{"id":3155,"date":"2026-06-17T19:19:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T19:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/chapter\/impressionism\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T18:28:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T18:28:02","slug":"impressionism","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/chapter\/impressionism\/","title":{"raw":"Impressionism","rendered":"Impressionism"},"content":{"raw":"<h2 id=\"chapter-overview-and-introduction-9\">Chapter Overview and Introduction<\/h2>\r\nThe late 19th century style of Impressionism was a shocking and controversial style in its time. Impressionism\u2019s revolutionary approach to painting took place within the newly renovated modern city of Paris. Influenced by Japanese prints and photography, Impressionists dramatically changed their approach to pictorial space. The Impressionists introduced new artistic techniques related to pictorial space, texture, color, and light.\r\n<h3 id=\"focus-artworks-9\">Focus Artworks<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Claude Monet,\u00a0<em>Impression Sunrise<\/em>, 1872, oil on canvas<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Pierre-Auguste Renoir,\u00a0<em>Moulin de la Galette,<\/em>\u00a01876, oil on canvas<\/li>\r\n \t<li>\u00c9douard Manet,\u00a0<em>A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re<\/em>, oil on canvas<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Edgar Degas,\u00a0<em>The Dance Class<\/em>, 1874,\u00a0oil on canvas<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Charles Garnier,\u00a0<em>The Paris Op\u00e9ra<\/em>, 1860-75<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Mary Cassatt,<em>\u00a0In the Loge<\/em>, 1878, oil on canvas<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h3 id=\"term-list-9\">Term List<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Salon<\/li>\r\n \t<li>\u201cImpressions\u201d<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Impressionism<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Optical mixing of color<\/li>\r\n \t<li>En plein air<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Caf\u00e9 concert<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Photographic snapshot<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Japanese prints<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Japonisme<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Ukiyo-e prints<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Fl\u00e2neur<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h2 id=\"impressionism-an-introduction\">Impressionism, an introduction<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/dezoomify-result-27-scaled.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/dezoomify-result-27-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"Monet, Impression Sunrise painting depicting a harbor scene at sunrise with boats on water and industrial structures in the background. Features muted blue and gray tones with a striking red sun and its reflection creating contrast and atmosphere.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1980\" \/><\/a> Claude Monet, <em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>, 1872, oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marmottan.fr\/notice\/4014\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mus\u00e9e Marmottan<\/a>, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Monet_-_Impression,_Sunrise.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a> in the United States). This painting was exhibited at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874.[\/caption]\r\n<h3 id=\"apart-from-the-salon\">Apart from the salon<\/h3>\r\nThe group of artists who became known as the Impressionists did something ground-breaking\u00a0in addition to painting\u00a0their sketchy, light-filled canvases: they established their own exhibition. This may not seem like much in an era like ours, when art galleries are everywhere in major cities, but in Paris at this time, there was\u00a0one official,\u00a0state-sponsored\u00a0exhibition\u2014called the Salon\u2014and very few art galleries devoted to\u00a0the work of living artists. For most of the nineteenth century then,\u00a0the Salon was the only way to exhibit your work (and therefore the only way to establish your reputation and\u00a0make a living as an artist). The works exhibited at the Salon were chosen by a jury\u2014which could often be quite arbitrary. The artists we know today as Impressionists\u2014Claude Monet,\u00a0August Renoir,\u00a0Edgar Degas,\u00a0Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley (and several others)\u2014could not afford to wait for France to accept their work. They all had experienced rejection by the Salon jury in recent years and felt that waiting an entire year between exhibitions was too long. They needed to show their work and they wanted to sell it.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"392\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image237.jpeg\" alt=\"Edgar Degas, The Dance Class features ballerinas warming up and preparing for their ballet lesson. Figures are set in an asymmetrical composition featuring various angles of perspective to create a sense of chaos and movement. \" width=\"392\" height=\"450\" \/> Edgar Degas,<em> The Ballet Class<\/em>, 1871-1874, oil on canvas, 75 x 85 cm (Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Edgar_Degas_-_La_Classe_de_danse.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe artists pooled their money, rented a studio that\u00a0belonged to the\u00a0photographer Nadar, and set a date for their first collective exhibition. They called themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Printmakers and their first show\u00a0opened at about the same time as the annual Salon in\u00a0May 1874. The Impressionists held eight exhibitions from 1874 through 1886.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"604\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image238.jpeg\" alt=\"Renoir, Bal du moulin de la Galette painting depicting a lively outdoor dance scene with numerous people socializing and dancing under glowing street lamps and trees. The artwork features detailed clothing from the late 19th century, vibrant brushstrokes, and a warm, festive atmosphere capturing movement and light.\" width=\"604\" height=\"450\" \/> Pierre-Auguste Renoir, <em>Bal du moulin de la Galette<\/em>, 1876, oil on canvas, 131 x 175 cm (Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Pierre-Auguste_Renoir,_Le_Moulin_de_la_Galette.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe impressionists regarded Manet as their inspiration and leader in their spirit of revolution, but Manet had no desire to join their cooperative venture into independent exhibitions. Manet had set up his own pavilion during the 1867 World\u2019s Fair, but he was not interested in giving up on the Salon jury. He wanted Paris to come to him and accept him\u2014even if he had to endure their ridicule in the process.\r\n<h3 id=\"lack-of-finish\">Lack of finish<\/h3>\r\nMonet, Renoir, Degas, and Sisley had met through classes. Berthe Morisot was a friend of both Degas and Manet (she would marry \u00c9douard Manet\u2019s brother Eug\u00e8ne by the end of 1874). She had been accepted to the Salon, but her work had become more experimental since then. Degas invited Morisot to join their risky effort. The first exhibition did not repay the artists\u00a0monetarily but it did draw the critics, some of whom decided their art was abominable. What they saw wasn\u2019t finished in their eyes; these were mere \u201cimpressions.\u201d This was not a compliment.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"366\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image239.jpeg\" alt=\"Morisot, The Cradle painting depicting a woman seated beside a cradle with a baby lying inside, partially covered by a sheer white canopy. The artwork features soft, muted colors with emphasis on the delicate fabric and intimate domestic scene, highlighting themes of motherhood and care.\" width=\"366\" height=\"450\" \/> Berte Morisot, <em>The Cradle<\/em>, 1872, oil on canvas, 56 x 46 cm (Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Berthe_Morisot_-_The_Cradle_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe paintings of Neoclassical and Romantic artists had a finished appearance. The Impressionists\u2019\u00a0\u00a0completed works looked like sketches,\u00a0fast and\u00a0preliminary \u201cimpressions\u201d that artists would dash off to preserve an idea of what to paint more carefully at a\u00a0later date. Normally, an artist\u2019s \u201cimpressions\u201d were not meant to be sold, but were meant to be aids for the memory\u2014to take these ideas back to the studio for the masterpiece on canvas. The critics thought it was absurd to sell paintings that looked like slap-dash impressions and to present these paintings as\u00a0finished works.\r\n<h3 id=\"landscape-and-contemporary-life\">Landscape and contemporary life<\/h3>\r\nCourbet, Manet and the Impressionists also challenged the Academy\u2019s category codes. The Academy deemed that only \u201chistory painting\u201d was great painting. These young Realists and Impressionists questioned the long-established hierarchy of subject matter. They believed that landscapes and genres scenes (scenes of contemporary life)\u00a0were worthy and important.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2536\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image240.jpeg\" alt=\"Monet, Coquelicots, La promenade (Poppies) painting depicting a countryside scene with a field of red poppies on the left and green grass on the right under a partly cloudy sky. Four figures, including a woman holding a blue parasol, are scattered across the field, with trees and a white house visible in the background.\" width=\"2536\" height=\"1826\" \/> Claude Monet, <em>Coquelicots, La promenade (Poppies)<\/em>, 1873, oil on canvas, 50 x 65 cm (Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Claude_Monet_037.