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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21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Board
1910s Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Canvas
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Board
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Cotton Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Lacquer, Oil
Artist Comments
León, Spain, buzzes with energy, especially as a key stop along the Camino de Santiago. By night, the city truly comes alive, with locals, pilgrims, and touris...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Cardboard
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Acrylic
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Artist Comments
Artist Jeff Fleming captures a cat in its playful nature. Bathed in a soft morning light, this furry tabby frolics in a field of sweet peas, possibly chasing ...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
1910s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Canvas
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Cardboard
Early 2000s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil, Acrylic
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
Artist Comments
Tall trees with lush green foliage create an archway over a narrow waterway. A small boat with a blue hull docks along the water, adding a focal point to the ...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
1910s Impressionist Paintings
Watercolor
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Paper, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Wood Panel
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
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
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Acrylic, Panel
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Paper, Coffee
Artist Comments
Soft morning mist drifts across a local park in Jersey City. A towering tree anchors the scene as others fade into dreamy silhouettes in the distance. Artist Br...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
1910s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Canvas