Some possible reasons for their predominance in this area are:
In the case of the 8 Soil (revolutionary) artists, the Impressionist movement was very revolutionary, for the times. It marked a moving away from traditional methods and subject matter and is considered to be the immediate forerunner of 20th century modern art. Therefore, the 8 Soil individual would be naturally attracted to, and supportive of, this particular school.
In the case of the 6 Metal and 7 Metal artists, we can apply Ki energetics to the graph. The Nine Star Ki support cycle tells us that:
Fire supports Soil
Soil supports Metal
Metal supports Water
Water supports Tree
Tree supports Fire
Paint is made of mineral compounds (Metal energy) which are suspended in a liquid (Water energy). Since Metal supports Water, we can see that the Metal artists would be most comfortable with, and very supportive of, the painting process in general. Also, in most Impressionist paintings, we can observe a very fluid motion and a high degree of atmospheric reflection (Water) in the images and elements of the painting.
Indeed, the Impressionists were concerned with the honesty of the piece and did not try to hide the fact that a painting was a painting and, therefore, clearly made from paint (Metal supporting Water energy)! Also, we can find many examples where water was the main subject matter of a painting (e.g. Monet's Water Lillies).
The information for the graph was collected from the following table.
The table was developed from information in the "Encyclopedia of Painting" (1970, Crown) and from the on-line resource http://sunsite.unc.edu/wm/paint.
In order to remain objective, I developed the list of the artist's names, as stated in the Encyclopedia of Painting's 'Impressionism' section and did not look up the artists' birth dates, until the list of names, as stated in the Encyclopedia, was complete.
There was one artist mentioned in the encyclopedia, Edouard Vuillard, who has not been added to this list. Because I could not determine his exact date of birth. However his year of birth is1868, making him either a 6 Metal or 7 Metal. Therefore, were Vuillard included to the list, it would only strengthen the data which strongly suggests that Nine Star Ki has very much to do with personal skills and professions and can be utilized in many practical and informative ways.
| NAME: | BIRTHDATE: | KI: | Comments: |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Monet | November 14, 1840 | 7 Metal | School Originator |
| Frederic Bazille | December 6, 1841 | 6 Metal | School Originator |
| Pierre-Auguste Renoir | February 25, 1841 | 6 metal | School Originator |
| Alfred Sisley | October 30, 1839 | 8 Soil | School Originator |
| Edouard Manet | January 23, 1832 | 7 Metal | Primary Member |
| Edgar Degas | July 19, 1834 | 4 Tree | Primary Member |
| Camille Pissaro | July 10, 1830 | 8 Soil | Satellite |
| Berthe Morisot | January 14, 1841 | 7 Metal | Satellite |
| Paul Cezanne | January 19, 1839 | 9 Fire | Satellite |
| Vincent Van Gogh | March 30, 1853 | 3 Tree | Post-Impressionist |
| Paul Gauguin | June 7, 1848 | 8 Soil | Post-Impressionist |
| Georges Seurat | December 2, 1859 | 6 Metal | Post-Impressionist |
| Paul Signac | November 11, 1863 | 2 Soil | Post-Impressionist |
| Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec | November 24, 1864 | 1 Water | Post-Impressionist |
| Henri Matisse | December 31, 1869 | 5 Soil | Later tried the style. |
| Pierre Bonnard | October 3, 1867 | 7 Metal | Later tried the style. |
Agreed, the statements in the "comments" column are very shallow and sometimes miss the mark. These great artists deserve a more elaborate commentary than "primary member" or "later tried the style". However, using these rough summaries as a way to "compartmentalize" the interrelationships between the artists can help to add greater clarification to the 9 Ki dynamics, as the Impressionist movement evolved.
For example, we've already noted that the majority of the artists in this group were Metals. If we, now, look at the four artists who originated the movement, we can see that this Metal energy is, even, further exaggerated. Three of the four "originators" were born in a Metal year.
Return to Feng Shui / Nine Star Reference Network