Impressionism and Stream of Consciousness Writers Comparison between Henry James and Walter Sickert

During the modernist movement artists and writers alike stepped away from traditional values, and radically changed the rules of perception in art. Before the modernist period traditional artistic values focused on realism, and art closely resembled life as it was. Boredom set in, and many artists began to manipulate the dimensions of reality. Reality was no longer viewed as perfect, but as series of fleeting impressions. Impressionism took the place of realism, and the ideas of individual perception took hold. Writers and artists started to contemplate what perception really was. The basic lines of realism in art dissolved, boundaries were crossed, and artists began to consider not only the idea of perception, but the experience of it as well. Walter Sickert is an example of an impressionist painter, who not only based many of his paintings on photographs, but manipulated light and colour to better represent the emotion of a scene, a stolen moment of the everyday lives the photograph depicted. His art was monumental in the modernist period, and like many other impressionist painters, he reshaped the idea of perception. On the literary side, lines of realism and tradition were also beginning to blur. Stream of consciousness writing was introduced, and became the written equivalent of impressionist art. The literary works of Henry James is an excellent illustration of how writers were able to create the impression of life in writing. Hand in hand the impressionist painters, and the stream of consciousness writers remodelled our view of perception .

Walter Sickert, a British artist, based most of his art on photographs, and was interested in "Catching the moment"(Walter Sickert www.jameshymanfineart.com) In his famous painting entitled "Ennui" he does just that. "Ennui" depicts the images of a man and women. Though they seem comfortable with each other, they appear to be completely detached from one another, as if they were in two different worlds. The man is sitting at a table in the shadows smoking a cigar. On the table in front of the man is a glass of water half full, or perhaps half empty. There is woman behind the man, with her back to him bathed in light, leaning on a dresser daydreaming. Above the woman is a still life of a beautiful woman, most likely Sickerts idea of a realist painting. "Ennui" demonstrates Sickerts ideas of reality, Which are very unlike the perfect still life versions of the past.