Tolstoy expresses a vehement detestation for impressionist artwork in What Is Art?. This opinion of impressionism astounded me in light of the definition of art he unpacks in the opening chapters of the work. He asserts that art is:
…call[ing] up in oneself a feeling once experienced and, having called it up,…convey[ing] it by means of movements, lines, colours, sounds, images expressed in words, so that others experience the same feeling- in this consists the activity of art. Art is that human activity which consists in one man’s consciously conveying to others, by certain external signs, the feelings he has experienced, and in others being infected by those feelings and also experiencing them. (What Is Art? 39-40)
His insistence that real art should conjure up the exact feeling experienced by the artist in the audience upon experiencing the art jars with his perception of impressionism. The audience must not overthink impressionist art. One must let the shifting colors and suggested shapes tell their story, one must let the emotion evoked by the work take hold of oneself, and one must step back to view the work as a whole. Looking too closely will erase the meaning. Tolstoy expresses the desire that all art should produce a similar effect. He believes that the audience should not have to intellectualize a work of literature while reading it; the meaning and feeling should come across naturally. An example of this conviction concerns his belief that expression of meaning without words, in body language and glance, is far superior to expression of meaning with words. He believed that the experience of the work in the moments in which it is being read should be capable of communicating the desired effect to the audience, however secondary inspection after the fact should bring an even clearer, more profound understanding to light. Tolstoy would argue that impressionism confounds this goal of art as one must step back and observe the work as a whole in order to fully appreciate it. In his eyes, this necessity implies that the work requires too much intellectualizing and contextualizing. On the contrary, this method of experiencing impressionism directly reflects his aforementioned philosophy of primary and secondary experience with a work of literature. Impressionism captures Tolstoy’s views on the purpose of real art, although he never acknowledged this parallel.
Tags: Art, Literature, Marijke, Russian, Tolstoy, van de Stadt, what is art?, Williams College
