Impressionism was a movement centered in France in the 1870s and 1880s that broke with the academic painting tradition by depicting modern life and landscape with visible brushwork, unmixed color, and close attention to the shifting effects of natural light, often painted outdoors directly from the subject. The movement takes its name from a dismissive review of Claude Monet's 1874 painting Impression, Sunrise, a label the painters themselves later adopted. Impressionist painters organized their own independent exhibitions outside the official French Salon system after their work was repeatedly rejected by its juries, building direct relationships with dealers and collectors instead. The movement's loosened brushwork and everyday subject matter, cafe scenes, riverbanks, and ordinary figures rather than historical or mythological ones, opened the way for the more radical departures from realism that followed in Post-Impressionism and the early twentieth century avant garde, including painters such as Vincent van Gogh, who began by absorbing Impressionist technique before pushing color and brushwork toward more personal and expressive ends.
Facts
Founded In PlaceParis, France, centered on the independent group exhibitions the painters organized outside the official Salon from 1874 1 Key PrincipleVisible brushwork, unmixed color and close attention to the shifting effects of natural light, typically painted outdoors directly from the subject 1 Disputed
End Year1886, the year of the movement's eighth and final group exhibition in Paris, is the conventional closing date, though individual Impressionist painters continued working in the style for years afterward and the boundary with Post-Impressionism is gradual rather than sharp. Connections
Expressed In
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
Influenced
Neo-Impressionism directly extended Impressionist color theory into the systematic, scientific pointillist technique of Seurat and Signac.
Post-Impressionist painters began from Impressionist technique before pushing beyond it toward more structured or symbolic form.
Influenced By
Source Gamelan (New World Encyclopedia)
Realism, Movements Realisms commitment to depicting contemporary, unidealized life directly prepared the ground for Impressionisms break from academic convention.
Source Ukiyo-e (New World Encyclopedia)
Movement Members
A founding participant who exhibited in the first Impressionist exhibition (1874) and several subsequent shows, painting almost exclusively landscape.
Source Wikipedia
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
The only woman to exhibit in the first Impressionist exhibition (1874); participated in every group show through 1886 except 1879.
Source Wikipedia
The only artist to exhibit in all eight Impressionist group exhibitions, 1874-1886.
Source Wikipedia
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
A founding organizer who participated in seven of the eight group exhibitions (1874-1886), but who rejected the Impressionist label for himself, preferring Realist or Independent; the Met's own essay on Degas discusses this self-classification directly.
Source Wikipedia
Edouard Manet, Artists Why this is disputed. Manet never exhibited with the Impressionist group and always prioritized Salon acceptance; the National Gallery of Art, Washington states plainly that he did not share the Impressionists' spontaneity and declined the more radical option of exhibiting with them. He is treated here as the movement's essential precursor and influence rather than a member; a dissent record carries the fuller scholarly debate over this classification.
Source National Gallery of Art (Washington)
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
The only American to exhibit officially with the group; invited by Degas in 1877, exhibited in four of the group shows between 1879 and 1886.
Source Wikipedia
Central figure of musical Impressionism.
Exhibited in the first (1874) and third (1877) Impressionist group exhibitions, the last time he showed with the group. After 1877 he developed a structural, analytical approach now understood as the crucial bridge to Post-Impressionism, and he is classified primarily as a Post-Impressionist today.
Source Wikipedia
Founding member; exhibited in the first three Impressionist group exhibitions (1874, 1876, 1877) before returning to the official Salon.
Source Wikipedia
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
Vincent van Gogh, Artists Why this is disputed. Van Gogh's mature work is more precisely classed as Post-Impressionist, a movement that grew directly out of Impressionism and shares its founding wave here; scholars differ on how much distance to draw between the two.
Source Gardner's Art Through the AgesFred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner)
Sources
1. Gardner's Art Through the Ages
Fred S. Kleiner (after Helen Gardner), Cengage Learning- chapter on Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
- chapter on Impressionism
- Movement Members: Vincent van Gogh, chapter on Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, section on Van Gogh
- Movement Members: Claude Monet, chapter on Impressionism, section on Claude Monet
- Movement Members: Impression, Sunrise, chapter on Impressionism, section on Claude Monet
- Movement Members: Bal du Moulin de la Galette, chapter on Impressionism, section on Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- Movement Members: La Classe de Danse, chapter on Impressionism, section on Edgar Degas
- Movement Members: The Boulevard Montmartre at Night, chapter on Impressionism, section on Camille Pissarro
- Movement Members: Le Berceau, chapter on Impressionism, section on Berthe Morisot
- Movement Members: The Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne, chapter on Impressionism, section on Alfred Sisley
Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation- Movement Members: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- Movement Members: Edgar Degas
- Movement Members: Camille Pissarro
- Movement Members: Berthe Morisot
- Movement Members: Mary Cassatt
- Movement Members: Alfred Sisley
- Movement Members: Paul Cezanne
Influenced By: Photography, Impressionism, Content and composition section, photography influence
Photography encouraged painters to exploit aspects of the painting medium, like colour, which photography then lacked: 'The Impressionists were the first to consciously offer a subjective alternative to the photograph'.
Movement Members: Claude Debussy, Claude Debussy article, lead section
He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term.
Movement Members: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun article, lead section, third sentence
It is one of Debussy's most famous works and is considered a turning point in the history of Western art music, as well as a masterpiece of Impressionist composition.
View the Source National Gallery of Art (Washington)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.Movement Members: Edouard ManetView the Source Ukiyo-e (New World Encyclopedia)
New World EncyclopediaInfluenced By: Ukiyo-e, Western influence sectionQuote, Influenced By: Ukiyo-e, Western influence section
Ukiyo-e prints reached Europe in the mid-nineteenth century and enjoyed particular acclaim in France, becoming a source of inspiration for cubism and for many impressionist painters.
Gamelan (New World Encyclopedia)
New World EncyclopediaInfluenced By: Gamelan, Debussy sectionQuote, Influenced By: Gamelan, Debussy section
Claude Debussy, who heard a Javanese gamelan play at the Paris Exposition of 1889.
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Movement Members: Edouard Manet
Whether Edouard Manet should be called an Impressionist at all is a genuine, long-running art-historical debate rather than a settled classification. The National Gallery of Art states directly, in its own artist essay, that although Manet's bold style and modern subject matter influenced the younger painters who became the Impressionists, he did not share the Impressionists' spontaneity: his major works resulted from a deliberate studio process of drawing, models and composition rather than rapid outdoor observation, and, still determined to make his mark in the official Salon, he declined the more radical option of exhibiting with them. T. J. Clark's influential study The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers argues for reading Manet's work through the social and political dislocations of modern Paris rather than treating him and Impressionism as a single stylistic project, a social-historical reading itself debated against more formalist accounts of his relationship to the group. The atlas records Manet as the movement's precursor and major influence, associated with it but never a member; this dissent carries the fuller scholarly case that even the looser, associated framing understates how deliberately he kept his distance.
A dissenting reading, from an independent laneT. J. Clark, The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers, Princeton University Press
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does the name Impressionism come from?
It began as an insult. The movement takes its name from a dismissive review of Claude Monet's 1874 painting Impression, Sunrise, a label the painters themselves later adopted as their own. Centered in France through the 1870s and 1880s, they broke with the academic painting tradition by depicting modern life and landscape with visible brushwork, unmixed color and close attention to shifting natural light, and organized their own independent exhibitions after the official Salon juries repeatedly rejected their work.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.