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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20th Century Impressionist Art
Gouache
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil Pastel
Late 19th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
Artist Comments
Large pink peonies bloom, their bright yellow stamens adding a vibrant contrast. Deep green leaves curl around each blossom, enhancing their lush beauty. Painte...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Linen, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil, Cardboard
1870s Impressionist Art
Oil, Panel
Artist Comments
A road cuts through a lush orchard, leading to a vast green field in the distance. Artist Janet Dyer discovered this tranquil place while driving in the Frenc...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Acrylic
Early 20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil, Linen, Cardboard
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil, Acrylic
1870s Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Paper, Gouache, Board
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil, Panel
Early 20th Century Impressionist Art
Lithograph
1960s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil, Cardboard
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil
17th Century Impressionist Art
Oil, Panel
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil, Wood Panel
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Cotton Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
1960s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Gouache, Handmade Paper
1950s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil, Illustration Board
1960s Impressionist Art
Watercolor
1920s Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil, Cardboard
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil, Acrylic
1890s Impressionist Art
Watercolor, Laid Paper
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Art
Gouache
20th Century Impressionist Art
Gouache
1950s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Early 1900s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
1990s Impressionist Art
Lithograph
Early 2000s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Early 20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
1930s Impressionist Art
Oil, Board
Late 20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
1930s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Late 20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Paper, Gouache
1940s Impressionist Art
Lithograph, Stencil
1890s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil, Canvas
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Late 20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil, Canvas
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil, Canvas
1760s Impressionist Art
Paper, Ink
1990s Impressionist Art
Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
1950s Impressionist Art
Oil, Canvas
2010s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
1980s Impressionist Art
Lithograph
Late 20th Century Impressionist Art
Other Medium
1940s Impressionist Art
Lithograph, Stencil