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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


A girl with a watering can
by Renoir, 1876

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

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