Impressionism was an art movement from the 19th century. It was known for visible brush strokes, loose arrangements, a focus on showing light accurately, everyday scenes, uncommon viewpoints, and including movement in artwork. This style began with a group of artists in Paris. Their own exhibitions made them famous during the 1870s and 1880s.

The Impressionists faced strong criticism from traditional artists in France. The name "Impressionism" came from a painting by Claude Monet called Impression, Sunrise. A critic named Louis Leroy used the term in a humorous way when he wrote about the First Impressionist Exhibition in a Paris newspaper called Le Charivari in 1874. Soon after, similar styles appeared in music and literature, also called Impressionist.

Overview

In the 19th century, a group of rebellious artists called the Impressionists broke the rules of traditional painting. They created paintings using bold, freely brushed colors that were more important than lines or outlines. These artists were influenced by painters like Eugène Delacroix and J. M. W. Turner. They also painted realistic scenes of daily life in natural settings, often outdoors, to show a moment as it was experienced.

Before the Impressionists, paintings were usually made in studios, whether they were landscapes, still lifes, or portraits. These works focused on realistic details. The Impressionists discovered that painting outdoors, or en plein air, helped them capture the quick, changing effects of sunlight. Instead of focusing on small details, they painted overall visual impressions. They used short, broken brush strokes with mixed and pure colors, not blending them smoothly as was common before. This created a lively, vibrating effect of color.

Impressionism began in France around the same time that other artists, such as the Italian Macchiaioli and American painter Winslow Homer, were also experimenting with outdoor painting. However, the Impressionists developed unique techniques that defined their style. They believed in a new way of seeing, focusing on immediacy, movement, and natural poses. They used bright, varied colors to show the way light interacts with the world. In 1876, poet and critic Stéphane Mallarmé described the style as capturing a subject that "palpitates with movement, light, and life," changing constantly due to reflected light.

At first, the public was not happy with Impressionist art, but over time, people began to see it as fresh and original. Although art critics and the art establishment did not approve of the style, the Impressionists focused on creating the feeling of seeing a subject, not on showing every detail. Their many techniques and forms influenced later art movements, including Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism.

The Impressionism art movement

In the middle of the 19th century, during a time of fast industrial growth and social changes in France, Emperor Napoleon III rebuilt Paris and fought wars. During this time, the Académie des Beaux-Arts controlled French art. This group protected traditional painting styles and subjects, such as historical scenes, religious images, and portraits. Landscapes and still life paintings were not valued as highly. The Académie preferred detailed, realistic paintings made with careful brushwork that blended together to hide the artist’s hand. Colors were usually muted and often made even less bright by a thick golden varnish applied on top.

The Académie held an annual art show called the Salon de Paris. Artists whose work was displayed in this show received prizes, commissions, and greater recognition. The jury members who judged the show followed the Académie’s standards, which were shown in the works of artists like Jean-Léon Gérôme and Alexandre Cabanel. These artists used techniques from Western art, such as linear perspective and figures inspired by Greek art, to create peaceful, orderly scenes. By the 1850s, some artists, like the Realist painter Gustave Courbet, began to gain attention by showing everyday life without idealizing it, which the Académie did not support.

In the early 1860s, four young painters—Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille—met while studying under the artist Charles Gleyre. They shared an interest in painting landscapes and scenes from modern life, not historical or mythological subjects. They often painted outdoors, using a method called plein air that had become popular in the mid-1800s. Their goal was to complete paintings outside, not to make sketches for later studio work. By painting in sunlight and using bright synthetic pigments, they created a lighter, more colorful style that built on the Realism of Courbet and the Barbizon school.

A favorite meeting place for these artists was the Café Guerbois in Paris, where discussions were often led by Édouard Manet, whom the younger artists admired. They were later joined by Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, and Armand Guillaumin.

