Impression, Sunrise - Discovering Monet

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Although it seems that the sun is the brightest spot on the canvas, it is in fact, when measured with a photometer, the same brightness (or luminance) as the sky.

Dr. Margaret Livingstone, a professor of neurobiology at Harvard University, said "If you make a black and white copy of Impression: Sunrise, the Sun disappears [almost] entirely."

Livingstone said that this caused the painting to have a very realistic quality, as the older part — shared with the majority of other mammals — of the visual cortex in the brain registers only luminance and not colour, so that the sun in the painting would be invisible to it, while it is just the newer part of the visual cortex—only found in humans and primates—which perceives colour.
 

mario 1 months

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isamarob 1 months ago:

Nice to know this facts about a paint. There are so many things an artist hides or developes in each work that few people get to know.

mario 1 months ago:

I have stared a little at this.

I am not sure how much this is representative of impressionism.

The overall lack of definition ("suggesting") is part of the movement or specific to this one work?

Marjatta 1 months ago:

To me it is the impact of blue color around the red sun making it look brighter.

Marjatta 1 months ago:

Typically impressionists used relatively small and thin brush strokes. Emphasized accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time).Inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience; and unusual visual angles.

JessieArias 1 months ago:

mmm, Interesting!