French Impressionsim: Artistic Processes and Their Associated Meanings

FAIN: FT-12400-75

Richard A. Shiff
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC 27599-1350)

To define the relation between the artistic techniques and conventions of the "impressionist" style in late 19th century French art and the meanings which those techniques and conventions conveyed. To explore the following aspects of this issue: (1) the relation of the viewer's own philosophical bias to his response to a technical detail having multiple connotations; (2) the historical sources for and development of the link between a technical process and its various potential meanings; (3) the artist's own stylistic development as a reflection of his emphasizing one type of meaning as opposed to another by means of technical choices; (4) the general influence of concepts valued by a culture upon the development of artistic techniques.