Impressionist Art
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 Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
Early 2000s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
1990s Impressionist Art
Acrylic, Board
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil, Canvas
Late 20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Archival Paper, Archival Pigment, Archival Ink
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil, Panel, Wood Panel, Board
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Paper, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Art
Gouache, Watercolor
Late 20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Cardboard, Oil
20th Century Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Artist Comments
Inspired by his travels with his wife, artist Onelio Marrero paints her enjoying a book. They toured the neighboring towns to visit shops and historic sites dur...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
Artist Comments
A bride, still clad in her wedding dress, sits alone in a bar, clutching a drink. This scene captures a serene moment of introspection, subtly contrasting with ...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Mixed Media
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil, Panel, Wood Panel, Board
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil, Panel, Wood Panel, Board
Early 2000s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Artist Comments
A barn quietly sits in the picturesque Pennsylvania countryside. The muted color palette evokes the serene tranquility inherent in the Amish homesteads of the r...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Watercolor
20th Century Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Late 19th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
1970s Impressionist Art
Acrylic, Paper
1980s Impressionist Art
Watercolor, Paper
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Watercolor, Archival Paper
Early 2000s Impressionist Art
Bronze
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil, Giclée
20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil, Board
1990s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Acrylic
Early 2000s Impressionist Art
Cotton Canvas, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Board, Oil