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n<h3 id=\"light-and-color\">Light and color<\/h3>\r\nIn their landscapes and genre scenes, the Impressionist\u00a0tried to arrest a particular moment in time by pinpointing specific atmospheric conditions\u2014light flickering on water, moving clouds, a burst of rain. Their technique tried to capture what they saw. They painted small commas of pure color one next to another. When viewer stood\u00a0at a reasonable distance their eyes would see a mix of individual marks;\u00a0colors that had\u00a0blended\u00a0optically. This method created more vibrant colors than colors mixed as physical paint on a palette.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"601\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image241.jpeg\" alt=\"Monet, La Gare Saint-Lazare Impressionist painting depicting a busy train station interior with steam and smoke filling the air under a large glass roof. The scene features trains on tracks, industrial buildings, and several figures, with muted colors and soft brushstrokes conveying movement and atmosphere.\" width=\"601\" height=\"450\" \/> Claude Monet, <em>La Gare Saint-Lazare<\/em>, 1877, oil on canvas, 75 x 104 cm (Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:La_Gare_Saint-Lazare_-_Claude_Monet.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAn important aspect of the Impressionist painting was the appearance of quickly shifting light on the surface of forms and\u00a0the representation\u00a0changing atmospheric conditions. The Impressionists\u00a0wanted to create an art that was modern by capturing the rapid pace of contemporary life\u00a0and the fleeting conditions of light.\u00a0They painted outdoors (<em>en plein air<\/em>) to capture the appearance of the light as it\u00a0flickered and faded while they worked.\r\n<h3 id=\"reception\">Reception<\/h3>\r\nBy the 1880s, the Impressionists accepted the name the critics gave them, though their reception in France did not improve quickly. Other artists, such as Mary Cassatt, recognized the value of the Impressionist movement and were invited to join.\u00a0American\u00a0and other non-French collectors purchased numerous works by the Impressionists. Today, a large share of Impressionist work remains outside French collections.\r\n<h2 id=\"impressionist-pictorial-space\">Impressionist pictorial space<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1336\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Claude_Monet_1873-74_Boulevard_des_Capucines_oil_on_canvas_80.3_x_60.3_cm_Nelson-Atkins_Museum_of_Art_Kansas_City.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Claude_Monet_1873-74_Boulevard_des_Capucines_oil_on_canvas_80.3_x_60.3_cm_Nelson-Atkins_Museum_of_Art_Kansas_City.jpg\" alt=\"Monet, Boulevard des Capucines Impressionist painting depicting a bustling city street scene with numerous pedestrians and tall buildings fading into a misty background. Soft, muted colors and loose brushstrokes create an atmospheric effect, highlighting movement and urban life in a late 19th-century setting.\" width=\"1336\" height=\"1800\" \/><\/a> Monet, <em>Boulevard des Capucines<\/em>, 1873-74, oil on canvas, 80.3 x 60.3 cm (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Claude_Monet,_1873-74,_Boulevard_des_Capucines,_oil_on_canvas,_80.3_x_60.3_cm,_Nelson-Atkins_Museum_of_Art,_Kansas_City.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n<h3 id=\"modern-paris\">Modern Paris<\/h3>\r\nMonet\u2019s\u00a0<em>Boulevard des Capucines<\/em>\u00a0depicts one of the grand boulevards of Paris. The\u00a0boulevard was designed by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/haussmann-the-demolisher-and-the-creation-of-modern-paris\/\">Baron Haussmann<\/a>\u00a0in the mid-19th century to cut through the tightly packed medieval center of the city. The unusually high viewpoint of the painting is taken from one of the new multistory, mixed-use commercial and apartment buildings that lined these boulevards. The painting is modern in the very simple sense that its subject would not have been possible fifty years earlier.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1032\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Degas-Cafe-Concert.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Degas-Cafe-Concert.jpg\" alt=\"Degas, Caf\u00e9-Concert at Les Ambassadeurs pastel drawing depicting a lively indoor social scene with a woman in a red dress dancing on a stage or platform, surrounded by seated and standing spectators wearing hats and formal attire. The artwork features soft, blended colors with emphasis on figures and movement, capturing the atmosphere of a late 19th-century cabaret or theater setting.\" width=\"1032\" height=\"1340\" \/><\/a> Edgar Degas, <em>Caf\u00e9-Concert at Les Ambassadeurs<\/em>, pastel on monotype, 37 x 26 cm (Mus\u00e9e des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Degas_-_Caf%C3%A9_Concert_-_at_Les_Ambassadeurs_1876-77.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nSimilarly, Degas\u2019s\u00a0<em>Caf\u00e9-Concert aux Ambassadeurs<\/em>\u00a0shows a scene in one of the new nightclubs for which Paris became famous in the late nineteenth century. Starting as occasional musical acts in what were called\u00a0<em>caf\u00e9-concerts<\/em>, these nightclubs quickly evolved into massive cabarets, often with multiple stages, that included dance revues and acrobatics as well as large orchestras. Degas situates us in the crowded pit of one of these cabarets, looking through a forest of fancy hats and musical instruments at the performers on stage, who glow in the modern gas footlights. Both of these works typify the Impressionists\u2019 exploration of the new spaces of Paris, as well as the new vantage points and ways of seeing that these spaces allowed.\r\n<h3 id=\"the-creation-of-modern-paris-narrow-streets-and-barricades\">The Creation of Modern Paris: Narrow streets and barricades<\/h3>\r\nDuring each of the previous political revolts (1789, 1830, 1848, and again in 1871), sections of Paris had succumbed to the revolutionaries. These successes were due in part to the political sympathies of the citizens of Paris, but the crooked narrow lanes of the medieval city also played a role. During times of conflict, urban mobs would blockade the maze that was the streets of Paris. Such\u00a0barricades\u00a0proved very effective and made Paris all but uncontrollable at times. Think back to Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix\u2019s painting of the revolution of 1830,\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/delacroix-liberty-leading-the-people\/\">Liberty Leading the People<\/a>\u2014<\/em>Marianne (Liberty) is shown rising over a barricade of just\u00a0this sort.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_28_Juillet._La_Liberte_guidant_le_peuple.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_28_Juillet._La_Liberte_guidant_le_peuple-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830) painting depicting a dramatic revolutionary scene with a central female figure holding a French flag, leading a diverse group of fighters over fallen bodies. The composition features dynamic poses, dark and muted colors contrasted with the bright flag, and a smoky, chaotic background symbolizing struggle and uprising.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2054\" \/><\/a> Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix, <em>Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830)<\/em>, September\u2013December 1830, oil on canvas, 260 x 325 cm (Mus\u00e9e du Louvre, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:La_Libert%C3%A9_guidant_le_peuple_-_Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre_Peintures_RF_129_-_apr%C3%A8s_restauration_2024.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1948\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Charles_Marville_Rue_St._Nicolas_du_Chardonnet_de_la_rue_Traversine_ca._1853%E2%80%9370.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Charles_Marville_Rue_St._Nicolas_du_Chardonnet_de_la_rue_Traversine_ca._185370-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white photograph of a narrow, empty street lined with tall, aged buildings showing signs of wear and decay. The scene captures an urban environment with uneven pavement, visible architectural details, and a distant view of more structures under soft daylight.\" width=\"1948\" height=\"2560\" \/><\/a> Charles Marville, Rue St. Nicolas du Chardonnet, ca. 1853\u201370, one of the narrow medieval streets near the Pantheon (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Charles_Marville,_Rue_St._Nicolas_du_Chardonnet,_de_la_rue_Traversine,_ca._1853%E2%80%9370.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a> in the United States)[\/caption]\r\n<h3 id=\"napoleon-iii-and-the-second-empire\">Napoleon III and the Second Empire<\/h3>\r\nDuring the period known as the Second Empire (1852\u201370), Napoleon III, the great-nephew of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/ingres-napoleon-on-his-imperial-throne\/\">Napoleon Bonaparte<\/a>\u00a0(emperor of France in the early 19th century), ruled France. He asked an administrator, Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann, to modernize Paris\u2014to bring clean water and modern sewers to the fast growing city, to light the streets with gas lanterns, to construct a central market (Les Halles), and to build parks, schools, hospitals, asylums, prisons, and administrative buildings. But the most ambitious aspect of Haussmann\u2019s plan was to literally reshape the city.\r\n<h3 id=\"haussmanns-reconstruction-of-paris\">Haussmann\u2019s reconstruction of Paris<\/h3>\r\nFor his role in changing the Paris cityscape, Haussmann would acquire the nickname \u201cthe demolisher.\u201d He plowed over the ancient, winding streets of the city (the same narrow streets that had proved so useful to revolutionaries). In their place, he created broad straight boulevards that were impervious to the barricade\u2014and, equally important, they could better accommodate the free movement of troops.