During the 1860s, the Salon jury rejected about half of the works submitted by Monet and his friends, favoring artists who followed traditional styles. In 1863, the jury rejected Manet’s painting Le déjeuner sur l'herbe (The Luncheon on the Grass) because it showed a nude woman with two clothed men at a picnic. While the jury accepted nudes in historical paintings, they criticized Manet for placing a realistic nude in a modern setting. Many artists were upset by the rejection of so many works that year.

After seeing the rejected works, Emperor Napoleon III allowed the public to view them, leading to the creation of the Salon des Refusés (Salon of the Refused). Though some visitors came to mock the art, the event brought attention to a new artistic movement and attracted more visitors than the regular Salon.

Requests for another Salon des Refusés in 1867 and 1872 were denied. In December 1873, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Cézanne, Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas, and others formed the Société anonyme des artistes peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs, etc. (Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Engravers, etc.) to display their work independently. Members of the group agreed not to participate in the Salon. The organizers invited other progressive artists, including Eugène Boudin, who had influenced Monet to paint outdoors. Johan Jongkind and Édouard Manet declined to join. Thirty artists participated in the group’s first exhibition, held in April 1874 at the photographer Nadar’s studio.

The public reaction to the exhibition was mixed. Monet and Cézanne faced the most criticism. A newspaper writer named Louis Leroy mocked the group, using the title of Monet’s painting Impression, Sunrise to call them Impressionists. Leroy wrote that Monet’s work looked like a sketch, not a finished painting. The term Impressionist quickly became popular, even though the artists had different styles and personalities. They held exhibitions together eight times between 1874 and 1886. Their style, with loose, quick brushstrokes, became linked to modern life. Monet, Sisley, Morisot, and Pissarro are often seen as the most consistent Impressionists. Degas focused more on drawing than color and avoided painting outdoors. Renoir left Impressionism briefly in the 1880s. Manet, though respected by the group, never stopped using black paint or submitting his work to the Salon.

Over time, the group grew smaller. Bazille died in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Some members, like Cézanne, Renoir, and Monet, stopped participating in group exhibitions to submit their work to the Salon. Disagreements arose over issues like Guillaumin’s membership and the inclusion of artists who did not follow Impressionist practices. In 1882, the seventh Impressionist exhibition was the most selective, featuring only nine artists considered "true" Impressionists: Gustave Caillebotte, Paul Gauguin, Armand Guillaumin, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

20th-century presentation of Impressionism

Impressionism was an art movement that began in the 19th century. In the early 20th century, people had different ideas about how Impressionist art should be shown to the public. Françoise Cachin believed that Impressionist works should be displayed with other historical objects to show how art developed over time. In the summer of 1945, René Huyghe and Georges Salles celebrated Impressionism as part of French art. They displayed paintings by key Impressionist artists next to works by famous French painters, showing a clear connection between French art schools and the history of France. They understood that after World War II, the Allies wanted art to focus on human values rather than national pride. At the time, Impressionist artworks were only shown in important places if they were considered masterpieces worth teaching. The French middle class preferred realistic art, and the main group of Impressionist artists never claimed their work showed deep intellectual or moral ideas. Alongside other early 19th-century art, Impressionism was often seen as part of large, grand artworks created for the Salon or State. Meanwhile, the curator Jean Cassou was responsible for selecting artworks to display in the Musée National d'Art Moderne.

Impressionist techniques

French painters who helped prepare the way for Impressionism include the Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix; Gustave Courbet, who led the Realist movement; and painters from the Barbizon school, such as Théodore Rousseau. The Impressionists learned from artists like Johan Barthold Jongkind, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and Eugène Boudin, who painted directly from nature in a quick and spontaneous style that influenced Impressionism. These artists also supported and guided younger painters.

