Impressionism
Z-Image version.
Trigger word: Impressionist style

Recommended LoRA weight: Between 0.3 and 0.5 (not too high, as it may lead to overfitting)

Recommended Sampling Steps: Between 9 and 15 (properly increasing steps can enhance image details)

Thanks to Z-Image's powerful image generation capability, the direct output effect without LoRA is already good. However, adding the 5000-step fine-tuned LoRA will give the oil painting brushstrokes more texture, rhythm, and layering.

Introduction to Impressionism

Impressionism is a painting movement born in France in the second half of the 19th century. As the starting point of Western modern painting, it broke the realistic tradition of the classical academic school and completely transformed the logic of color and light representation in Western painting.

1. Background of Origin

• Social and technical foundation: In the mid-19th century, the invention of portable paint tubes allowed painters to work outdoors directly (the "plein air" school); the emergence of photography made artists realize that painting did not need to "reproduce reality," but instead capture instantaneous visual impressions.

• Motivation for artistic resistance: The academic salon exhibitions monopolized artistic discourse for a long time, promoting realistic styles centered on historical, religious themes, while neglecting daily life and natural light. In 1863, works by artists like Manet were rejected by the salon, leading to the "Salon des Refusés"—a landmark of Impressionism's infancy.

• Origin of the name: In 1874, Monet exhibited Impression, Sunrise. Critics mocked its "sketchy, draft-like style" and called it "Impressionism." The painters embraced the name and held 8 Impressionist group exhibitions afterward.

2. Core Representative Painters

• Claude Monet: The "father of Impressionism," who devoted his life to capturing light and shadow changes. Representative works: Impression, Sunrise, Water Lilies series, Haystacks series.

• Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Specialized in depicting figures and life scenes with bright, soft colors. Representative works: Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette, The Box.

• Édouard Manet: A pivotal transitional figure. Though he did not participate in group exhibitions, his works inspired Impressionist painters. Representative works: Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (Luncheon on the Grass), Olympia.

• Camille Pissarro: A consistent adherent of Impressionist ideas, specializing in landscape sketches. Representative work: Boulevard Montmartre.

• Alfred Sisley: Focused on landscape painting, with precise depictions of sky and water light. Representative work: Snow at Louveciennes.

3. Core Artistic Characteristics

• Subject matter: Focus on daily life and nature

  Abandoned the grand themes of classical history, religion, and mythology, turning to daily life scenes (markets, dances, cafes), natural landscapes (rivers, fields, city streets), and portraits of ordinary citizens (instead of nobles). It emphasized "painting as a record of instantaneous life."

• Technique: Plein air painting and brushstroke innovation

  • Plein airism: Advocated capturing light changes outdoors directly, believing "color is a product of light." The same scene would show distinct color effects under different times and weather (e.g., Monet's Haystacks series).

  • Color juxtaposition: Abandoned the traditional use of black/brown for shadows; instead, placed small strokes of pure colors side by side, relying on the eye's visual mixing to create color effects (e.g., blue + yellow for green), making the image brighter and more transparent.

  • Loose brushstrokes: Short, fragmented, and lively brushstrokes, without pursuing smooth outlines. The texture of brushstrokes was preserved to enhance the vividness of "instant impressions."

• Composition: Breaking balance, pursuing dynamism

  Rejected the symmetrical, rigorous compositions of the academic school, often using asymmetrical layouts and cropped perspectives (like photographic snapshots). Empty spaces or offset subjects created a natural, casual dynamism—e.g., the right-biased figure and fluttering scarf in Monet's Woman with a Parasol.

• Aesthetic core: "Instantaneity" and "sensory experience"

  The essence of Impressionism is "capturing the first visual impression". It does not pursue narrative or precise details, but restores the eye's instantaneous sensory perception of light, shadow, and color. It emphasizes "painting as a record of feeling, not rational depiction."

4. Historical Influence

Impressionism completely overturned the color system of traditional Western painting, promoting the shift from "realism" to "expressing subjective feelings." It directly inspired Post-Impressionism (Van Gogh, Cézanne, Gauguin) and Neo-Impressionism (Seurat, Signac), and laid the foundation for 20th-century modernist movements like Fauvism and Cubism.