Characteristics of an Impressionist painting include distinctive brush strokes, vivid colors, ordinary subject matter, candid poses and compositions and most importantly, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities and unusual visual angles.Impressionism emerged in France in the middle of the nineteenth century. Prior to this art movement, still lifes and portraits as well as landscapes were usually painted in a studio. Impressionists broke convention and often painted outdoors capturing realistic scenes of modern life. Although the movement was initially criticized, it soon gathered a following and led to analogous movements in music and literature. Here are 10 of the most famous paintings of this revolutionary art movement.
#10The Floor Scrapers
| French Title: | Les raboteurs de parquet |
| Location: | Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France |
| Artist: | Gustave Caillebotte |
| Year: | 1875 |
One of the first paintings to feature the urban working class, The Floor Scrapers illustrates Caillebotte’s continued interest in perspective and everyday life. Note how beautifully Caillebotte captures the light through the window and the resulting shadows. The painting is also known for being as realistic as a photograph. It was rejected by France’s most prestigious art exhibition, the Salon, because the depiction of seminude working class men was deemed a “vulgar subject matter”. Now this painting is considered one of Caillebotte’s finest and is used by his admirers to compare him favorably to his contemporaries by citing the realism, rawness and preciseness with which he has depicted the scene.
#9The Absinthe Drinker
| French Title: | L’Absinthe |
| Location: | Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France |
| Artist: | Edgar Degas |
| Year: | 1876 |
This famous painting by Degas is a representation of the increasing social isolation in Paris during its stage of rapid growth. The painting depicts a woman staring dully before her with a glass of Absinthe in front of her. A man who looks like an alcoholic sits beside her. Degas asked the famous actress Ellen Andrée and Bohemian artist Marcellin Desboutin to pose as two absinthe addicts in his favorite Parisian café, the Café de la Nouvelle-Athènes in Paris.The people in the painting were considered by English critics to be shockingly degraded and clumsy and the woman was even derided as a whore. Some viewed the painting as a warning lesson against absinthe and the French in general. Later, L’Absinthe gained popularity and influenced works of many artists. It is now known for its uniqueness and considered a masterpiece.
#8Pont Boieldieu in Rouen, Rainy Weather
| Location: | Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada |
| Artist: | Camille Pissarro |
| Year: | 1896 |
This painting marks the return of Camille Pissarro, the dean of impressionist painters, to Impressionism after a decade of experimenting with Post-Impressionism and Pointillism. Pissarro did a series of paintings of this bridge and its surrounding areas in different light conditions and weather. This is the most famous among them. Pissarro himself describes the painting as: “The theme is the bridge near the Placede la Bourse with the effects of rain; crowds of people coming and going; smoke from the boats; quays with cranes; workers in the foreground; and all this in grey colors glistening in the rain.”
#7Luncheon of the Boating Party
| French Title: | Le dejeuner des canotiers |
| Location: | The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Artist: | Pierre-Auguste Renoir |
| Year: | 1881 |
In Luncheon of the Boating Party, Renoir uses elements of design like balance and harmony; and rich colors characteristic of Impressionist style to create a delightful image. Famous for its richness of form and masterful use of light, this painting is a romanticized portrait of Renoir’s friends enjoying an afternoon on a balcony along the Seine River. Among the people in the painting are Renoir’s future wife and another famous Impressionist painter, Gustave Caillebotte. The painting represents the changing character of French society in the late nineteenth century as a result of the industrial revolution; when restaurants welcomed people of many classes.Actor Edward G. Robinson said that for thirty years he periodically visited this masterpiece and stared at it, thinking of ways to steal it.
#6Paris Street; Rainy Day
| Location: | Art Institute of Chicago, U.S. |
| Artist: | Gustave Caillebotte |
| Year: | 1877 |
Considered one of the greatest pictures of urban life in the 19th century, this painting is Caillebotte’s most famous and ambitious work. The piece depicts the Place de Dublin, an intersection near the Gare Saint-Lazare, a railroad station in north Paris. Even though there are no raindrops to be seen, Caillebotte masterfully creates the impression of rain through lighting, lack of strong shadows and impression of water on the street. Like many of Gustave’s paintings, this is also noted for its preciseness which gives it the appearance of a photograph. Paris Street Rainy Day remains widely critiqued especially its portrayal of the modern man, isolated and alone in the city.
