Horace, a Roman poet of the time of Augustus, once noted that "a painting is a poem without words". Regarding this notion of thinking, images do indeed have stories to tell, so when interpreting many images or works of art at once, the story becomes clearer and clearer and a pattern emerges. Traditional art, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and the works that make up these respective categories are vital components of contemporary art history, acting not just as a simple influence, but as a foundation upon which it was built. Artists such as Edouard Manet embraced a more traditional approach to modern subject matter with a more refined approach, while impressionists such as Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Camille Pissaro employed open-air painting to portray light in new ways. Van Gogh's expressive emotionality, Paul Gauguin's abstraction, and Paul Sérusier's structural qualities further expanded the boundaries regarding how to convey form, while also conveying emotion. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayThe above-mentioned art movements, and the artists who respectively comprise them, ultimately acted as a catalyst that ultimately led to today's artworks. Unusual cutouts, painting what the eye sees rather than what the brain perceives, and the use of color to convey emotion have all effectively informed and influenced subsequent art. Modern yet ordinary subjects painted with quick, visible brushstrokes, with an emphasis on the accurate depiction of light regarding the passage of time, are all characteristics of contemporary art, particularly with regards to landscape paintings, and can be directly traced back to to traditional art, to impressionism. , respectively post-impressionist movements. Traditional art, which often depicts modern life with contemporary subject matter, has embraced a representational or classical approach to production. In "The Balcony", a work created by Édouard Manet, this classical approach is illustrated perfectly with the depiction of modern subjects, a composed perspective with the subjects looking directly at the audience, as well as the final composure of the work with just a few brush strokes visible. The emphasis on precision, line and structure is also evident, with the balcony railing and doorway perfectly framed, framing the characters in the scene. Without photography, precision was paramount, yet once photos could account for this precision, artists aimed to capture what the camera could not, an impression of what was seen, rather than simply what was seen . When an artist attempts to portray reality, especially in a landscape painting, there is little room for subjectivity considering the nature of accuracy versus objectivity. For young artists, this objectivity was only a constraint and did not allow for the variance and variety of modern art that we see today because it simply was what it was. Claude Monet's "Impression: Sunrise" beautifully highlights the contrasting approach to traditional art forms through composition, the feeling of unfinishedness aroused by the painting and the use of color to convey emotion. Monet was considered an early Impressionist for his individualism and emotional expressivism which he embraced despite being criticized for, among other things, lacking traditional artistic characteristics. From the first traditional artistic approach, to the beginnings of impressionism, to the move away from contemporary themes,.