\r\n\r\nThe avenues also allowed for the easy flow of commerce and so were a boon for business. Napoleon III had dreamed of a new imperial city whose very streets spoke of the glory of the French empire. Haussmann delivered.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/The_Boulevard_Montmartre_on_a_Winter_Morning.jpeg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/The_Boulevard_Montmartre_on_a_Winter_Morning-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"Pissarro, The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning Impressionist painting depicting a busy Parisian street scene with horse-drawn carriages, pedestrians, and leafless trees lining both sides of the wide avenue. Soft, muted colors and loose brushstrokes create a hazy atmosphere, capturing movement and daily life in the late 19th-century urban setting.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2049\" \/><\/a> Camille Pissarro, <em>The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning<\/em>, 1897, oil on canvas, 64.8 x 81.3 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/art\/collection\/search\/437310\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/a>, New York, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAs with nearly every urban renovation, a percentage of the population was displaced. Haussmann forced citizens from their homes as these buildings were torn down to make way for the clean lines of the new city. The wealthy were quickly accommodated. The new boulevards were lined with fashionable apartment houses. It was, as usual, the poor that really suffered.\r\n<h3 id=\"a-change-in-pictorial-space\">A change in pictorial space<\/h3>\r\nThe Impressionists\u2019 treatment of pictorial space was also often unusual. Traditional\u00a0Academic\u00a0artists tended to favor centered, closed, and balanced compositions such as David\u2019s\u00a0<em>Oath of the Horatii<\/em>, in which the action is carefully staged for the viewer at a measured distance back from the picture plane.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/davidoathsm.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/davidoathsm-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"David, Oath of the Horatii painting depicts a group of ancient soldiers swearing an oath by raising swords, symbolizing loyalty and unity. Scene features classical architecture with arches and columns, soldiers in armor on left, and distressed women seated on right.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2022\" \/><\/a> Jacques-Louis David, <em>Oath of the Horatii,<\/em> 1784, oil on canvas, 3.3 x 4.25 m, painted in Rome, exhibited at the salon of 1785 (Mus\u00e9e du Louvre, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:David-Oath_of_the_Horatii-1784.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAlthough we can infer our viewpoint in Monet\u2019s\u00a0<em>Boulevard des Capucines<\/em>, it is unusual in that the artist gives us no clear place to stand in the work, and the orthogonal lines of the boulevard sweep off the right-hand side of the canvas, as though we were leaning perilously out a window or over a balcony railing. Similarly, Degas\u2019s\u00a0<em>Le Caf\u00e9-Concert aux Ambassadeurs<\/em>\u00a0is remarkable for its failure to use any perspectival techniques to create space for its thicket of bodies, which emphasizes the sense of being jostled in the middle of a crowd.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/DegasAtTheRaces.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/DegasAtTheRaces-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Degas, At the Races in the Countryside (detail) painting depicting a leisurely outdoor scene with people in horse-drawn carriages on a vast green field under a partly cloudy sky. Central figures include a man in a top hat holding reins and a woman with a parasol, accompanied by a black dog, highlighting a calm, social atmosphere.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1526\" \/><\/a> Edgar Degas, <em>At the Races in the Countryside<\/em> (detail), 1869, oil on canvas, 36.5 x 55.9 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Edgar_Degas_-_At_the_Races_in_the_Countryside_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nEven more unusual is Degas\u2019s treatment of pictorial space in his painting\u00a0<em>At the Races in the Countryside<\/em>, a scene set at one of the racetracks situated on the outskirts of Paris. The main focus of the work is obvious: the\u00a0wet nurse\u00a0and child, who are framed by the carriage door below and by a yellow parasol above, and who are the focus of attention of the child\u2019s mother, the driver of the carriage (Paul Valpin\u00e7on, the child\u2019s father), and their dog. This focal point is placed at the exact horizontal center of the canvas, as we might expect, but Degas appears to have achieved this placement at considerable cost to the rest of the composition. The work is egregiously unbalanced, the right hand side being crowded with heavy, dark shapes and the left hand side relatively light and empty. Furthermore, one of the horses is cropped awkwardly at the nose; the legs of both horses and the wheels of the carriage are abruptly truncated; and the carriage on the left, which is already leaning perilously to the right, has had its left supporting wheel cut off by the edge of the canvas. The work has the appearance of an amateur photographic snapshot, where subjects are frequently centered but little attention is paid to what is happening at the edges of the composition.\r\n\r\nUnlike a photograph, however, a painting cannot be executed in a fraction of a second, and it would have been remarkably careless if Degas had trapped himself into this unbalanced composition and these odd truncations of the figures by beginning his work in the wrong place or at the wrong scale\u2014or if, when he saw what was happening, he did not correct it. We must conclude that Degas actively sought the effects of imbalance and seemingly arbitrary cropping, no matter how unusual or awkward they may seem. Why? In a review of the second exhibition of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/what-does-impressionism-mean\/\">Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 anonyme<\/a>\u00a0(1876), the critic Edmond Duranty justified these and similar violations of conventional pictorial space and carefully organized compositions by asserting their greater truth to lived visual experience:\r\n\r\n\u201cPeople and things have a thousand ways of being unexpected in reality. Our point of view is not always in the middle of a room with two side walls receding toward the back wall; it does not always arrange the lines and angles of cornices with mathematical symmetry. . . .[One\u2019s viewpoint] is sometimes very high, sometimes very low, sometimes it misses the ceiling, views objects from their undersides, unexpectedly cuts off the furniture. . . .\r\n\r\nA man in a room or on a street is not always standing in a straight line at an equal distance from two parallel objects; he is likely to be situated on one side of the space. He is never in the center of the canvas or in the center of the setting. He is not always shown as a whole; sometimes he appears cut off at mid-leg, or half-length, or sliced longitudinally. Sometimes, one sees him very close-up, at full size, while very tiny, far back in the distance appears a crowd in the street or groups assembled in a public place. [footnote]As quoted in Linda Nochlin,\u00a0<em>Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, 1874-1904: Sources and Documents<\/em>\u00a0(Prentice Hall, 1966), p. 6.[\/footnote]\u201d\r\n<h3 id=\"old-systems-fall-apart-and-new-ones-take-their-place\">Old systems fall apart and new ones take their place<\/h3>\r\nNotice that Duranty justified the radical spatial and compositional effects of Impressionism by describing the new artists\u2019 paintings as more accurate than the established conventions of academic painting. Our views as we move through the world are not always centered and balanced; nor does space always recede with the mathematical regularity typical of traditional academic paintings. The systematic perspectival techniques that had dominated Western art since the Italian Renaissance, and which had been formulated to help make paintings look more true to life, are revealed to be mere artifices. The type of argument Duranty employed becomes a commonplace not only of Impressionism but of other movements as well: surprising new pictorial effects, which at first sight appear to be errors, are justified as being more accurate than the established conventions of past art. In this way modern art can sometimes remind us that what we think of as \u201crealistic\u201d or \u201cnatural\u201d really only describes the social and artistic conventions to which we are so habituated that we accept them without question.\r\n<h2 id=\"impressionism-painting-modern-life\">Impressionism: painting modern life<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2500\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Monet-Bridge-at-Argenteuil.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Monet-Bridge-at-Argenteuil.jpg\" alt=\"Monet, The Railroad Bridge in Argenteuil painting of a train crossing a bridge over a river, showcasing impressionist brushwork and a natural landscape. Features smoke from the train, reflections in water, and lush greenery framing the scene.