Impressionism

Impressionism took its name from Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise, shown at the group’s first independent exhibition in Paris in 1874, after years of rejection by the official Salon. Its painters worked outdoors, in quick, visible brushstrokes and bright, unmixed colours, to catch the passing effects of light and weather on the landscape and modern city life.

Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley and Frédéric Bazille painted riverbanks, gardens and boulevards, while Edgar Degas and Gustave Caillebotte, more interested in drawing and unusual viewpoints, observed dancers, cafés and Parisian streets. Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt brought the private world of women and children into the movement, which went on to change painting around the world.