Impressionism

Impressionism was a 19th century art movement, which began as a private association of Paris-based artists who exhibited publicly in 1874. The movement was named after Claude Monet's Impression, soleil levant (1873); the term being coined by critic Louis Leroy.

See also Impressionist music, American Impressionism

Impressionism as Painting Technique

The Impressionist approach to painting is usually identified with a strong concern for light in its changing qualities, often with an emphasis on the effects of a particular passage of time.

Impressionism is still widely practiced today, and a variety of successive movements were influenced by it.

painters who showed in the Impressionist exhibitions

• Eugene Boudin
• Mary Cassatt
• Gustave Caillebotte
• Camille Corot
• Edgar Degas
• Henri de Fantin-Latour
• Edouard Manet
• Claude Monet
• Berthe Morisot
• Camille Pissarro
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Alfred Sisley

Pigeons have been trained to distinguish between cubist and impressionist paintings; see discrimination abilities of pigeons for details.

see also: History of painting, Post-Impressionism