Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
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.
Find a collection of authentic Impressionist art on 1stDibs.
Late 20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pastel
Late 20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor
Early 20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Paper, Pencil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor
Early 2000s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor
Late 20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pastel
Artist Comments
A wintry scene unfolds with bare trees and geese in flight along a riverbank. Tangled weeds create intricate patterns that harmonize with the freeform structure...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor
Early 20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor
Early 20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor
Early 2000s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pencil
Late 19th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Paper, Watercolor
1920s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor, Paper
Late 20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor
20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor, Pencil
Early 2000s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pencil
Early 20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Paper, Pencil
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pastel
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Oil
Late 20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pastel, Watercolor
20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor
20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Paper, Watercolor
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pencil
Late 20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor
Early 20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pencil, Paper
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pastel
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pastel
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pastel
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pastel
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pencil
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pencil
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pencil
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pencil
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pencil
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pencil
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pencil
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pastel
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pencil
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pencil
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pencil
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pencil
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pastel
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Pencil
Early 20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor, Paper
Late 19th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor
Late 19th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Canvas, Watercolor
1890s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Paper, Pastel
Artist Comments
In this black-and-white abstract piece, the deliberate arrangement of diverse forms and colors gives rise to distinctive patterns. The non-representational qual...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Ink
19th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Gouache
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor, Paper
Early 2000s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor
2010s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Paper, Watercolor
Early 20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor, Paper
Early 20th Century Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Watercolor
1990s Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Oil Pastel, Paper