The unique style of the Impressionists caught many in the art community off-guard, especially critics who termed the coin ôimpressionismö as a criticism of the paint which looked like the artists fired it onto the canvas with a pistol due to its blurred nature. Impressionist art is typically unintelligible to the sense at close range and forms, and objects only emerge when the eye puts different strokes together at a distance. As Pioch (2004) explains, ôThe impressionist style of painting is characterized chiefly by concentration on the general impression produced by a scene or object and the use of unmixed primary colors and small strokes to simulate reflected light,ö (1). Such a style is illustrated by one of the masters of impressionism, Claude Monet, in Saint-Lazare Station (1877).
The impressionism of Claude Monet is without peer. Saint-Lazare Station is typical of many of his works, wherein he uses the impressionistic technique to simulate reflected light. The painting is oil on canvas and measures 21 3/8 x 29 inches in size (Monet 2004). The work was painted in 1877, when Monet was at the height of his powers as an impressionist painter and now hangs in the National Gallery in London. When looking at this scene depicting a bustling train station, the effect on the beholder is one of a visual reality that tires to capture the transient effects of light and shadow. The color scheme is simplistic, with Monet primarily relying on darker tones of brown, black, green, blue and white to render the painting. However, there are no sharp images, no distinct figures and no distinct objects in the work. We get a subtle impression of the numerous people waiting to board their train. The trains are blurred in the impressionist style and so, too, are the large billows of smoke that consume most of the painting, adding value contrasts between the dark trains, people, and roof. Even the windows on the roof, perhaps the most ...