1870 – 1900
1. Look for paintings with thick dabs and blobs of paint; the choppy brushwork will make you wonder if the artist finished the painting in a hurry. Note how everything seems “floaty,” soft and spontaneous.
Woman with a Parasol by Claude Monet
2. Get too close to an Impressionist painting, and it will seem like a big, incomprehensible mess, take a few steps back, and your eyes will have to adjust to its blurriness.
The Boulevard Montmartre at Night by Camille Pissarro
3. There’s no clear outlines or many details. The very loose brush strokes suggest rather than delineate the subject, blending one color into the next with almost no boundary between them.
The Star – Dancer on the Stage by Edgar Degas
4. Artists were fascinated with capturing nature’s fleeting moments, and the interplay between mist, fog, sunlight, clouds and water reflection. These themes, painted in feathery splashes of typically bright colors give the paintings a shimmering effect.
Impression, Sunrise by by Claude Monet
5. Most paintings are outdoor scenes that depict rivers, railroads, factories, cityscapes, seascapes and landscapes. You’ll notice there’s a particular emphasis on urbanite social life in activities such as relaxing on the beach or boating.
The Regatta at Sainte-Adresse by Claude Monet
6. If the painting is uncharacteristically indoors, it would still portray middle class members — the haves of society, not the have-nots — drinking, dining and dancing. The paintings show them in settings that include bars, cafés, opera houses and ballet classes.
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère by Édouard Manet
2. How Impressionism got its name and what gave rise to it?
3. Why Impressionist artists were rebels?