\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1848\" \/><\/a> Claude Monet, <em>The Railroad Bridge in Argenteuil (Le pont du chemin de fer \u00e0 Argenteuil)<\/em>, 1873-74, oil on canvas, 54 x 71 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.musee-orsay.fr\/en\/collections\/index-of-works\/notice.html?no_cache=1&amp;nnumid=001012&amp;cHash=885c21ee93\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris<\/a>, Souce: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Claude_Monet_-_The_Railway_Bridge_at_Argenteuil_(Philadelphia).jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n<h3 id=\"aggressively-modern\">Aggressively modern<\/h3>\r\nThis is one of many paintings by Monet of the railroad bridge leading to Argenteuil, a small town on the outskirts of Paris where the artist lived in the 1870s. The painting demonstrates the Impressionists\u2019 well-known interest in depicting nature and the effects of weather and light, seen here in the expanse of white clouds in blue sky and the reflections in the rippling surface of the river. Highly textured dark green bushes and grass are built up with visible brushstrokes and anchor the painting\u2019s composition on left and right. The subject of the painting, however, is not a timeless rural scene (these were popular with the public \u2014 see, for example,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/artsandculture.google.com\/asset\/seine-and-old-bridge-at-limay\/8AE7F2g5kUUYsw\">this painting<\/a>\u00a0by Corot), but an aggressively modern one of a railroad bridge with a train heading over the river.\r\n\r\nThe bridge was rebuilt at the beginning of the decade after its predecessor was destroyed in the Franco-Prussian war, and its parts were forged at the local ironworks. The steam engine racing across the bridge creates its own billowing gray steam clouds, competing with the natural ones. The sweeping perspective of the bridge suggests the speed and dynamism of modern transportation technology, but Monet also shows that technology as integrally connected to the natural world. The rickety wooden fence in the foreground creates a contrast between old construction materials and the massive concrete and iron pylons supporting the new bridge. Old and new strain to integrate in the modern landscape.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1336\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Claude_Monet_1873-74_Boulevard_des_Capucines_oil_on_canvas_80.3_x_60.3_cm_Nelson-Atkins_Museum_of_Art_Kansas_City.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Claude_Monet_1873-74_Boulevard_des_Capucines_oil_on_canvas_80.3_x_60.3_cm_Nelson-Atkins_Museum_of_Art_Kansas_City.jpg\" alt=\"Monet, Boulevard des Capucines Impressionist painting depicting a bustling city street scene with numerous pedestrians and tall buildings fading into a misty background. Soft, muted colors and loose brushstrokes create an atmospheric effect, highlighting movement and urban life in a late 19th-century setting.\" width=\"1336\" height=\"1800\" \/><\/a> Claude Monet, <em>Boulevard des Capucines<\/em>, 1873-74, oil on canvas, 80.3 x 60.3 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/art.nelson-atkins.org\/objects\/17852\/boulevard-des-capucines?ctx=a1c38e73-576b-4ef6-b3bb-201881ca83f0&amp;idx=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City<\/a>, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Claude_Monet,_1873-74,_Boulevard_des_Capucines,_oil_on_canvas,_80.3_x_60.3_cm,_Nelson-Atkins_Museum_of_Art,_Kansas_City.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n<h3 id=\"subjects-that-matter\">Subjects that matter<\/h3>\r\nUntil the last decades of the twentieth century the scholarship on Impressionism paid relatively little attention to the subject matter chosen by the artists. \u00a0Before then, art historians mostly concentrated on the style of the works and the way Impressionist innovations in form heralded or consolidated what seemed to them to be the most significant feature of modern art: the liberation of the artist from the constraints of convention, and the \u201cevolution\u201d of art toward flatness and abstraction. In recent decades, however, art historians have seriously considered the subject matter represented in Impressionist paintings and how this subject matter would have been understood by contemporary viewers.\r\n<h3 id=\"painting-modern-life\">Painting modern life<\/h3>\r\nThe Impressionist style can, of course, be applied to any subject matter, but Impressionist artists concentrated on a surprisingly limited range of subjects: typically, middle-class leisure in modern urban or suburban environments such as the Paris boulevard depicted in Monet\u2019s\u00a0<em>Boulevard des Capucines<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0<em>Railroad Bridge at Argenteuil.<\/em>\u00a0In one sense, the Impressionists continued the tradition of earlier nineteenth-century\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/a-beginners-guide-to-realism\/\">Realists<\/a>\u00a0like Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet (for example in his painting\u00a0<em>L\u2019Ang\u00e9lus<\/em>) in their insistence on painting scenes from contemporary life. They rejected historical, mythological, and other exotic subjects and took as their dictum, \u201c<em>Il faut \u00eatre de son temps,<\/em>\u201d \u201cone must be of one\u2019s own time.\u201d\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2538\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/angelus.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/angelus.jpg\" alt=\"Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet, The Angelus, painting depicting two peasants standing in a field during sunset, heads bowed in prayer. Dark earthy tones dominate, with a pitchfork and wheelbarrow visible, emphasizing themes of labor and humility.\" width=\"2538\" height=\"2106\" \/><\/a> Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet, <em>L\u2019Ang\u00e9lus<\/em>, c. 1857-1859, oil on canvas, 21 x 26 (53.3 \u00d7 66.0 cm) (Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Millet_-_The_Angelus_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nHowever, for the Impressionists, unlike the Realists, contemporary subjects typically did not mean rural or provincial scenes, which often suggested timeless forms of life and labor (as in Millet\u2019s\u00a0<em>L\u2019Ang\u00e9lus<\/em>), but rather urban and suburban subjects that were changing rapidly. In this they are among the first artists to examine an important change in human geography that had significantly transformed the human experience: the shift of populations from primarily rural to urban areas that accompanied the Industrial Revolution and its large-scale economic shift from agricultural to industrial production.\r\n\r\nIn 1863, the poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire wrote an influential essay titled \u201cThe Painter of Modern Life\u201d that called for an artist who would stroll through the new spaces of the city, keenly observing the actions of its inhabitants and viewing the streets and crowds as though they constituted a sort of improvised theater put on for his observation. Monet\u2019s\u00a0<em>Boulevard des Capucines<\/em>\u00a0presents a characteristically modern scene of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/haussmann-the-demolisher-and-the-creation-of-modern-paris\/\">broad, tree-lined boulevards<\/a>\u00a0that were cut across the older, less regular streets and alleys of Paris, offering a sweeping perspective that was not previously available in the city.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2500\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Manet-bar-full.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Manet-bar-full.jpg\" alt=\"\u00c9douard Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re, painting depicting a barmaid standing behind a marble counter with various bottles, a bowl of oranges, and a glass with a flower. Background shows a crowded caf\u00e9 with patrons and a large mirror reflecting the scene, highlighting social interaction and urban nightlife.\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1883\" \/><\/a> \u00c9douard Manet, <em>A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re<\/em>, 1882, oil on canvas, 96 x 130 cm (Courtauld Gallery, London; photo:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/XK1i57\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Steven Zucker<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/deed.en\">CC BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAlthough they did not insist upon technological subjects as much as later modern art movements such as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/balla-light\/\">Italian Futurism<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/charles-demuth-i-saw-the-figure-5-in-gold\/\">American Precisionism<\/a>\u00a0did, the Impressionists had a recognizable predilection for painting the spaces of Paris as it had been transformed within the past few decades. Along with the more stereotypical\u00a0<em>plein-air<\/em>\u00a0garden and landscape subjects, the Impressionists also frequently turned to scenes of contemporary urban experience. They painted Parisian caf\u00e9s and beer halls; they painted the large theaters, opera houses, and cabarets of the city\u2019s night-life, illuminated by the eerie green glow of the new gas lighting; they painted the bridges and grand boulevards of\u00a0modern urban planning; they painted the new train stations, glass-and-iron cathedrals to modern technology and its promise of rapid movement of goods and ease of travel; and they painted the suburban restaurants, racetracks, beach resorts, and parks where the rising middle classes spent their leisure hours. \u00a0These subjects may appear charmingly quaint to our eyes, but at the time they were as aggressively contemporary as paintings of skyscrapers, airports, highway rest areas, and office parks would be today.\r\n<h3 id=\"middle-class-leisure\">Middle-class leisure<\/h3>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2500\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Caillebotte-Rainy-Day.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Caillebotte-Rainy-Day.jpg\" alt=\"Caillebotte, Paris Street; Rainy Day painting depicts a rainy urban street scene with several people walking under umbrellas along cobblestone pavement. Central figures include a well-dressed man and woman holding umbrellas, surrounded by muted tones and detailed architecture, emphasizing atmosphere and daily life in a historical city setting.