Impressionism
A late 19th-century French painting movement that prioritized capturing fleeting light, color, and atmosphere over precise realistic detail.
Impressionism emerged in Paris in the 1860s-1870s, pioneered by artists including Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, and Camille Pissarro. The movement's name came from a critic's mockery of Monet's painting 'Impression, Sunrise' (1872) -- a title the artists adopted with pride.
Impressionist painters worked quickly, often outdoors (en plein air), to capture the transient quality of light at a specific moment. Rather than blending colors smoothly, they applied paint in visible, separate brushstrokes that the eye would optically blend at a distance.
Key characteristics: loose visible brushwork, pure unmixed colors applied side by side, everyday subjects (gardens, water, cafes, streets), emphasis on natural light, and painting at different times of day to capture changing conditions.
Impressionism had a profound influence on all subsequent modern art. Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, and Expressionism all built directly on its color liberation and departure from academic realism.