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Art & Art History vocabulary · Movements & Periods

Impressionism

Meaning in art & art history, with examples

/ɪmˈpreʃənɪzəm/nounCore term

In art & art history, Impressionism means: A French art movement of the 1870s and 1880s whose painters, such as Monet, Renoir and Morisot, tried to capture light, colour and passing moments, often painting outdoors.

In Turkish: Empresyonizm, İzlenimcilik

How it is used

The artists are Impressionists and their work is Impressionist. The name came from Monet's painting Impression, Sunrise and was first used mockingly by a critic in 1874. Typical descriptions: loose brushwork, broken colour, scenes of modern everyday life.

Example sentences

  1. The Impressionists often painted outdoors to catch the changing light.

  2. Impressionism shocked many critics, because the paintings looked unfinished to them.

Common collocations

  • French Impressionism
  • Impressionist painter
  • Impressionist exhibition
  • Impressionist landscape
  • Post-ImpressionismA term for the work of artists such as Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin and Seurat, who started from Impressionism in the 1880s but moved towards stronger structure, symbolism or expression.
  • brushstrokeA single mark made by a paintbrush, or the visible way an artist puts on paint; it can be smooth and hidden or thick and expressive.
  • art movementA group of artists who share similar ideas, aims or styles during a particular period, and the art they produce, such as Impressionism or Cubism.
  • RealismA mid-nineteenth-century movement, led in France by Gustave Courbet, that showed ordinary people and everyday life truthfully instead of idealised or historical scenes.

More terms: Movements & Periods

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