects) to Synthetic Cubism (the recombination of fragments), transforming painting into a visual language.

Formless Harmony — The Birth of Abstract Art

Another trend emerging from Cubism was the birth of pure abstract painting. This evolved into an art form that no longer depicted any specific subject, but instead used line and colour themselves as an autonomous language.

Wassily Kandinsky explored the correspondence between musical rhythm and emotional colour in works such as Improvisation No. 31 and Composition VIII. He stated that “art is the external expression of an inner resonance”, defining abstract painting as the language of the soul.

Piet Mondrian constructed a restrained formal world consisting solely of vertical and horizontal lines and the three primary colours through his series of compositions in red, blue and yellow. His paintings were regarded as theosophical compositions embodying the order of the universe and spiritual balance.