\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1910\" \/><\/a> Gustave Caillebotte, <em>Paris Street; Rainy Day<\/em>, 1877, oil on canvas, 212.2 x 276.2 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/artworks\/20684\/paris-street-rainy-day\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Art Institute of Chicago<\/a>, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Gustave_Caillebotte_-_Paris_Street;_Rainy_Day_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAlso unlike the Realists, the Impressionists tended to paint\u00a0<em>middle class leisure<\/em>\u00a0rather than\u00a0<em>lower class labor<\/em>. This is a somewhat surprising limitation. Living alongside affluent urban professionals and moving through the same streets were thousands of poor manual laborers. \u00a0But when we examine a panoramic street scene such as Gustave Caillebotte\u2019s\u00a0<em>Paris Street; Rainy Day<\/em>\u2014another view of a modern boulevard\u2014it is surprising to note there is only one person on the street whose dress marks him as lower class and whose occupation signals active labor: a distant man carrying a ladder, easily overlooked just to the right of the foreground man\u2019s head. The exceptions to this general rule that the Impressionists painted bourgeois leisure rather than lower-class labor actually help to prove the rule. Impressionist paintings that show lower-class labor tend to depict the support industries of middle-class leisure: caf\u00e9 waiters, beer-hall waitresses, cabaret singers, ballet dancers, laundresses, milliners, and prostitutes (and not the labor necessary to maintain the infrastructure of the city and the basic needs of its inhabitants). Even the paintings of lower class labor are fundamentally about middle class leisure.\r\n<h2 id=\"claude-monet-impression-sunrise\">Claude Monet,\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em><\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/dezoomify-result-27-scaled.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/dezoomify-result-27-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"Monet, Impression Sunrise painting depicting a harbor scene at sunrise with boats on water and industrial structures in the background. Features muted blue and gray tones with a striking red sun and its reflection creating contrast and atmosphere.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1980\" \/><\/a> Claude Monet, <em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>, 1872, oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marmottan.fr\/notice\/4014\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mus\u00e9e Marmottan<\/a>, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Monet_-_Impression,_Sunrise.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a> in the United States).[\/caption]\r\n\r\n\u201cImpression\u2014I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in it \u2026 and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! Wallpaper in an embryonic state is more finished than that seascape.\u201d Louis Leroy, \u201cExhibition des Impressionnistes,\u201d\u00a0<em>Le Charivari<\/em>\u00a0(25 April 1874), as translated in John Rewald,\u00a0<em>The History of Impressionism<\/em>\u00a0(1946)\r\n\r\nThe bright, burning orange sun rises in the distance, casting rays of light across a calm morning in the Port of Le Havre. The rippling waters of the port\u2019s inlet create small waves that anticipate the day\u2019s activity. Three fishing boats float into the distance, where construction of a dock is visible through the morning mist. The cool blue, green, and white hues dominating the landscape are interrupted by the sunlight that radiates across the water.\r\n<h3 id=\"industry-and-global-exchange\">Industry and global exchange<\/h3>\r\nClaude Monet\u2019s<em>\u00a0Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0is best known for being the painting that established Impressionism as a new movement in art history, as it shocked critics who first saw it in an 1874 exhibition in Paris.\r\n\r\nOn the surface, the painting appears to capture a quiet morning at Le Havre, but a closer look offers insight into its context. The painting\u2019s material, technique, and subject matter reflects the influence of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/becoming-modern-an-introduction\/\">modernity<\/a>\u00a0on artmaking at this time, and also highlights trade networks between France and Japan that gained momentum in the 1860s and 1870s. Monet\u2019s\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0is not only an engaging study of the effects of light and color, but it also reveals a changing world of industry and global exchange in 19th-century France.\r\n<h3 id=\"modernity-en-plein-air\">Modernity\u00a0en plein air<\/h3>\r\nMonet\u2019s painting was made shortly after he returned to France from London, where he lived for two years to avoid the\u00a0Franco-Prussian War.\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0was one of several paintings Monet made during his visit to Le Havre, a major port city in Northern France where he spent most of his childhood. Although the perspective of the scene indicates that Monet painted from his window at the H\u00f4tel de l\u2019Amiraut\u00e9, the painting captured the fleeting effect of a sunrise on the water.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1753\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/monet-impression-sky.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/monet-impression-sky.jpg\" alt=\"The misty sky over Le Havre (detail), Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise depicting an industrial landscape with smokestacks emitting dark smoke against a hazy sky. The scene features muted colors with a prominent orange sun, highlighting environmental pollution and atmospheric effects.\" width=\"1753\" height=\"986\" \/><\/a> The misty sky over Le Havre (detail), Claude Monet, <em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>, 1872, oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marmottan.fr\/notice\/4014\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mus\u00e9e Marmottan<\/a>, Paris)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe expressive movement of Monet\u2019s brush is evident in the streaks of orange, red, pink, gray, blue, and white pigment that blend together to form the misty sky over Le Havre. These painterly brushstrokes reflect a new technique called\u00a0<em>en plein air<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cin open air\u201d), which gained popularity in the 1860s. Artists that worked in this style left their studios to paint outdoors, using rapid brushstrokes to quickly capture the effect of light and color on the atmosphere.\r\n\r\nAlthough\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0was painted in a room overlooking the port, Monet had started experimenting with the\u00a0<em>plein air<\/em> technique by 1872, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tate.org.uk\/art\/artworks\/sargent-claude-monet-painting-by-the-edge-of-a-wood-n04103\">1885 painting by John Singer Sargent<\/a> shows him painting in this style.\r\n\r\nThe palette in Monet\u2019s left hand is loaded with fresh paint that he carried with him to this destination. He leans forward to add more pigment to the canvas on his easel, which is turned toward the viewer to reveal a loosely painted landscape. Sargent\u2019s rendering also embraced\u00a0<em>plein air<\/em>\u00a0painting, as the artist worked quickly to capture his friend.\r\n\r\nArtists who painted\u00a0<em>en plein air<\/em>\u00a0were influenced by new tools for art-making that developed as a result of the\u00a0Industrial Revolution.\u00a0 John Rand\u2019s collapsible paint tube, for example, changed the way paint could be stored. For centuries, artists had preserved their expensive pigments in pig\u2019s bladders, but they were unable to be sealed, which meant that paint was sometimes wasted. The collapsible paint tube not only solved this problem because artists could open and close them with a cap, but they also improved the portability of materials. The canvases they painted out in the world were no longer preliminary sketches or studies, but the finished work of art.\r\n<h3 id=\"fleeting-moments-in-paint-and-print\">Fleeting moments in paint and print<\/h3>\r\nMonet\u2019s composition for\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0was influenced by his interest in and collection of Japanese prints. Prior to 1853 (and for 200 years), Japan had been isolated from the rest of the world. In 1853, American warships were sent on a mission to Tokyo Harbor to pressure Japan to open trade negotiations with the United States and Europe. Japanese prints, fabrics, ceramics, and other art materials flooded European and American shops, and were snatched up by collectors looking for the latest fashionable items.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/whistler.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/whistler-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Whistler, Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden Screen, painting depicting a woman dressed in a richly patterned purple and white kimono seated on a carpeted floor, surrounded by colorful prints or paintings. The background features a folding screen with traditional Japanese artwork, and an easel stands to the right, suggesting an artistic or contemplative setting.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1875\" \/><\/a> James McNeill Whistler, <em>Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden Screen<\/em>, 1864, oil on wood panel, 50.1 x 68.5 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/asia.si.edu\/explore-art-culture\/collections\/search\/edanmdm:fsg_F1904.75a\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Museum of Asian Art<\/a>, Washington, D.C., Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:James_McNeill_Whistler_-_Caprice_in_Purple_and_Gold-_The_Golden_Screen_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nJames Whistler\u2019s\u00a0<em>Caprice in Purple and Gold<\/em>\u00a0depicts a model dressed in a kimono gazing at a collection of prints. Whistler\u2019s painting reflects the prevalence of<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/japonisme\/\">\u00a0japonisme<\/a>, a term that describes the Euro-American fascination with Japanese art and aesthetics at this period. The folding screen creates the impression of a flattened background, which evokes the flatness and closely-cropped compositions of Japanese\u00a0ukiyo-e\u00a0prints.