Several techniques and habits helped shape the Impressionists’ unique style. While these methods had been used by earlier artists, such as Frans Hals, Diego Velázquez, Peter Paul Rubens, John Constable, and J. M. W. Turner, the Impressionists were the first to use them all together in a consistent way. These techniques include:

New technology helped the Impressionists develop their style. In the mid-1800s, artists began using premixed paints in tin tubes, similar to modern toothpaste tubes. This made it easier to paint quickly, both outdoors and indoors. Before this, painters mixed their own paints by grinding dry pigment powders and mixing them with linseed oil, then storing the mixture in animal bladders.

During the 19th century, artists gained access to new bright synthetic pigments for the first time. These included cobalt blue, viridian, cadmium yellow, and synthetic ultramarine blue, which were available by the 1840s. The Impressionists used these colors boldly, along with newer ones like cerulean blue, which became available in the 1860s.

The Impressionists’ shift toward a brighter style happened slowly. In the 1860s, artists like Monet and Renoir sometimes painted on canvases with traditional red-brown or grey backgrounds. By the 1870s, Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro often used lighter grey or beige backgrounds, which acted as a middle tone in their paintings. By the 1880s, some Impressionists preferred white or slightly off-white backgrounds, allowing the paint colors to stand out more clearly.

Content and composition

Impressionist artists responded to changes in modern life by painting scenes from everyday life, such as activities enjoyed by middle-class people and city scenes like train stations, cafés, and theaters. They were inspired by the new, wide streets of Paris, surrounded by tall buildings that allowed them to show busy crowds, entertainment, and the lighting in enclosed spaces at night.

A painting like Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day (1877) highlights the loneliness of individuals in the large buildings and open spaces of the city. When painting landscapes, Impressionists included factories that were becoming common in the countryside. Earlier artists usually avoided showing factories or signs of industry, believing they spoiled natural beauty and were not worthy of art.

Before the Impressionists, artists like 17th-century Dutch painter Jan Steen painted everyday scenes, but they used traditional methods to arrange their artwork so the main subject stood out. J. M. W. Turner, a Romantic-era artist, used techniques that later influenced Impressionism. Impressionists blurred the lines between the subject and the background, making their paintings look like snapshots—pieces of a larger scene captured by chance.

Photography was becoming popular, and as cameras improved, photos became more casual. This inspired Impressionists to show quick, momentary actions, such as the changing light in landscapes or daily life. Some artists felt photography made their work seem less important because it could copy reality more easily and clearly than paintings.

However, photography also encouraged artists to focus on their unique ability to express personal feelings rather than just copying reality. Impressionists aimed to show their own views of nature instead of making exact copies. This allowed them to use their personal tastes and values to create art. They also used color, which photography could not capture, to express their vision.

Another influence was Japanese ukiyo-e prints, which inspired Impressionists to use unusual angles and compositions. For example, Monet's Jardin à Sainte-Adresse (1867) uses bold colors and a diagonal layout, showing the impact of Japanese art.

Edgar Degas, who collected Japanese prints and took photographs, used both influences in The Dance Class (1874). The painting has an uneven layout, with dancers in awkward poses and empty space on one side.

Female Impressionists

Impressionists tried different ways to show how people see the world and modern life. Female Impressionists shared these goals but faced many social and career challenges compared to male artists. They were often kept out of scenes showing middle-class life, such as streets, cafes, and dance halls.

Women were also not allowed to join the important conversations that happened in these places, where male Impressionists shared ideas about their art. In schools, teachers believed women could not handle complex subjects, so they limited what was taught to female students. It was also seen as improper for women to excel in art, as society thought their true talents were in homemaking and raising children.

Despite these challenges, some women succeeded in their careers. For example, Marie Bracquemond gave up painting because her husband was upset about her work. The four most well-known female Impressionists—Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzalès, Marie Bracquemond, and Berthe Morisot—were often called "Women Impressionists." Their participation in the eight Impressionist exhibitions in Paris from 1874 to 1886 varied: Morisot joined seven, Cassatt four, Bracquemond three, and Gonzalès did not participate.

