Impressionism

brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in

its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles. Impressionism originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s.

in France. The name of the style derives from the

title of a Claude Monet work, Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), which provoked the critic Louis Leroy to coin the term in a satirical review published in the Parisian newspaper Le Charivari.

Dutch painters as Jan Steen, had emphasized common subjects, but their methods

of composition were traditional. They arranged their compositions so that the main subject commanded the viewer's attention. J. M. W. Turner, while an artist of the Romantic era, anticipated the style of impressionism with his artwork . The Impressionists relaxed the boundary between subject and background so that the effect of an Impressionist painting often resembles a snapshot, a part of a larger reality captured as if by chance. Photography was gaining popularity, and as cameras became more portable, photographs became more candid. Photography inspired Impressionists to represent momentary action, not only in the fleeting lights of a landscape, but in the day-to-day lives of people.

au bord du Lez, 1870, Minneapolis Institute of Art

(1841–1895)
The Cradle, 1872, Musée d'Orsay

a Bouquet of Flowers (Star of the Ballet), 1878
Woman in

the Bath, 1886, Hill–Stead Museum, Farmington, Connecticut

1877 and 1882) (1841–1919)
On the Terrace, 1881, Art Institute of

Chicago

Portrait of Mademoiselle Irène Cahen d'Anvers (La Petite Irène), 1880, Foundation E.G. Bührle, Zürich

one who embodies their aesthetic most obviously(1840–1926)
Jardin à Sainte-Adresse, 1867,

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Cliff at Étretat after the Storm, 1885, Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts