Blog #2: “why is impressionism important in (art) history?”

1. Provide three steps for your research with a brief explanation of how this information will lead to addressing your question.
   1. For my question “Why is impressionism important in (art) history? I will begin my three rounds of research by breaking down the main components of this question. This is so that readers will be able to understand the question as a whole after understanding the basic components which create this topic. In addition, this process will help readers come up with their own reasoning and deduction for this specific question as well. The beauty of art is that it is subjective, hence a question like this can be answered in multiple ways not just my interpretation of it.
   2. Firstly, I will begin by explaining the impressionist era, the artists which created it, the artists who kept it running, and the artists who represent the “end” of the era. I chose this aspect of my question for the first round as I want readers to be confident in their idea and definition of what impressionism is and some of the significant events revolving around this era, so the readers are able to confidently come up with their own solutions to the question as opposed to only following mine.
   3. Secondly, I will delve into the famous art pieces of this era, and the political history and meaning behind each piece. Exploring some of the most culturally significant pieces, how they came to be, how they affected history, and they still continue to stay relevant. I chose this aspect because I want readers to be able to visually see the effects of this era both through art and how humans interacted with it. By exploring the relationship between art and humans the readers will be able to understand the effect of the artists we talked about in the previous post and how they were affecting history. This will hopefully pave the way to my next round of research which will allow readers to tie in components of the past with how this era affected the future.
   4. Thirdly, I will research the transformation of the impressionist era to what we know as modern art today. I hope to delve into the effect of impressionism on modern-day art as many may believe that they are total opposites. However, I want readers to be able to view modern art through an impressionist lens and understand that many of the works we see today are an expression of much of the art we see in the past. This round of research will allow readers to tie some of the most important components of art into history and allow readers to build off of my idea of the significance of the impressionist era and come up with their own interpretation of the inquiry question as well.
2. Provide 5 valid sources that might be useful to address the question.
   1. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/imml/hd_imml.htm
   2. https://www.britannica.com/art/Post-Impressionism
   3. https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/200579/fulltext_munholland.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
   4. http://b-humanarthistory.blogspot.com/2012/04/thepolitical-upheavals-and-wars-from.html
   5. https://www.history.com/topics/art-history/impressionism
   6. http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/impressionism-origins-influences.htm
   7. https://mymodernmet.com/what-is-impressionism-definition/
3. Explain how this question will have implications to other individuals and/or my community.
   1. This question will allow readers and those in my community to understand the history and influence that art has on us today. I hope to do this through the visual and literal examples I will use in my research. In addition, I believe that my research will allow readers to create connections between two very different yet connected topics, art and politics. Personally, aside from the academic and cultural takeaways from my research, I also hope that my community will find an interest and take a liking to such a vast topic.

Thank you so much for reading!

Sanam M.