Impressionist Paintings
Emerging in 19th-century France, Impressionist art embraced loose brushwork and plein-air painting to respond to the movement of daily life. Although the pioneers of the Impressionist movement — Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir — are now household names, their work was a radical break with an art scene led and shaped by academic traditions for around two centuries. These academies had oversight of a curriculum that emphasized formal drawing, painting and sculpting techniques and historical themes.
The French Impressionists were influenced by a group of artists known as the Barbizon School, who painted what they witnessed in nature. The rejection of pieces by these artists and the later Impressionists from the salons culminated in a watershed 1874 exhibition in Paris that was staged outside of the juried systems. After a work of Monet’s was derided by a critic as an unfinished “impression,” the term was taken as a celebration of their shared interest in capturing fleeting moments as subject matter, whether the shifting weather on rural landscapes or the frenzy of an urban crowd. Rather than the exacting realism of the academic tradition, Impressionist paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings represented how an artist saw a world in motion.
Many Impressionist painters were inspired by the perspectives in imported Japanese prints alongside these shifts in European painting — Édouard Manet drew on ukiyo-e woodblock prints and depicted Japanese design in his Portrait of Émile Zola, for example. American artists such as Mary Cassatt and William Merritt Chase, who studied abroad, were impacted by the work of the French artists, and by the late 19th century American Impressionism had its own distinct aesthetics with painters responding to the rapid modernization of cities through quickly created works that were vivid with color and light.
Find a collection of authentic Impressionist art on 1stDibs.
1930s Impressionist Paintings
Cardboard, Acrylic
1980s Impressionist Paintings
Acrylic, Paper
1930s Impressionist Paintings
Gouache, Watercolor, Cardboard
1970s Impressionist Paintings
Paper, Watercolor
Early 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Postcard, Illustration Board, Gouache
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Paper, Acrylic
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Board, Oil
1960s Impressionist Paintings
Plywood, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Paper, Acrylic
Early 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Watercolor
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Paper, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Paper, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Acrylic, Paper
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Paper, Acrylic
1940s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil, Cardboard
1950s Impressionist Paintings
Board, Oil
Jon BlanchetteCapitola, California, 1950s Framed California Seascape Marine Oil Painting, circa 1955
Early 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Gouache, Board
1890s Impressionist Paintings
Board, Gouache
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
1910s Impressionist Paintings
Paper, Watercolor
Late 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Masonite, Rice Paper, Acrylic
1970s Impressionist Paintings
Acrylic, Masonite
Artist Comments
With a contrasting cool-hued trunk and sun-kissed branches and leaves, an oak tree boasts a stylized image. Under the brilliant sky, the surrounding woodland gl...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Acrylic
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
1910s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil, Board
Early 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Paper, Watercolor
Early 2000s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil, Board
Late 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Bertha WegmannBertha Wegmann, 1847 – 1926, Danish, 'Portrait of a Woman in White Dress', 1847 – 1926
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Acrylic
1920s Impressionist Paintings
Gouache, Rice Paper
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Mixed Media
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Paper, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Mixed Media
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Mixed Media
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Mixed Media
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Paper, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Paper, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Paper, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Paper, Acrylic