Impressionist Art
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.
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21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
Late 20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
1940s Impressionist Art
Stencil, Lithograph
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Acrylic
1910s Impressionist Art
Oil
1940s Impressionist Art
Stencil, Lithograph
2010s Impressionist Art
Acrylic
2010s Impressionist Art
Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Art
Gouache
1930s Impressionist Art
Oil
1940s Impressionist Art
Stencil, Lithograph
1960s Impressionist Art
Oil
1960s Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil
1940s Impressionist Art
Stencil, Lithograph
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil
Early 2000s Impressionist Art
Oil
20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
1980s Impressionist Art
Oil
1910s Impressionist Art
Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Art
Gouache
20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
1940s Impressionist Art
Stencil, Lithograph
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
1940s Impressionist Art
Stencil, Lithograph
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
Artist Comments
The glow of the Chicago Theater's sign contrasts radiantly with the deepening blues and browns of the urban landscape. Golden and russet tones of twilight bathe...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
1910s Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil
20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
1960s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
1940s Impressionist Art
Stencil, Lithograph
2010s Impressionist Art
Cotton Canvas, Oil, Cardboard
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil
1890s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
1990s Impressionist Art
Oil, Canvas
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil
1990s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Acrylic
1940s Impressionist Art
Stencil, Lithograph
1960s Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Oil
20th Century Impressionist Art
Oil
Artist Comments
Artist Nava Lundy paints a woman walking along an empty street. She treads along puddles that beautifully showcase the reflections of the architecture and sky i...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Acrylic
1960s Impressionist Art
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
1890s Impressionist Art
Canvas, Oil
1960s Impressionist Art
Oil
2010s Impressionist Art
Acrylic, Archival Paper
Artist Comments
As night approaches, the colors of the sky reflect on the pond, with the silhouette of trees filtering the fiery sunset. Water lilies pick up different hues as ...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Art
Oil
1910s Impressionist Art
Oil, Canvas
1970s Impressionist Art
Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Art
Watercolor