At the time, critics grouped these four artists together without considering their unique styles, techniques, or subjects. Some critics tried to praise their talents but limited their work to ideas about femininity. A Parisian critic, S.C. de Soissons, wrote:

"One can understand that women have no originality of thought, and that literature and music have no feminine character; but surely women know how to observe, and what they see is quite different from that which men see, and the art which they put in their gestures, in their toilet, in the decoration of their environment is sufficient to give is the idea of an instinctive, of a peculiar genius which resides in each one of them."

Impressionism allowed artists to show scenes from everyday life, which women knew well. However, it often limited women to these scenes. Paintings often showed women interacting with their surroundings through their gaze or movements. Cassatt, in particular, made sure her female figures were not reduced to stereotypes; her subjects read, talked, sewed, or drank tea, and sometimes appeared lost in thought.

Like male Impressionists, female artists aimed for "truth" and new ways of seeing and painting. Each had a unique style. Morisot and Cassatt were especially aware of how power was balanced between women and objects in their paintings. The women they depicted were not defined by decorative items but instead interacted with and controlled their surroundings. Their paintings often showed women who seemed comfortable but also slightly restricted. For example, Gonzalès' Box at the Italian Opera shows a woman looking into the distance, relaxed in a social setting but confined by her box and the man beside her. Cassatt's Young Girl at a Window uses bright colors but keeps the girl constrained by the edge of the canvas as she looks out the window.

Although female Impressionists had successful careers, they were often left out of art history books until Tamar Garb's Women Impressionists was published in 1986. For example, Impressionism by Jean Leymarie, published in 1955, did not mention any female Impressionists.

Painter Androniqi Zengo Antoniu is co-credited with introducing Impressionism to Albania.

Associates and influenced artists

Victor Vignon was a close friend of the Impressionists but was not part of the main group of famous artists. He was the only person outside this group who joined the Seventh Paris Impressionist Exhibition in 1882, which was more exclusive than earlier exhibitions organized mainly by Degas. Vignon studied at the school of Corot and was friends with Camille Pissarro, whose style influenced Vignon’s work after the late 1870s. He was also a friend of Vincent van Gogh, a post-impressionist painter.

Other people who were close to the Impressionists used their methods in their art. Jean-Louis Forain took part in Impressionist exhibitions in 1879, 1880, 1881, and 1886. Giuseppe De Nittis, an Italian artist living in Paris, joined the first Impressionist exhibit at Degas’ invitation, though other Impressionists looked down on his work. Federico Zandomeneghi, another Italian artist and friend of Degas, also showed with the Impressionists. Eva Gonzalès followed the style of Manet but never exhibited with the Impressionists.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American painter who influenced Impressionism but did not join the group and preferred using grayed colors. Walter Sickert, an English artist, first followed Whistler’s style and later became a student of Degas. He never exhibited with the Impressionists. In 1904, Wynford Dewhurst, an artist and writer, published the first major English study of French Impressionist painters titled Impressionist Painting: its genesis and development, which helped spread knowledge of Impressionism in Great Britain.

By the early 1880s, Impressionist techniques began to affect the art shown at the Salon, a major art exhibition in France. Painters like Jean Béraud and Henri Gervex gained success by using brighter colors while keeping the smooth, polished style expected by the Salon. Their work is sometimes called Impressionism, even though it was very different from true Impressionist art.

The influence of French Impressionists continued long after most of them died. Artists like J.D. Kirszenbaum used Impressionist methods throughout the twentieth century.

Beyond France

As the impact of Impressionism grew beyond France, many artists adopted the new style. There were too many artists to name, but some of the most well-known include:

Impressionism in other media

Edgar Degas was best known as a painter during his lifetime, but he began making sculptures in the 1880s. He created as many as 150 sculptures. Degas preferred using wax because it allowed him to make changes, start over, and explore the process of shaping his sculptures. Only one of Degas’s sculptures, Little Dancer of Fourteen Years, was shown during his lifetime. It was displayed at the Sixth Impressionist Exhibition in 1881. This sculpture caused controversy among critics. Some believed Degas had broken traditional sculpting rules, similar to how Impressionist painters changed painting traditions. Others thought the sculpture looked unattractive. After Degas died in 1917, his family allowed bronze copies of 73 of his sculptures to be made.

