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.
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Artist Comments
Bathed in the hush of twilight, rows of blooming lavender stretch endlessly beneath a sky brushed with fading light. Each bold, textured stroke captures the fle...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Artist Comments
A path slopes upward toward the mountains in the French countryside. Spontaneous and bold strokes suggest movement among the foliage as if rustling with the win...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Acrylic
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Linen, Oil
1930s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Wood Panel
Artist Comments
Artist Onelio Marrero presents an impressionist scene of ducks wading by a river. "I went to a nearby lake to observe ducks in order to paint this scene of Pe...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Early 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
1960s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Late 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
1970s Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Canvas
1980s Impressionist Paintings
Pastel
1950s Impressionist Paintings
Cardboard, Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Early 1900s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
1920s Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Panel
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
1940s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Early 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Late 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil
1930s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
1920s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
1970s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
1910s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
1890s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Early 1900s Impressionist Paintings
Cardboard, Oil
1940s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
Early 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Watercolor, Ballpoint Pen
1910s Impressionist Paintings
Watercolor
1940s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Canvas
Artist Comments
A majestic pronghorn antelope buck sits at the heart of a darkening prairie. The rich, warm tones and subtle background details emphasize the animal’s disti...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Acrylic
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Linen, Oil, Panel
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Acrylic, Panel
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Cardboard
1890s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil Pastel
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Paper, Acrylic
1960s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
1930s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Early 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil
1890s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Watercolor
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
1930s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
1950s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
Late 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil
1960s Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Board