#5The Luncheon on the Grass
| French Title: | Le dejeuner sur l’herbe |
| Location: | Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France |
| Artist: | Edouard Manet |
| Year: | 1863 |
A nude woman casually lunching with two fully dressed men was an affront to the propriety of the time and Manet shocked the French public by exhibiting this painting at the Salon des Refuses in 1863. Although not a realist painting, it is a statement in favor of the artist’s individual freedom. Ever since it was first published, this painting has puzzled audiences and critics alike. There are various interpretations of the painting and people still discuss them at great lengths.According to famous French writer Emile Zola “The Luncheon on the Grass is the greatest work of Edouard Manet, one in which he realizes the dream of all painters: to place figures of natural grandeur in a landscape.”
#4Impression, Sunrise
| Location: | Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris, France |
| Artist: | Claude Monet |
| Year: | 1872 |
This painting is famous for giving a name to the Impressionist movement and has now become a quintessential symbol of Impressionism. It was not well taken by the critics and the term Impressionist was coined in a satirical review by Louis Leroy in which he went to the extent of saying: “Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape.” The Impressionist movement, however, soon became so popular that it spread to music and literature as well.The subject of the painting is the harbor of Le Havre in France. It is noted for very loose brushstrokes that suggest rather than define it. Monet uses color as the main factor to capture the very essence of the scene. An interesting thing about this painting is that if you make a black and white copy of it then the sun disappears almost entirely.
#3A Bar at the Folies-Bergere
| French Title: | Un bar aux Folies Bergere |
| Location: | Courtauld Gallery, London, U.K. |
| Artist: | Edouard Manet |
| Year: | 1882 |
Last major work by Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergere is noted for its detailed representation of a contemporary scene, which is shown through a mirror behind the central figure. The rich details in the painting provide clues to social class and atmosphere of the period. According to art historian Larry L. Ligo, the dish of oranges in the foreground implies that the barmaid is a prostitute, as Manet associated oranges with prostitution in his paintings. Another critic T.J. Clark says that she is represented “as both a salesperson and a commodity—something to be purchased along with a drink.”The painting has been a subject of much debate and some critics have accused Manet of ignorance of perspective, alleging various impossibilities in the painting. However, in 2000, a photograph taken from a suitable point of view of a staged reconstruction was shown to reproduce the scene as painted by Manet.
#2Dance at Le moulin de la Galette
| French Title: | Bal du moulin de la Galette |
| Location: | Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France |
| Artist: | Pierre-Auguste Renoir |
| Year: | 1876 |
One of Impressionism’s most celebrated masterpieces; and described as “the most beautiful painting of the 19th century”; this painting depicts a typical Sunday afternoon at Moulin de la Galette in the district of Montmartre in 19th Century Paris. The Moulin de la Galette was an open-air dancehall and café that was close to Renoir’s home. He frequently attended Sunday afternoon dances at this café and enjoyed watching the happy couples. So for him, it provided the perfect setting for a painting.Renoir reveals his true talent in Dance at le Moulin de la Galette, linking the art of collective portrait, still life, and landscape painting. It was Renoir’s most ambitious figure painting and no artist before him had created a canvas capturing an aspect of daily life of this magnitude.
#1Water Lilies
| French Title: | Nympheas |
| Location: | Various Museums |
| Artist: | Claude Monet |
| Year: | 1896 – 1926 |
Monet’s series of the “Nympheas” have been described as “The Sistine Chapel of Impressionism”. The series consists of approximately 250 oil paintings which were painted by Monet during the last thirty years of his life. They are now on display in museums all around the world.The dazzling complexity of color and light in the “Nymphéas” panels opens the viewer’s eyes to the incredible diversity of nature and to the depth and mystery of the life it sustains. An amazing thing about these works is that Monet’s eyesight was badly deteriorating due to cataract while he painted most of these masterpieces.Giovanna Bertazzoni, Christie’s auction house director and head of impressionist and modern art, said “Claude Monet’s water-lily paintings are amongst the most recognized and celebrated works of the 20th Century and were hugely influential to many of the following generations of artists”.
FAQs
10 Most Famous Impressionist Paintings? ›
Monet, the most famous impressionist today, is best known for his water lilies. In total, there are over 250 paintings in the series, produced over the last 30 years of Monet's life.
