Impressionist 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.
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21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil, Giclée
Late 19th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Late 19th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Late 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Canvas
20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Color
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Acrylic
Late 19th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil
1940s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Late 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Watercolor
Late 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil
1870s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
1960s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
1990s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
1870s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Cotton Canvas, Oil
Early 1900s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
1960s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Gouache
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Early 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Canvas
1980s Impressionist Paintings
Oil Pastel, Laid Paper
1960s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
1910s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Plaster, Wood
1920s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
1920s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Artist Comments
Artist Onelio Marrero often takes trips into Manhattan to visit museums, sketch, photograph, and observe the rhythm of the streets. Based on these observations,...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Artist Comments
Artist Jeff Fleming notes that wildflowers are not meant to be cut and arranged into bouquets; they should be respected and enjoyed in their natural environme...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Early 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Canvas
20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil
1990s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Early 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil, Board
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Gold Leaf
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Paper
1930s Impressionist Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Wood
Artist Comments
Artist Onelio Marrero captures a sense of serenity, referencing a gentle river near his home. "Almost indistinguishable is the lone patient heron poised on a ...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Early 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Paper, Ink, Watercolor
1930s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Paper, Pastel
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Panel, Acrylic
2010s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Color
1920s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
1890s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil
Mid-20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Watercolor
Artist Comments
Artist Mary Pratt described the low country marsh as her favorite place to paint. In this piece, she simplified the greens of the landscape by capturing the s...
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Paintings
Oil
Late 20th Century Impressionist Paintings
Oil, Canvas
1880s Impressionist Paintings
Canvas, Oil