Art 102 Impressionist Style Page 1 of 4
Characteristics of Impressionist Style
Impressionism is a style of painting which, with paint on canvas, reproduces the optical effects
of light and color.
The properties of color that the Impressionist artists employed in their paintings are explained in
the Starter Kit at the beginning of your textbook. Look for the use of primary, secondary and
complementary colors.
See also, this excellent website on color: http://www.worqx.com/color/index.htm. On the left
side of the screen, click on Color Wheels and Complementary Colors. Explore the rest of the
web site at your leisure.
Other color properties that play a part in the Impressionist style are complementary contrast and
simultaneous contrast.
Techniques of Impressionist painters include the divisionist technique, optical mixing and the
visible brush stroke.
Some of the properties of color that the Impressionist artists employed in their paintings are:
• Primary Colors—red, yellow and blue. Theoretically, primary colors cannot be created
by mixing any other hues.
• Secondary Colors—orange, green and violet, made by a mixture of two primary colors.
• Complementary Colors—a primary color and the secondary color made from the two
remaining primaries, for example, blue and orange.
• Complementary Contrast—When placed side-by-side, complementary colors enhance
the brilliance of each other.
• Simultaneous Contrast— a flickering effect that occurs when complementary colors are
juxtaposed, because one of the complementary colors is warm and the other is cool. The
warm color advances in the visual field, and the cool color recedes. As the eye adjusts to
the contrast in advancing and receding colors, a flickering effect is created.
• Negative After-Images— After-images may be at work in some Impressionist paintings,
enhancing the colors. Go back to this excellent website for an explanation of how after-
images work: http://www.worqx.com/color/after_image.htm.
A 20th century American artist, Jasper Johns, used this phenomenon in his painting, Flags.
Scroll to the next page to see the painting.
Stare at the white dot in the center of the green, black and orange flag for several
seconds, then look at the black dot in the pale flag below it. Theoretically you should see
the flag in its complementary colors—red, white and blue.
