READING SECTION
The artistic movement known as Impressionism was first identified in 1874 when a group of artists, dissatisfied with the reception of their works by the academic art establishment of their period, chose to hold a separate exhibition of their paintings.
Despite obvious differences in style, all of these painters were connected by an ability to catch a moment and preserve it on canvas, and in their belief in the importance of that moment. They readily accepted and made use of the technological advances available to them, and in the end became recognized as proponents of one of the most significant movements in the history of art, a movement that produced an aesthetic revolution in art.
Several technological breakthroughs were responsible, to some degree, for the creation and execution of the new Impressionist style. One of these was the invention of a new brush that gave artists greater control. Another useful invention was the collapsible tin tube. This easily reclosed container preserved the oil paint in a stable condition without altering the color. Line 15 It was a great improvement over animal bladders, which had been used for centuries to hold oil paint. The new tube was portable and made it possible for artists to work outside. This freedom made it possible for Impressionist paintings to “capture the moment,” giving them a feeling of immediacy.
Another innovation was color. Nineteenth-century chemists had created a new palette of colors, derived from cola tar and other substances. These were first used by textile manufacturers and then adopted by artists. They included some of the brighter colors -new shades of blue, green, and yellow, whose tones gave the Impressionist paintings their characteristic shimmering quality.
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