PrimeLuck ArtsImpressionism
Impressionism captured fleeting light and colour in modern life and landscape, using quick, visible brushstrokes, often painted outdoors.
- Period
- Nineteenth-century art
- Approximate dates
- c. 1860s to 1886
- Place of origin
- Paris, France
- Key regions
- France, then Europe and the United States
- Art forms
- Painting, drawing, printmaking
- Major artists
- Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt
Visual introduction
Impression, Sunrise
Claude Monet · 1872 · Oil on canvas · Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris
The painting that gave the movement its name, with quick strokes catching morning light on water.
Luncheon of the Boating Party
Pierre-Auguste Renoir · 1880 to 1881 · Oil on canvas · The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
A lively modern social scene full of light, colour and friendly conversation.
The Child's Bath
Mary Cassatt · 1893 · Oil on canvas · Art Institute of Chicago
A cropped, tender view of daily life influenced by Japanese prints.
Historical context
A group of artists who were refused by the official Paris Salon organised their own exhibition in 1874. A critic mocked Monet's painting Impression, Sunrise, and the name Impressionism stuck.
Portable paint tubes and new pigments let artists work outdoors. Railways brought the city and the countryside closer, and Paris itself was rebuilt with wide boulevards and cafes. Japanese prints and the science of colour also inspired the group.
Visual characteristics
Brushwork: short, broken strokes that leave the surface lively.
Colour and light: bright, unmixed colour, coloured shadows, and attention to a single moment in changing light.
Composition: cropped, asymmetrical views like snapshots, with scenes of leisure, water, gardens and city streets.
Related movements
Sources and further reading
Further reading: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Tate, Art Terms. Smarthistory.