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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2010s Impressionist Art
Paper, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Acrylic
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil, Wood Panel
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
1890s Impressionist Art
Oil, Cardboard
1920s Impressionist Art
Woodcut
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil, Canvas
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Late 20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
1920s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
1880s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Cotton Canvas, Oil
Late 19th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
1940s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Early 1900s Impressionist Art
Drypoint
Late 20th Century Impressionist Art
Paper, Pastel
1960s Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Cotton Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Paper, Watercolor, India Ink
20th Century Impressionist Art
Archival Pigment
Artist Comments
Three sisters sit closely together on a couch, their fashion evoking the feeling of vintage Hollywood style. A black furry dog sits on the floor and enjoys th...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Acrylic
Early 20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Art
Paper, Ink, Watercolor, Gouache
Late 20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
1920s Impressionist Art
Oil, Board
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 Art
Oil
Late 19th Century Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
1980s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
Late 20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
1890s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
1910s Impressionist Art
Oil, Board
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
1920s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
1910s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil Pastel
1960s Impressionist Art
Watercolor
Early 20th Century Impressionist Art
Paper, Crayon
1910s Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
1960s Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil
Early 20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil, Giclée
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Late 19th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil, Board
Artist Comments
Lily pads spread across the water, their vigorous strokes contrasting with the softer details in the distance. As the early morning mist dissipates, the pond ...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
1910s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil, Cardboard
1940s Impressionist Art
Engraving