What is the most famous impressionist piece? ›Monet, the most famous impressionist today, is best known for his water lilies. In total, there are over 250 paintings in the series, produced over the last 30 years of Monet's life.
Who are the 5 most famous Impressionists? ݃douard Manet, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro are some of the famous impressionist artists. Let us go into further details and notable works of them.
Who are 3 well known impressionist artists? ›- Claude Monet, the legend. ...
- Auguste Renoir, the intimate friend. ...
- Edgar Degas, the friendly misanthrope. ...
- Berthe Morisot, the independent. ...
- Camille Pissarro, the elder. ...
- Alfred Sisley, the underrated. ...
- Frédéric Bazille, the cursed. ...
- Mary Cassatt, the American expatriate.
Considered to be the painting that gave the Impressionist movement its name, and thus seen as the most important painting of the entire period, is Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise, painted in 1872.
Who are the two leading figures in Impressionism? ›The principal Impressionist painters were Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Berthe Morisot, Armand Guillaumin, and Frédéric Bazille, who worked together, influenced each other, and exhibited together.
Is Starry Night an Impressionist painting? ›What style of art is The Starry Night? The Starry Night is Post-Impressionist art. It follows the Post-Impressionist style, with its focus on nature depicted through color and light. It also includes symbolism that expresses the artist's feelings toward the subject.
Who is considered the best impressionist painter? ›Claude Monet (1840 – 1926)
Perhaps the artist best known within the Impressionist movement is its founder Claude Monet, who was also considered to be a key precursor to the development of Modernism in art.
Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch: [ˈvɪnsɛnt ˈʋɪləm vɑŋ ˈɣɔx] ( listen); 30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history.
Who are the 4 most famous painters that led the post-impressionist movement? ›Post-Impressionism is a term used to describe the reaction in the 1880s against Impressionism. It was led by Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Georges Seurat.
What was the 1st Impressionist painting? ›
First Displayed
Impression, Sunrise was initially shown at what has become known as the “First Impressionist Exhibition”. This event was born out of a collaboration between Monet and fellow artist Camille Pissarro.
Among my heroes in the history of art, Claude Monet has to be right near the top. Of all of the Impressionists, Monet's work, especially his late paintings, has had the most impact on my own landscape painting.
What are three Impressionism examples? ›- Le déjeuner sur l'herbe (1863)
- Impression, Sunrise (1872)
- Fog, Voisins (1874)
- In a Park (1874)
- L'Absinthe (1876)
- Paris Street, Rainy Day (1877)
- At the Opera (1880)
- Girl with a Hoop (1885)
By enveloppe, Monet was referring to the air itself, the unifying atmosphere that lay between him and his subject. As a younger man, he had sought to capture the visual effects of light and weather by painting quickly and directly out of doors, but now he pursued the most ephemeral effects slowly and with deliberation.
Why is Impressionism so popular today? ›Innovative Yet Familiar. Impressionism offers the best of both worlds — incorporating familiar day-to-day sceneries but reflecting them in a radical and innovative manner. It displays what we normally see in a different light, which enables us to appreciate it from a familiar but also refreshing point of view.
Who is known as the father of Impressionism? ›Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) is one of the most celebrated artists of 19th-century France and a central figure in Impressionism. Considered a father-figure to many in the movement, his work was enormously influential for many artists, including Claude Monet and Paul Cézanne.
Who was the most famous founder of Impressionism? ›Impressionism was developed by Claude Monet and other Paris-based artists from the early 1860s. (Though the process of painting on the spot can be said to have been pioneered in Britain by John Constable in around 1813–17 through his desire to paint nature in a realistic way).
Why is Van Gogh not an impressionist? ›Unlike impressionists who paint objects exactly how they are, Van Gogh used imaginary and real elements in his work. According to the Griffith Park Observatory, Van Gogh represented the stars and the Moon as exactly like how they were on that day but included spirals and swirls in the painting, clearly imaginary.
Was Van Gogh a realist or impressionist? ›Van Gogh was to commit suicide less than two years later. After a short stint in Paris in the company of many prominent impressionist artists, van Gogh embraced impressionist painting techniques. However, he built on that style to create his own, unique form of artistic expression.
Is Da Vinci a impressionist artist? ›He was a prominent Post-Impressionist painter and influenced much of the early-20th-century movement known as Cubism. Some of his notable works include The Card Players, The Bathers, and Pyramid of Skulls. He experimented with watercolors and had created a host of still-life paintings.
