Impressionism and Psychology

In this class we have labeled Impressionism an “aesthetic revolution” in the history of art, but this time period, roughly 1860-1900, was a time of revolutions in other disciplines as well. One of these areas was psychology. Like art, psychology has existed in some form or another for much of human history, but underwent a dramatic change during the latter half of the 19th Century. During this time, psychology was transformed from a mostly theoretical and philosophical discipline to an empirical one with the first ever psychology lab established in Germany by Wundt in 1879. Thus, both art and psychology became what we consider “modern.” In addition, it appears that the two disciplines consciously intersect in Impressionist paintings more than ever before.

In Smith’s Impressionism Beneath the Surface , he relates how some have tried to interpret Impressionism by retroactively psychoanalyzing the artists. However, the artists themselves also made use of psychology in ways that proactively affect us today (which is kind of trippy when you think about it that way). For example, in the “Flaneur” chapter, Smith shows how Manet used his “philosophical” side (actually his psychological side) to reflect on attitudes towards women and is actually able to make the viewer feel uncomfortable and like an intruder with his paintings of nude women. Artists that used this flaneur perspective would even use pamphlets of “physiologies” that attempted to classify social types. The Impressionist painters were also openly influenced by contemporary ideas of perception, which is a very important field of study in psychology. Although we now know that theories such about “color patches” are completely untrue, it shows that they recognized that “true vision” is a myth and that perception is subjective. It is this recognition of the subjectivity of perception that in my opinion makes Impressionist painting so powerful, because it allows the viewer to experience a different person’s view of the world while at the same time reinforcing shared experiences, such as the wonder of watching the effects of light on environments.