Impressionism was an avant-garde art movement in the late 19th century characterized by quick, transient depictions of light and color in landscapes, figures, and still lifes. Impressionist artists, such as Monet, Renoir, and Degas, were interested in how light and time of day affected the appearance of objects and landscapes. They painted en plein air to capture the fleeting effects of light through loose brushwork and vivid colors.

1. Impressionism

2. Characteristics
• Avant-garde artists
• Interested in the quick, transient, fleeting effect
of light on a surface
• Shadows have color
• Interested in how time of day or season controls
appearance of object
• Landscapes (Monet), figures (Renoir, Degas,
Morisot, Cassatt), still-lifes

3. Figure 29-20 CLAUDE MONET, Impression: Sunrise, 1872. Oil on canvas, 1’ 7 1/2” x 2’
1 1/2”. Musée Marmottan, Paris.

4. Figure 29-21 CLAUDE MONET, Saint-Lazare Train Station, 1877. Oil on canvas, 2’
5 3/4” x 3’ 5”. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

5. Figure 29-22 GUSTAVE CAILLEBOTTE, Paris: A Rainy Day, 1877. Oil on canvas,
approx. 6’ 9” x 9’ 9”. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Worcester Fund.

6. Caillebotte

7. Fig. 29-20

8. Figure 29-23 CAMILLE PISSARRO, La Place du Théâtre Français, 1898. Oil on
canvas, 2’ 4 1/2” x 3’ 1/2”. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles

9. Figure 29-24 HIPPOLYTE JOUVIN, The Pont Neuf, Paris, ca. 1860–1865. Albumen
stereograph.

10. Figure 29-25 PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR, Le Moulin de la Galette, 1876. Oil on
canvas, approx. 4’ 3” x 5’ 8”. Louvre, Paris.

11. Figure 29-26 ÉDOUARD MANET, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1882. Oil on canvas,
approx. 3’ 1” x 4’ 3”. Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, London.

12. Figure 29-27 EDGAR DEGAS, Ballet Rehearsal, 1874. Oil on canvas, 1’ 11” x 2’ 9”.
Glasgow Museum, Glasgow (The Burrell Collection).

13. Fig. 29-26

14. Figure 29-28 BERTHE MORISOT, Villa at the Seaside, 1874. Oil on canvas, approx.
1’ 7 3/4” x 2’ 1/8". Norton Simon Art Foundation, Los Angeles.

15. Figure 29-29 CLAUDE MONET,
Rouen Cathedral: The Portal (in Sun),
1894. Oil on canvas, 3’ 3 1/4” x 2’ 1
7/8”. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York (Theodore M. Davis Collection,
bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915).

16. Figure 29-30 EDGAR DEGAS, The Tub, 1886. Pastel, 1’ 11 1/2” x 2’ 8 3/8”. Musée
d’Orsay, Paris.

17. Figure 29-31 MARY CASSATT, The
Bath, ca. 1892. Oil on canvas, 3’ 3” x
2’ 2”. The Art Institute of Chicago,
Chicago (Robert A. Walker Fund).

18. Figure 29-32 HENRI DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, At the Moulin Rouge, 1892–
1895. Oil on canvas, approx. 4’ x 4’ 7”. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

19. Figure 29-33 JAMES
ABBOTT MCNEILL
WHISTLER, Nocturne in Black
and Gold (The Falling Rocket),
ca. 1875. Oil on panel, 1’ 11
5/8” x 1’ 6 1/2”. Detroit
Institute of Arts, Detroit (gift of
Dexter M. Ferry Jr.).