Impressionism’s Impact: The Artistic Revolution That Changed Everything

You must have heard of Claude Monet before, did you know that the one of the art movements he participated in was impressionism. Impressionism is perhaps the most important movement in the whole of modern painting. At some point in the 1860s, a group of young artists decided to paint, very simply, what they saw, thought, and felt. They weren’t interested in painting history, mythology, or the lives of great men, and they didn’t seek perfection in visual appearances. Instead, as their name suggests, the Impressionists tried to get down on canvas an “impression” of how a landscape, thing, or person appeared to them at a certain moment in time.This often meant using much lighter and looser brushwork than painters had up until that point, and painting out of doors, en plein air. Their technique involved short, broken brushstrokes and pure, unmixed colors to create vibrant, dynamic visual effects, unlike the smooth blending of traditional studio art.

The Historical Context

In mid-19th century France, the Académie des Beaux-Arts held sway over artistic production. The Académie valued historical, religious, and portrait subjects rendered with precise brushstrokes and subdued colours. Landscape and still life were relegated to secondary status. Artists whose works conformed to these ideals gained recognition through the prestigious Salon de Paris, while those who deviated faced rejection.

However, France was undergoing rapid industrialisation, urbanisation, and social transformation under Emperor Napoleon III. This climate of change gave rise to new artistic perspectives that prioritised modern life, individuality, and innovation.

The Origins of Impressionism

By the 1860s, a group of young painters—Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille—met while studying under Charles Gleyre and discovered shared interests in painting contemporary life and landscapes outdoors, or en plein air. Inspired by earlier artists like John Constable and the Barbizon school, they sought to capture the ephemeral effects of light and atmosphere.

Unlike traditional studio practices, which involved creating meticulously finished works, these artists completed their paintings outdoors to achieve spontaneity and immediacy. Synthetic pigments introduced in the 19th century allowed them to experiment with brighter colors, further enhancing their departure from academic norms.

The Birth of the Impressionist Movement

The group faced significant challenges from the art establishment. The Salon routinely rejected their works, including Édouard Manet’s controversial The Luncheon on the Grass in 1863, which depicted a nude woman in a contemporary setting. The backlash against such works led to the creation of the Salon des Refusés (Salon of the Refused) that same year, where alternative art gained public attention.

In 1873, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, and other progressive artists formed the Société anonyme des artistes peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs, etc., to exhibit their works independently. Their first exhibition in 1874, held in the studio of photographer Nadar, marked the formal debut of Impressionism. Critic Louis Leroy coined the term “Impressionists” in a satirical review of Monet’s Impression, Sunrise, but the name was embraced by the artists.

Despite mixed critical responses, the Impressionists exhibited eight times between 1874 and 1886. They experimented with spontaneity, color, and light, though divisions arose within the group. Monet, Renoir, and others eventually moved toward Salon submissions, while artists like Pissarro remained consistent with Impressionist ideals. The movement influenced later styles like Post-Impressionism and saw increasing public acceptance, with dealers like Durand-Ruel promoting their work. While some artists struggled financially, others, like Monet and Renoir, gained success by the late 19th century.

All of these moves predicted the emergence of modern art, and the whole. associated philosophy of the avant-garde.. It laid the groundwork for Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism, influencing modern art with its innovative approach.

 Techniques  and motives

• The Impressionists used looser brushwork and lighter colors than previous artists.
• They abandoned traditional three-dimensional perspective and rejected the clarity of form that had previously served to distinguish the more important elements of a picture from the lesser ones. For this reason, many critics faulted Impressionist paintings for their unfinished appearance and seemingly amateurish quality.
• Picking up on the ideas of Gustave Courbet, the Impressionists aimed to be painters of the real: they aimed to extend the possible subjects for paintings. Getting away from depictions of idealized forms and perfect symmetry, they concentrated on the world as they saw it, which was imperfect in a myriad of ways.
• Scientific thought in the Impressionist era was beginning to recognize that what the eye perceived and what the brain understood were two different things.
• The Impressionists sought to capture the former the optical effects of light – to convey the fleeting nature of the present moment, including ambient features such as changes in weather, on their canvases. Their art did not necessarily rely on realistic depictions.
• Impressionism records the effects of the massive mid-19th-century renovation of Paris, led by civic planner Georges-Eugène Haussmann, which included the city’s newly constructed railway stations; wide, tree-lined boulevards that replaced the formerly narrow, crowded streets; and large, deluxe apartment buildings. The works that focused on scenes of public leisure – especially scenes of cafés and cabarets – often conveyed the new sense of alienation experienced by the inhabitants of the first modern metropolis.

