Impressionism: The History and Its Artists

A widely known style of painting called Impressionism emerged into the art scene and carved its way into art history during the late nineteenth century. This art style was unlike its predecessors. In fact, it was so different, a lot of people rejected it and refused to call it “art.” Impressionist artists would paint something or someone in a scene as if they just caught a glimpse of it. These scenes would usually be outdoors. For example, an impressionist would possible paint a picture of a couple having a picnic outside in a park scene. Impressionist artists used bright, vibrant colors and painted their pieces without a lot of detail. Instead of taking colors and blending them together, impressionist artists took these bold colors and in a sense, spotted them on their easel. In this technique, these artists were able to show effects of light emerging through their paintings. The primary goal of impressionist artists were to capture the feeling of an overall scene instead of capturing feeling in specific parts of the painting (Shafa 2007.) In this research essay, I will elaborating on the Impressionism period, its rich history, and two very influential Impressionist artists of the time: Claude Monet and Edgar Degas.

The history of Impressionism began in Paris during the late nineteenth century, in the year 1874 to be specific (Frank, 339.) During this year, a group of artists had created a group and planned to create their own art exhibition after they had been rejected the right to show their art in the Salon the year before. Some of the artists that were in this group included Cezanne, Pissarro, Renoir, Degas, Monet, and Manet (Shafa 2007.) This group called themselves the “Societe Anonyme des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteurs, ...

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...ndscape and leisure activities of Paris and its environs as well as the Normandy coast” (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History 2000.) It was because of Monet’s painting Impression Sunrise and the guy who critiqued it that Impressionism got its name. Due to Monet’s profound style, he carved the path of modernism into the twentieth century (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History 2000.)

Works Cited

Frank, Patrick. "Late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries." Prebles' Artforms. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, 2010. 339-345. Print.

"Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History." Claude Monet (1840-1926). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. .

Shafa, Anahita. "History of Impressionism." History of Impressionism. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. .