\r\n\r\nJaponisme coincided with modern art\u2019s radical upending of the Western artistic tradition and had significant effects on Western painting and printmaking. In this regard, Japanese art affected modern art in much the same way that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/primitivism-and-modern-art\/\">encounters with African and Oceanic art<\/a>\u00a0and artifacts did a few decades later. Many late-19th century modern artists not only admired and collected Japanese prints, they derived and adopted both compositional and stylistic approaches from them.\r\n\r\nJapanese woodblock prints called\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/hokusai-under-the-wave-off-kanagawa-the-great-wave\/\">ukiyo-e<\/a>, or \u201cpictures of the floating world,\u201d were a cheap popular art form in Japan during the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/japan-edo-period\/\">Edo Period<\/a>\u00a0(1615-1868).\u00a0 They were associated with urban entertainment districts (the so-called floating world) in Japan and typically portrayed famous actors, courtesans, and wrestlers, as well as landscape views of well-known sites. Ukiyo-e prints first appeared in Europe as packaging material used to protect valuable imported porcelain objects, but they attracted the interest of European artists and art collectors and were soon imported for their own sake.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1335\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/DP121525.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/DP121525.jpg\" alt=\"Utagawa Hiroshige, &quot;Sudden Shower over Shin-\u014chashi Bridge and Atake,&quot; woodblock print depicting a curved wooden bridge with five people crossing under heavy rain, each wearing traditional Japanese rain gear. Dark blue and green tones highlight rain streaks and distant landscape, with red rectangular cartouches containing Japanese characters in upper right and lower left corners.\" width=\"1335\" height=\"1908\" \/><\/a> Utagawa Hiroshige, <em>Sudden Shower over Shin-\u014chashi Bridge and Atake<\/em>, from the series<em> One Hundred Famous Views of Edo<\/em>, 1857, woodblock print, ink and color on paper, 34 x 24.1 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/art\/collection\/search\/36461\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/a>, New York, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nClaude Monet started building his own collection of Japanese prints in the 1860s. A famous work in his collection was Utagawa Hiroshige\u2019s \u201cSudden Shower over Shin-\u014chashi Bridge and Atake.\u201d Hiroshige\u2019s scene captures a view of the Sumida River during a torrential downpour. People crossing the bridge in the foreground duck under parasols, hats, and blankets to protect themselves from the rain. Through the streaks of rain, a single figure is on the river, guiding their boat through the water. Hiroshige\u2019s scene is closely cropped, giving the viewer a diagonal viewpoint toward the river. The artist uses varying shades of blue to show the sky, distant shore, and river, and dark lines create the impression of moving water and pouring rain.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/dezoomify-result-27-scaled.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/dezoomify-result-27-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"Monet, Impression Sunrise painting depicting a harbor scene at sunrise with boats on water and industrial structures in the background. Features muted blue and gray tones with a striking red sun and its reflection creating contrast and atmosphere.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1980\" \/><\/a> Claude Monet, <em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>, 1872, oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marmottan.fr\/notice\/4014\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mus\u00e9e Marmottan<\/a>, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Monet_-_Impression,_Sunrise.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a> in the United States)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0uses several techniques employed in\u00a0<em>Sudden Shower<\/em>, indicating that Monet borrowed from Hiroshige\u2019s print. Instead of using traditional techniques like\u00a0linear perspective, Monet painted three boats at the center of the work to produce a diagonal line that implies receding space. The sky and water are only distinguishable from each other through the shadowy dock (the Quai au Bois) that stretches from one side of the painting to the other. The painterly brushwork creates an impression of flatness. Hiroshige and Monet both use a cool color palette to evoke the essence of a moment: whereas Hiroshige\u2019s scene shows the power of the\u00a0<em>y\u016bdachi<\/em>, a powerful rainfall that darkened the daytime skies, Monet depicts the calm, misty start to a busy day at the sea port.\r\n<h3 id=\"industry-and-trade-at-the-port-of-le-havre\">Industry and trade at the Port of Le Havre<\/h3>\r\nAlthough\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0was neither Monet\u2019s first, nor his only painting to feature Le Havre, it captures a period of growth for the port, indicative of France\u2019s participation in global trade and commerce. In the 18th century, Le Havre underwent its first major expansion to increase France\u2019s participation in the slave trade, and by the 19th century, it was rebuilt several times to meet the needs of a newly industrialized nation.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2483\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/boudin.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/boudin.jpg\" alt=\"A maritime painting depicting several sailing and rowboats on choppy waters near a harbor under a cloudy sky. The scene features detailed ships with billowing sails, smoke from steam vessels, and figures rowing, capturing dynamic movement and atmospheric weather conditions.\" width=\"2483\" height=\"1775\" \/><\/a> Eug\u00e8ne Louis Boudin, <em>Port of Le Havre<\/em>, 1887, oil on canvas, 65.4 cm. x 90.5 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bowdoin.edu\/art-museum\/exhibitions\/2019\/bowdoin-collects-19th-century.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bowdoin College Museum of Art<\/a>, Brunswick)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nEug\u00e8ne Louis Boudin\u2019s 1887 painting shows Le Havre on a busy day, with boats making their way across the harbor as ships enter to escape the storm clouds billowing in the distance. The dock on the right side of the painting is filled with workers who have already unloaded a ship.\r\n\r\nMonet painted several scenes of the port between 1865 and 1880, and they reveal the way that his style and technique developed over time. His <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nortonsimon.org\/art\/detail\/M.1999.2.2.P\">1867 painting of Le Havre<\/a> shows a busy port scene <em>en plein air<\/em>, with several shades of green and white to indicate the motion of churning waves. By 1872, Monet had embraced singular, horizontal strokes of dark blue to imply the water\u2019s movement in\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>.\r\n\r\nAs he painted\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>, the Quai au Bois was being reconstructed as part of a larger project to widen Le Havre\u2019s entrance, and Monet emphasized this industrial progress in the form of cranes silhouetted against the morning sky. In another 1872 painting,<em>\u00a0Le Havre: Night Effect<\/em>, Monet painted the same scene at night.\u00a0 Its predominant shades of black, blue, and gray are interrupted by touches of white, yellow, and red.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2000\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/MB-Mon-04_Monet_Der-Hafen-von-Le-Havre-am-Abend_1.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/MB-Mon-04_Monet_Der-Hafen-von-Le-Havre-am-Abend_1.jpg\" alt=\"Monet, The Port of Le Havre, Night Effect, painting depicting a nighttime harbor scene with boats and reflections of lights on water. Dark blue and black tones dominate, with small bright spots of yellow, red, and green highlighting distant lights and boat details.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1477\" \/><\/a> Claude Monet, <em>The Port of Le Havre, Night Effect<\/em>, 1872, oil on canvas, 60 x 81 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/sammlung.museum-barberini.de\/en\/MB-Mon-04_claude-monet-the-port-of-le-havre-night-effect\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Museum Barberini<\/a>, Potsdam, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Monet_-_the-port-of-le-havre-night-effect.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nMonet\u2019s painterly technique used in the 1872 scenes of Le Havre visually evoked the transitory nature of port life in the 1860s and 70s: it highlights the constant ebb and flow of trade, commerce, and nature. Both paintings are recognizable in that they depict an identifiable subject\u2014but their surfaces have been dematerialized. Monet\u2019s painting is a collection of brushstrokes on a canvas support. It is not a representation of a sunrise but an impression of one.\r\n<h3 id=\"a-revolution-in-painting\">\u201cA Revolution in Painting!\u201d<\/h3>\r\nOn April 15, 1874, eager visitors gathered in a studio on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris to view one hundred and sixty-five works by members of the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers. The exhibition took place in a private studio owned by the photographer Nadar, and represented a significant moment in the Parisian art world. The 1874 show highlighted a broad range of artworks that defied the rigid categories embraced by the traditional art world, and\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0was among the most notable of them.