Impressionism and Post-Impressionism(1850–1920)

The Impressionist style shows the effects of light and atmospheric conditions in artworks that spontaneously capture a moment of time.

Post-Impressionism was a movement or style exclusive to visual art. Post-Impressionists used the art elements to express reality in different ways, expanding the ideas of Impressionism while rejecting the limitations.

Three Post-Impressionists—Gauguin, van Gogh, and Matisse—have been credited with starting modern art.

Impressionism developed distinct characteristics:

• Less detail to objects• Thick paint applied in layers with short

brushstrokes• Pure color, little mixing• Use of blues and violet instead of black for

shading• Study of the effect of light on objects• Painting outside using portable easels and

tubes of premixed paint• Blurred, soft edges

Claude Monet (1840–1926)

Claude Monet was one of a group of landscape painters who developed a new technique for capturing the effects of constant changes in the atmosphere and sunlight on images. Using quick, short brushstrokes to apply small dabs of color created the desired effect when the paintings were viewed from a distance.