Impressionism in painting

In short: Impressionism is an art movement that emerged in France in the 1860s and 1870s. Its painters wanted to capture the fleeting impression of a moment, above all the effect of light and colour.

In more detail: Instead of smooth, detailed studio painting, the Impressionists relied on visible brushstrokes, bright colours and everyday subjects. At first they were often rejected by the official art world; today their works are among the best known in art history.

In detail

• The name: It goes back to Claude Monet’s painting “Impression, soleil levant” (Impression, Sunrise), shown in 1874 at an independent group exhibition in Paris; a critic first used the term mockingly.
• Key artists: The best-known members include Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley and Berthe Morisot.
• Painting outdoors: Many Impressionists painted outside, “en plein air”, to observe light and weather directly; paint in tubes, which was easy to carry, made this easier.
• Technique: Colours were often placed side by side unmixed, so that they only blend in the viewer’s eye; shadows were frequently painted in colour rather than black.
• Subjects: Popular subjects were landscapes, gardens, riverbanks, railway stations, cafés, dances and scenes of modern city life.
• Series: Monet painted the same subject, such as haystacks or Rouen Cathedral, several times at different times of day to show how the light changed.
• Influences: Photography and Japanese colour woodblock prints inspired the painters to try unusual framing and new compositions.
• Impressionism in Germany: Max Liebermann, Lovis Corinth and Max Slevogt are regarded as important German representatives.
• What came next: Artists such as Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Georges Seurat developed the ideas further and are counted as Post-Impressionists (kunstepochen-im-ueberblick, moderne-kunstrichtungen-ueberblick, farbenlehre-grundlagen).