\r\n\r\nThe exhibition marked a public rejection of the\u00a0Salon\u00a0system in Paris, and established itself as independent from other official spaces dedicated to art. Although smaller venues existed in which artists could show their work, the Salon had been the primary venue for exhibiting since the 17th century. In the second half of the 19th century, artists more frequently showed their work in spaces free from the constraints of the Salon\u2014but this traditional venue continued to wield significant power in the art world. Although the 1874 show is commonly referred to as \u201cthe first Impressionist exhibition,\u201d it was populated by artists who worked in a variety of styles and formats. They consciously departed from Salon practices by hanging their works in two rows so that visitors could clearly see all of them.\r\n\r\nMonet exhibited five paintings and seven pastels at the show.\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0captured the attention of critics who were shocked by the work\u2019s sketchiness. In his review of the 1874 show, Louis Leroy disparaged Monet\u2019s painting by comparing it to \u201cwallpaper,\u201d implying that the work had no value or purpose beyond decoration. [footnote]\u201cThese are everyone\u2019s personal notes. The common concept which unites them as a group and gives them a collective strength in the midst of our crumbling epoch is the determination not to search for a smooth execution, but to be satisfied with a general aspect. Once the impression is captured, they declare their work is done. The adjective Japonais, which was first applied to them, was meaningless. If one wants to characterize them with a single word that explains their efforts, one would have to create the new term of \u2018Impressionists.\u2019 They are Impressionists in the sense that they render not a landscape but the sensation produced by a landscape. This very word has entered their language: not landscape but impression, in the title given in the catalogue for Mr. Monet\u2019s Sunrise. From this point of view, they have left reality behind for a realm of pure idealism.\u201d Jules-Antoine Castagnary, exhibition review,\u00a0<em>Le Si\u00e8cle<\/em>\u00a0(April 29, 1874), reproduced in\u00a0<em>Monet\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0<em>Impression Sunrise: The Biography of a Painting<\/em>\u00a0(Paris: Mus\u00e9e Marmottan Monet, 2014), p. 19.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nMonet\u2019s loose brushwork and the subject matter of a modern working port did not reflect the traditional characteristics for high art. It does not depict the mythological or battle scenes embraced by French history paintings, nor does it express an overt moral or political message. Instead, it captures a fleeting moment in time using rapid brushwork and bright colors.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/claude-monets-impression-sunrise\/?__cf_chl_f_tk=NIaTwwca7OXUrKt2.kfrdsopoMaxMxl8UoW1MPcstrQ-1782756120-1.0.1.1-bAvGDQHO7S_Crqvtcfs.NzTSEdPpW5XDxPxCdvtSBt0\">An 1874 cartoon<\/a> depicts men gasping in horror at the framed paintings in the show. The curved lines on the canvases implies that they are painted <em>en plein air<\/em>. One figure exclaims, \u201cA Revolution in Painting! And a terrorizing beginning.\u201d Other visitors to the exhibition celebrated Monet\u2019s work for its modern characteristics. Jules-Antoine Castagnary emphasized his ability to capture a subject using an innovative technique, arguing that it depicted \u201cnot a landscape, but the sensation produced by a landscape.\u201d [footnote]\u201cImpression\u2014I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in it \u2026 and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! Wallpaper in an embryonic state is more finished than that seascape.\u201d Louis Leroy, \u201cExhibition des Impressionnistes,\u201d published in\u00a0<em>Le Charivari (<\/em>25 April 1874), translated in John Rewald,\u00a0<em>The History of Impressionism<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1946 and reproduced on Artchive).[\/footnote]\r\n\r\nOn the surface, Claude Monet\u2019s\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0captures a quiet morning in the port of Le Havre, but a closer look at the work offers insight into many changes taking place in 19th-century Europe. Monet\u2019s work depicts a moment of growth for the port, indicative of France\u2019s participation in global trade and commerce. Moreover, its flattened composition not only reflects Monet\u2019s embrace of new, industrial art materials, but also provides insight into the artist\u2019s collection and study of Japanese prints. Monet\u2019s inclusion of this work in the 1874 exhibition reveals a new moment of painting that departs from past traditions.\r\n<h2 id=\"pierre-auguste-renoir-moulin-de-la-galette\">Pierre-Auguste Renoir,\u00a0<em>Moulin de la Galette<\/em><\/h2>\r\nA French painter, printmaker, and sculptor, Pierre-Auguste Renoir is known for his personal form of Impressionism, creating monumental works inspired by Old Masters.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=o6amlRsb1n4\r\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--key-takeaways\"><header class=\"textbox__header\">\r\n<h2 class=\"textbox__title\">Practicing Visual Analysis<\/h2>\r\n<\/header>\r\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\r\n\r\nRenoir\u2019s <em>Moulin de la Galette<\/em> illustrates Impressionism\u2019s interest in the transitory effects of <strong>light<\/strong> and <strong>color<\/strong>. Using Impressionism\u2019s technique of the optical mixing of <strong>color<\/strong>, Renoir layered his oil paint in strokes of color directly on top of one another rather than premixing on the palette. Look closely. You will see that one figure\u2019s coat is comprised of layered blue, green, and white. The black you <em>think<\/em> you see is really blue and purple, with yellow and white for highlights. The dappling of <strong>sunlight<\/strong> on the figures\u2019 clothes suggests the light filters in from a canopy of unseen trees. No <strong>contour lines<\/strong> are used. Instead, <strong>forms<\/strong> are suggested through brushstrokes of <strong>color<\/strong>. In his <strong>asymmetrical composition<\/strong>, the lack of <strong>contour lines<\/strong> contributes to the suggestion of movement. Influenced by photography, Impressionists like Renoir integrated aesthetics from photography like the snapshot effect, where a figure or form is cut off from the <strong>composition<\/strong>, and blur (motion captured). With the <strong>forms<\/strong> in movement, Renoir suggested a dynamic scene of Parisians enjoying the joie-de-vivre (joy of life) of the new modern urban Paris.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h2 id=\"\u00e9douard-manet-a-bar-at-the-folies-berg\u00e8re\">\u00c9douard Manet,\u00a0<em>A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re<\/em><\/h2>\r\nMost strongly associated with Realism, \u00c9douard Manet experimented with multiple styles in his pursuit of subject matter that reflected modern urban life. Manet\u2019s <em>A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re<\/em> uses Impressionist techniques while maintaining his interest in the new modern world.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iHuewgZR17s\r\n<h2 id=\"edgar-degas-the-dance-class\">Edgar Degas,\u00a0<em>The Dance Class<\/em><\/h2>\r\nAlthough a founding member of the Impressionists, Edgar Degas regarded himself as a Realist, capturing modern urban life in pastel, paint, and sculpture. The elegance of the performance has been stripped away for an intimate look at off-duty ballerinas.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NigP3DjV3NY\r\n<h2 id=\"charles-garnier-the-paris-op\u00e9ra\">Charles Garnier, <em>The Paris Op\u00e9ra<\/em><\/h2>\r\nA master of the Beaux-Arts style, Charles Garnier is best known for his design of the Op\u00e9ra in Paris and his influence on French and American architecture. Seeing and being seen: the opera was a place of voyeurism and spectacle among the prosperous classes of the city.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EtTGyLsR7lk\r\n\r\nThe Paris Op\u00e9ra, designed by Charles Garnier, is one of the jewels of\u00a0Napoleon III\u2019s newly reconstructed city. Frequented by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/edgar-degas-the-dance-class\/\">Edgar Degas<\/a>\u00a0and the source for much of his ballet imagery, the Paris Op\u00e9ra is key to understanding the somewhat perverse culture of voyeurism and spectacle among the prosperous classes of the\u00a0Second Empire.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2079\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/ParisOpera.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/ParisOpera.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph of Palais Garnier, a historic opera house in Paris, showcasing its ornate Beaux-Arts architecture with a green copper dome, golden statues, and detailed stone carvings. People walking and standing in front highlight its status as a popular cultural landmark and tourist attraction.\" width=\"2079\" height=\"1397\" \/><\/a> Charles Garnier, Paris Op\u00e9ra, 1860\u201375, masonry walls with concealed iron floors (photo:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Paris_Opera_full_frontal_architecture,_May_2009_sky.JPG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Peter Rivera<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/deed.en\">CC BY 2.0<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nArt historians Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabel Hyman have called the huge Op\u00e9ra house,\r\n\r\n\u201cthe \u2018new cathedral\u2019 of bourgeois [middle, really upper-middle class] Paris\u2026. The glittering centerpiece of the new Paris\u2026.was meant to be much more than a theater in the ordinary sense. For Charles Garnier, an architect of the \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts, it was a setting for a ritual in which the spectators were also actors, participants in the rite of social encounter, seeing and being seen.