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
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Lacquer, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Archival Pigment
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Acrylic
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Cotton Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil, Board
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil, Cardboard
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Artist Comments
Artist Onelio Marrero captures a winter night in Manhattan, blending views of 5th and 7th Avenues looking south. The soft, glowing lights and bustling traffic...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil, Canvas
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil, Wood Panel
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Lacquer, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Acrylic, Archival Paper
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Early 2000s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Artist Comments
Artist Valerie Berkely presents a dreamy summer seascape. The warm color palette and gentle movements stir sun-soaked memories and carefree beach vacations. W...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
1950s Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Cotton Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
1950s Impressionist Art
Masonite, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Granite, Bronze
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Linen, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil, Wood Panel
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Early 2000s Impressionist Art
Watercolor
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
1950s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Artist Comments
A trail near Sedona’s airport reveals striking red rock formations and distant mesas. Gnarled trees scatter along the path, evoking a desert landscape that ...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Acrylic
Early 2000s Impressionist Art
Watercolor
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Canvas, Acrylic
Artist Comments
A timeworn farmhouse stands quietly on a snow-kissed prairie, its silhouette warmed by the glow of a vivid sunset. Reflections shimmer in the still pond nearb...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Acrylic
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil, Canvas
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil, Panel
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Paper, Archival Pigment
2010s Impressionist Art
Acrylic
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil, Board