Impressionism

Impressionism is an art-movement that began in nineteenth-century France. Impressionist paintings and other impressionist artworks try to capture the artist’s perception of the world, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the artwork is very realistic or detailed.

Light, colour and movement are among the most important picture elements in impressionist artworks. Impressionist paintings aim to make their viewer feel the atmosphere at the specific time and place where the picture was made, this makes for vibrant and striking images as colours are sometimes made more saturated than the colours in real-life scenery. Impressionist paintings had to be painted very quickly, as lighting of outdoor scenery changed over time, this was one of the reasons for fewer details in impressionist paintings.

Impressionism was able to blossom during the nineteenth century because photography also started being used, (it had been in more of a developing stage before that time). This meant that there was no more need for realistic depictions made by painting, as it was far easier to simply have a photograph taken. So artists were driven towards the more imaginative fields of art. Impressionism lived through a hard beginning, it was often criticised for it’s lack of details before finally being accepted by the greater public.