notable artists and their paintings

Claude Monet (1840-1926)

In 1874, a group of artists using this new style of painting held an exhibition of their works in Paris. One of these artists was Claude Monet , who exhibited a picture entitled Impression: Sunrise. Outraged critics took the word Impression from Monet’s title and used it as a label when referring, unkindly, to all the works in this exhibition. This label, Impressionism, described an art style that tried to capture an impression of what the eye sees at a given moment and the effect of sunlight on the subject.

Monet’s Haystacks

In 1891, Monet stood in a field near Paris, working on a painting of haystacks. When he realised that the sunlight had changed, he put down his unfinished work and began another painting of the same subjects. Often he worked on several pictures at once, rushing from one to another as the light changed. He  tried to record in paint the exact colours he saw reflected off them.

Rouen Cathedral

Monet’s painting of the west façade of Rouen Cathedral depicts the famous building bathed in bright, shimmering sunlight. The artist made 26 paintings of this same church.

One winter Monet visited his brother, who lived in the cathedral city of Rouen. Late one afternoon, he looked through a shop window and saw the towers and the doorway of the great church looming in the twilight. He sent home for his canvases and set up his easel in the window of the little shop and for the next three winters painted the facade of the cathedral.

One of Monet’s paintings of Rouen Cathedral uses complementary colors—blues and oranges. These colors were applied in separate brushstrokes, which look like an uneven mixture  of colored dabs and dashes when seen up close. Viewed from a distance, however, they blend together. As a result, what the viewer sees is not solid form, but a rich visual impression.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)

Renoir was known for his vibrant depictions of social gatherings and modern life. His works, such as Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette and Luncheon of the Boating Party, are celebrated for their warmth, color, and lively depiction of Parisian leisure. Though an early Impressionist, Renoir later adopted a more classical style.

Edgar Degas (1834–1917)

Degas brought a focus on human figures, especially dancers and performers, to Impressionism. Paintings like The Ballet Class and Dancers at the Bar highlight his fascination with movement and unconventional compositions. He worked primarily indoors and experimented with pastels, emphasizing structure and form over spontaneity.

 Berthe Morisot (1841–1895)

One of the few prominent female Impressionists, Morisot painted intimate scenes of domestic life, women, and children. Her works, like The Cradle, are characterized by light brushwork and an ethereal quality, reflecting her skill in capturing fleeting moments with delicacy.

These four artists were central to the Impressionist movement, shaping its legacy and influencing future art styles.

Post-Impressionism

Post-Impressionism encompasses a wide range of distinct artistic styles that share the common motivation of responding to the opticality of the Impressionist movement. Symbolic and highly personal meanings were particularly important to Post-Impressionists such as Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh. Rejecting an interest in depicting the observed world, they instead looked to their memories and emotions to connect with the viewer on a deeper level. Structure, order, and the optical effects of color dominated the aesthetic vision of Post-Impressionists like Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, and Paul Signac. Rather than merely representing their surroundings, they relied on the interrelations of color and shape to describe the world around them. Despite their various individualized styles, most Post-Impressionists focused on abstract form and pattern in applying paint to the canvas’s surface. Their early leanings toward abstraction paved the way for the radical modernist exploration of abstraction in the early 20th century. Critics grouped the various styles within Post-Impressionism into two general, opposing stylistic trends—one side being the structured, geometric style that was the precursor to Cubism, and the other being the expressive, non-geometric art that led to Abstract Expressionism. The far-reaching aesthetic impact of the Post-Impressionists influenced groups that arose during the turn of the 20th century, such as the Expressionists, as well as more contemporary movements like identity-related Feminist Art.