12 Facts About Impressionists

Impressionists faced harsh opposition from the conventional art community in France.

The Impressionists found that they could capture the momentary and transient effects of sunlight by painting outdoors or en plein air.

Public, at first hostile, gradually came to believe that the Impressionists had captured a fresh and original vision, even if the art critics and art establishment disapproved of the new style.

Derisively titling his article "The Exhibition of the Impressionists", Leroy declared that Monet's painting was at most, a sketch, and could hardly be termed a finished work.

Impressionists continued to submit his works to the Salon, where his painting Spanish Singer had won a 2nd class medal in 1861, and he urged the others to do likewise, arguing that "the Salon is the real field of battle" where a reputation could be made.

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The Impressionists learned much from the work of Johan Barthold Jongkind, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Eugene Boudin, who painted from nature in a direct and spontaneous style that prefigured Impressionism, and who befriended and advised the younger artists.

Impressionists took advantage of the mid-century introduction of premixed paints in tin tubes, which allowed artists to work more spontaneously, both outdoors and indoors.

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.

The Impressionists sought to express their perceptions of nature, rather than create exact representations.

Impressionists captured his dancers in sculpture, such as the Little Dancer of Fourteen Years.

Women Impressionists were interested in these same ideals but had many social and career limitations compared to male Impressionists.

Women Impressionists were conscious of the balance of power between women and objects in their paintings – the bourgeois women depicted are not defined by decorative objects, but instead, interact with and dominate the things with which they live.