The attempt to capture a moment fascinated the Impressionist painters of 19th century France. Their loose, rapid brushstrokes sought to create a snapshot of a scene before them. However, it can be argued that an element of realism is necessary to ensure that the artist is indeed a witness to a scene bursting with vitality. In the years that predated the emergence of the Impressionist artists, artists like Edouard Manet were moving away from a background in realism and using such scenes to redefine the artist’s ability to immortalize a moment. In his Music in the Tuileries (1862), the artist is present in the scene himself. As a fashionable and wealthy crowd gathers in this garden of Paris, the musicians aren’t even visible, but the viewer can almost hear the children playing or the strains of music over the incessant chattering of a gathered crowd. With Manet in the scene, off to the far left, clutching a cane - he offers an understanding of how to retell this lively life scene, he was there. Frantically painted faces suggest constant movement, whilst thick tree trunks separate the crowd only for a moment. In Artsper’s own selection of works, elbow your way through the works depicted by Michel Boulet, or indeed through the crowded scenes of Marco Santaniello as he conveys the energy from the everyday life of those who fill the streets.