The sculptor Auguste Rodin is sometimes called an Impressionist because he used rough surfaces in his work to suggest the effects of light. Another sculptor, Medardo Rosso, has also been called an Impressionist.

Some Russian artists made Impressionistic sculptures of animals to move away from old ideas. Their work is described as giving birds and animals new spiritual qualities.

Although his photographs are less famous than his paintings or sculptures, Degas also made photographs later in his life. These photographs were never shown during his lifetime, and few people paid attention to them after he died. Scholars began studying Degas’s photographs seriously in the late 20th century.

Photographers who used soft focus and created atmospheric effects are sometimes called Impressionists. These photographers used techniques like blurring subjects, using soft focus or pinhole lenses, and altering the gum bichromate process to make images that looked like Impressionist paintings.

French Impressionist Cinema refers to a group of films and filmmakers in France between 1919 and 1929, though the exact years are debated. Important filmmakers from this period include Abel Gance, Jean Epstein, Germaine Dulac, Marcel L’Herbier, Louis Delluc, and Dimitri Kirsanoff.

Musical Impressionism is a style of music that began in France in the late 19th century and lasted into the mid-20th century. It focuses on creating mood and atmosphere, avoiding the intense emotions of the Romantic era. Impressionist composers often used short musical forms like nocturnes, arabesques, and preludes. They also used unusual scales, such as the whole tone scale. Key innovations included the use of major 7th chords and complex chord structures with five or six notes.

It is unclear how much visual Impressionism influenced musical Impressionism. Composers like Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel are most closely associated with this style, though Debussy rejected the term, saying it was made up by critics. Erik Satie was also linked to Impressionism, but his work was seen as more of a novelty. Paul Dukas is sometimes called an Impressionist, but his style is more similar to the late Romantic period. Lili Boulanger, however, used sounds similar to Debussy and is considered an Impressionist. Impressionist music outside of France includes works by composers such as Ottorino Respighi (Italy), Ralph Vaughan Williams, Cyril Scott, and John Ireland (England), Alexander Scriabin (Russia), Manuel de Falla and Isaac Albéniz (Spain), and Charles Griffes (America).

American Impressionist music is different from European Impressionist music. These differences are most clearly seen in Charles Tomlinson Griffes’s Poem for Flute and Orchestra. He is also the most well-known Impressionist composer in the United States.

The term Impressionism has also been used to describe literature where a few details are used to show the sensory experiences of a scene or event. Impressionist literature is closely connected to Symbolism, with important writers including Charles Baudelaire, Stéphane Mallarmé, Arthur Rimbaud, and Paul Verlaine. Authors like Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, Henry James, and Joseph Conrad wrote works that describe characters’ feelings and thoughts without directly explaining them. Some scholars believe literary Impressionism should be defined by its philosophical ideas rather than its connection to Impressionist painting.

Post-Impressionism

In the 1880s, several artists began to create new rules for using color, pattern, shape, and lines, inspired by the Impressionist style. These artists included Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. They were slightly younger than the Impressionists, and their work is called post-Impressionism. Post-Impressionist artists focused less on copying how light and color look in real life and more on showing meaning and emotions through their art.

Post-Impressionism helped lead to new art styles like Futurism and Cubism, showing how attitudes about art changed in Europe. Some original Impressionist artists also tried these new styles. For example, Camille Pissarro painted briefly using a method called pointillism, and even Monet stopped painting only outdoors. Paul Cézanne, who joined the first and third Impressionist exhibitions, created a unique style that focused on the structure of pictures. He is often called a post-Impressionist. While these examples show how hard it can be to label art movements, the work of the original Impressionist painters is, by definition, considered Impressionism.