Who are the key artists of Impressionism? ›
Some of the main impressionist artists are Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Auguste Renoir, Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas.
Who is the master of Impressionism? ›Oscar-Claude Monet: Frenchman, painter, beard-growing extraordinaire. Born in Paris in 1840, he became the founder of the French Impressionist movement and was arguably the most influential French painter of the time.
Which artist was not considered an impressionist artist? ›Édouard Manet (1832–1883), who did not participate in any of the Impressionist exhibitions. Claude Monet (1840–1926), the most prolific of the Impressionists and the one who embodies their aesthetic most obviously.
How can you tell if a painting is Impressionist? ›Impressionism describes a style of painting developed in France during the mid-to-late 19th century; characterizations of the style include small, visible brushstrokes that offer the bare impression of form, unblended color and an emphasis on the accurate depiction of natural light.
Is Pablo Picasso a Post-Impressionist? ›Picasso and Braque were certainly post-impressionists, but we describe them as Cubists. The post-impressionist painters lived in France and knew each other, but they did not work together as a group, in the way that some of the impressionists did.
What is the difference between Impressionist and expressionist paintings? ›While the paintings are based on the real world, Impressionists paint the scene as if they had only glanced at it for a moment. Expressionism is directly focused on the emotional response of the artist to the real world, using disproportionate sizes, odd angles, and painted in vivid and intense colors.
What is the difference between Post-Impressionism and Impressionism? ›The Post-Impressionists rejected Impressionism's concern with the spontaneous and naturalistic rendering of light and color. Instead, they favored an emphasis on more symbolic content, formal order, and structure. Similar to the Impressionists, however, they stressed the artificiality of the picture.
Who painted the starry night? ›Van Gogh was seeking respite from plaguing depression at the Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy in southern France when he painted The Starry Night.
What is the philosophy of Impressionism? ›Taken as a whole, Impressionism argues that we don't really see the natural or "real" world objectively because everything that we perceive is filtered through our minds, and our minds are filled with unique and personal memories and emotions, so each of our minds perceives the world differently.
Who are 4 famous impressionist artists? ›Some of the most famous impressionist artists include Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Berthe Morisot, and Mary Cassatt. They explore a range of subjects in their work, from landscapes to still lifes.
Who are 4 impressionist artists? ›
Some of the main impressionist artists are Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Auguste Renoir, Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas.
What was the 1st impressionist painting? ›First Displayed
Impression, Sunrise was initially shown at what has become known as the “First Impressionist Exhibition”. This event was born out of a collaboration between Monet and fellow artist Camille Pissarro.
He was a prominent Post-Impressionist painter and influenced much of the early-20th-century movement known as Cubism. Some of his notable works include The Card Players, The Bathers, and Pyramid of Skulls. He experimented with watercolors and had created a host of still-life paintings.
Who is considered the father of Impressionism? ›Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) is one of the most celebrated artists of 19th-century France and a central figure in Impressionism. Considered a father-figure to many in the movement, his work was enormously influential for many artists, including Claude Monet and Paul Cézanne.
Is Picasso an Impressionist? ›Picasso and Braque were certainly post-impressionists, but we describe them as Cubists. The post-impressionist painters lived in France and knew each other, but they did not work together as a group, in the way that some of the impressionists did. They painted in ways that were different from each other.
Who were the four female Impressionists? ›Berthe Morisot (1841–1895), Mary Cassatt (1844–1926), Eva Gonzalès (1849–1883), and Marie Bracquemond (1840–1916) were all members of the Impressionist circle.
What kind of art is Impressionism? ›What is Impressionism? Impressionism describes a style of painting developed in France during the mid-to-late 19th century; characterizations of the style include small, visible brushstrokes that offer the bare impression of form, unblended color and an emphasis on the accurate depiction of natural light.
Which painter is not considered an Impressionist? ›Édouard Manet (1832–1883), who did not participate in any of the Impressionist exhibitions.
Why are they called Impressionists? ›Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise (Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris) exhibited in 1874, gave the Impressionist movement its name when the critic Louis Leroy accused it of being a sketch or “impression,” not a finished painting.
Who was the oldest Impressionist artist? ›
Art historian John Rewald called Pissarro the "dean of the Impressionist painters", not only because he was the oldest of the group, but also "by virtue of his wisdom and his balanced, kind, and warmhearted personality".