These artists broke new ground with sketchy, light-filled canvases shown in independent exhibitions.
c. 1874 - 1886
Beginner's guide
These artists each sought their own solutions for the depiction of modern life. Can we even call Impressionism a unified style?
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Camille Pissarro, The “Royal Palace” at the Hermitage, Pontoise
In this landscape of the town Pontoise, Pissarro emphasizes the modest people that make up its rural community.
Berthe Morisot, Young Woman Watering a Shrub
Morisot's loose brushstrokes and abstracted forms transform an ordinary scene into a incredible work of Impressionist painting.
Edgar Degas, Little Dancer Age Fourteen
In subject and form, Degas breaks away from academic tradition and instead creates a sculpture that reflects modern Paris.
Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise
Impression, Sunrise captures a quiet morning in the port of Le Havre, but a closer look illuminates the changes happening in 19th-century Europe.
Claude Monet, Wheatstacks (Snow Effect, Morning)
Getty Conversations
How does this painting by Claude Monet achieve such simplicity and complexity at the same time?
Japonisme
The distinctive qualities of Japanese art offered striking new approaches to modern artists developing alternatives to the Western tradition of naturalistic representation.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Portrait of Madame Charpentier and Her Children
Viewers are often surprised to learn that one of the children is a boy, since both children are dressed alike.
Impressionism as optical realism: Monet
Odd advice from Monet? "When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you."
Impressionism: painting modern life
Though they depicted outdoor light, the Impressionists were also interested in depicting middle-class leisure.
Impressionist color
Blue snow and violet-tinted flesh—the Impressionists radically changed our expectation of color.
Impressionist pictorial space
The surprising pictorial effects of modern art may seem at first like errors, but they are quite intentional!
What does “Impressionism” mean?
Impressionist paintings—once considered sloppy and unfinished—draw huge crowds to museums today.
