Impressionism Quiz

Impressionism: A 19th-Century Art Movement

• Impressionism is a 19th-century art movement characterized by small, visible brush strokes, open composition, accurate depiction of light, ordinary subject matter, unusual visual angles, and movement as a crucial element.

• Impressionism originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s.

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

• Impressionism in the visual arts was soon followed by analogous styles in other media that became known as impressionist music and impressionist literature.

• Impressionists painted outdoors or en plein air to capture the momentary and transient effects of sunlight.

• Impressionism emerged in France at the same time that other painters in the United States and Italy were also exploring plein-air painting.

• The public, at first hostile, gradually came to believe that the Impressionists had captured a fresh and original vision.

• Monet, Sisley, Morisot, and Pissarro may be considered the "purest" Impressionists, while Degas and Renoir had different views.

• Impressionists constructed their pictures from freely brushed colours that took precedence over lines and contours.

• The Impressionists learned much from the work of other French painters who painted from nature in a direct and spontaneous style that prefigured Impressionism.

• Impressionists used new technology, such as premixed paints in tin tubes, and vivid synthetic pigments.

• Impressionists relaxed the boundary between subject and background so that the effect of an Impressionist painting often resembles a snapshot.The Development and Legacy of Impressionism

• Impressionism developed as a reaction to photography, which was seen as a challenge to artists.

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

• Japanese ukiyo-e art prints (Japonism) had a significant influence on Impressionism.

• There were female Impressionists who faced social and career limitations but were able to find success during their lifetime.

• The four most well-known female Impressionists were Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzalès, Marie Bracquemond, and Berthe Morisot.

• Impressionism legitimized domestic social life as subject matter, but it tended to limit women to that subject matter.

• Impressionist artists were striving for "truth" and new ways of seeing, and each artist had an individual painting style.

• The influence of the French Impressionists lasted long after most of them had died.

• Impressionism had an impact on sculpture, photography, and film.

• Musical Impressionism is a term given to a movement in European classical music that arose in the late 19th century and continued into the middle of the 20th century.

• Impressionist literature describes a few select details to convey the sensory impressions of an incident or scene.

• During the 1880s, several artists began to develop different precepts for the use of color, pattern, form, and line, derived from the Impressionist example, and their work is known as post-Impressionism.