Impressionist art is a style of painting that emphasizes an artist’s immediate impression of a moment or scene, usually communicated through the use of light and its reflection, short brushstrokes, and separation of colors. Impressionists often used modern life as their subject matter and painted quickly and freely, capturing light and movement
Key Takeaways
Impressionism rejected previous “historical” painting, replacing carefully hidden brushstrokes of historical events with visible thick bright colors of modern scenes
- Key painters include Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Impressionism and Modernity
Modernity, as they knew it, became their subject matter.
- The Impressionists attempted to capture the quickly shifting light of natural daylight by painting outdoors (“en plein air”).
- They mixed their colors on the canvas rather than their palettes and painted rapidly in wet-on-wet complementary colors made from new synthetic pigments.
Evolution of Post-Impressionism
The Impressionists mounted eight shows from 1874 to 1886, although very few of the core artists exhibited in every show. After 1886, the gallery dealers organized solo exhibitions or small group shows, and each artist concentrated on his or her own career.
- They remained friends, and protected each other well into old age.
Impressionism: Definition
The term “impressionist” was originally intended as a derogatory term, used by art critics who were flatly appalled at this new style of painting.
- In the mid-1800s, when the Impressionist movement was born, it was commonly accepted that “serious” artists blended their colors and minimized the appearance of brushstrokes to produce the “licked” surface preferred by the academic masters. Impressionists, however, featured short, visible strokes-dots, commas, smears, and blobs.
Important Impressionists
The impressionist artists were friends, who as a group were part of the cafe set in the city of Paris.
- Their favorite meeting place was the Café Guerbois, located on Avenue de Clichy in Paris
- Some of the most influential impressionists of the period include Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-August Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Armand Guillaumin and Frédéric Bazille
The First Impressionist Exhibition
In 1874, a group of artists who dedicated themselves to this “messy” style pooled their resources to promote themselves in their own exhibition.
- The group (Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, and Berthe Morisot) called themselves the “Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Engravers, etc.”
- They rented exhibition space from the photographer Nadar (a pseudonym of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon).