[footnote]Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabel Hyman,\u00a0<em>Architecture, from Prehistory to Post-modernism: The Western Tradition<\/em>\u00a0(New York: H.N. Abrams, 1986), p. 449.[\/footnote]\u201d\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"870\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/AuditoriumGarnierOpera.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image265.jpeg\" alt=\"Photograph of an ornate theater interior featuring a grand stage with a richly decorated red curtain and multiple tiers of balconies adorned with gold accents and red seating. The ceiling showcases an elaborate chandelier and a colorful painting, highlighting the theater's luxurious and historic design.\" width=\"870\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a> Charles Garnier, the auditorium and stage of the Paris Op\u00e9ra, 1860\u201375 (photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/kAzF68\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fougerouse Arnaud<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/2.0\/deed.en\">CC BY-NC 2.0<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nBehind the stage are the rehearsal rooms where Degas often sketched. But the single largest area, from the front fa\u00e7ade to the seats below the dome, is reserved for the foyers and the grand stair hall. This area was, in essence, a second stage. Far more ornate then the performance stage, the lobbies of the Paris Op\u00e9ra were where the social dramas of the rich were enacted.\r\n\r\nStrolling along the new boulevards or posing in the opera\u2019s grand foyers, the ruling classes paraded their wealth. The\u00a0<em>fl\u00e2neur<\/em>, a new denizen of the city, was a man of leisure (itself a by-product of the capital generated by industrialization). Walking the streets not for work or need, but for the pleasures of observation, the\u00a0<em>fl\u00e2neur<\/em>\u00a0was at home in the Op\u00e9ra.\r\n<h2 id=\"mary-cassatt-in-the-loge\">Mary Cassatt,\u00a0<em>In the Loge<\/em><\/h2>\r\nAn American artist active in France, Mary Cassatt was a member of the Impressionists, creating works that reflected upper-class women\u2019s lives.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HVuyK_vIMfc\r\n<h2 id=\"conclusion-9\">Conclusion<\/h2>\r\nImpressionists, such as Cassatt, Degas, Renoir, and Monet, are considered painters of modern life. The word \u201cmodern\u201d was introduced in the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century and became synonymous with industrialization, capitalism, secularism, and technology. Impressionists captured the new \u201cmodern\u201d world of a revitalized Paris with its caf\u00e9 concerts, Opera House, and other venues for leisure and entertainment. Working with the techniques of painting en plein air, the optical mixing of colors, and the snapshot effect, the Impressionists transformed the entire idea of what it meant to be an artist in the modern world.\r\n<h3 id=\"citation-and-licensing-9\">Citation and Licensing<\/h3>\r\nThe following sections were written by Chelsea Wright and licensed <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA 4.0<\/a>:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Chapter Overview and Introduction<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Focus artwork and term list compiled by Chelsea Wright<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Practicing Visual Analysis<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Conclusion<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nThe following articles from <em>Smarthistory<\/em> licensed <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA 4.0<\/a> were remixed and adapted for the chapter:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Beth Gersh-Nesic, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/a-beginners-guide-to-impressionism\/\">Impressionism, an introduction<\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Charles Cramer and Dr. Kim Grant, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/impressionist-pictorial-space\/\">Impressionist pictorial space<\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, December 24, 2018.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/haussmann-the-demolisher-and-the-creation-of-modern-paris\/\">Haussmann the Demolisher and the creation of modern Paris<\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Charles Cramer and Dr. Kim Grant, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/painting-modern-life\/\">Impressionism: painting modern life<\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, April 14, 2019.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Maura Gleeson, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/claude-monets-impression-sunrise\/\">Claude Monet,\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em><\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 8, 2023.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Charles Cramer and Dr. Kim Grant, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/japonisme\/\">Japonisme<\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, June 14, 2020.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/pierre-auguste-renoir\/\">Pierre-Auguste Renoir<\/a>,\u201d in <em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/auguste-renoir-moulin-de-la-galette\/\">Auguste Renoir,\u00a0<em>Moulin de la Galette<\/em><\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, November 27, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/edouard-manet\/\">\u00c9douard Manet<\/a>,\u201d in <em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/edouard-manet-a-bar-at-the-folies-bergere\/\">\u00c9douard Manet,\u00a0<em>A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re<\/em><\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, October 1, 2017.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/edgar-degas\/\">Edgar Degas<\/a>,\u201d in <em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/edgar-degas-the-dance-class\/\">Edgar Degas,\u00a0<em>The Dance Class<\/em><\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, November 25, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/charles-garnier\/\">Charles Garnier<\/a>,\u201d in <em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/garnier-paris-opera\/\">Charles Garnier, The Paris Op\u00e9ra<\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/mary-cassatt\/\">Mary Cassatt<\/a>,\u201d in <em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/mary-cassatt-in-the-loge\/\">Mary Cassatt,\u00a0<em>In the Loge<\/em><\/a>,\" in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, December 4, 2015.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","rendered":"<h2 id=\"chapter-overview-and-introduction-9\">Chapter Overview and Introduction<\/h2>\n<p>The late 19th century style of Impressionism was a shocking and controversial style in its time. Impressionism\u2019s revolutionary approach to painting took place within the newly renovated modern city of Paris. Influenced by Japanese prints and photography, Impressionists dramatically changed their approach to pictorial space. The Impressionists introduced new artistic techniques related to pictorial space, texture, color, and light.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"focus-artworks-9\">Focus Artworks<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Claude Monet,\u00a0<em>Impression Sunrise<\/em>, 1872, oil on canvas<\/li>\n<li>Pierre-Auguste Renoir,\u00a0<em>Moulin de la Galette,<\/em>\u00a01876, oil on canvas<\/li>\n<li>\u00c9douard Manet,\u00a0<em>A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re<\/em>, oil on canvas<\/li>\n<li>Edgar Degas,\u00a0<em>The Dance Class<\/em>, 1874,\u00a0oil on canvas<\/li>\n<li>Charles Garnier,\u00a0<em>The Paris Op\u00e9ra<\/em>, 1860-75<\/li>\n<li>Mary Cassatt,<em>\u00a0In the Loge<\/em>, 1878, oil on canvas<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 id=\"term-list-9\">Term List<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Salon<\/li>\n<li>\u201cImpressions\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Impressionism<\/li>\n<li>Optical mixing of color<\/li>\n<li>En plein air<\/li>\n<li>Caf\u00e9 concert<\/li>\n<li>Photographic snapshot<\/li>\n<li>Japanese prints<\/li>\n<li>Japonisme<\/li>\n<li>Ukiyo-e prints<\/li>\n<li>Fl\u00e2neur<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"impressionism-an-introduction\">Impressionism, an introduction<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/dezoomify-result-27-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/dezoomify-result-27-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"Monet, Impression Sunrise painting depicting a harbor scene at sunrise with boats on water and industrial structures in the background. Features muted blue and gray tones with a striking red sun and its reflection creating contrast and atmosphere.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1980\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Claude Monet, <em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>, 1872, oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marmottan.fr\/notice\/4014\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mus\u00e9e Marmottan<\/a>, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Monet_-_Impression,_Sunrise.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a> in the United States). This painting was exhibited at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"apart-from-the-salon\">Apart from the salon<\/h3>\n<p>The group of artists who became known as the Impressionists did something ground-breaking\u00a0in addition to painting\u00a0their sketchy, light-filled canvases: they established their own exhibition. This may not seem like much in an era like ours, when art galleries are everywhere in major cities, but in Paris at this time, there was\u00a0one official,\u00a0state-sponsored\u00a0exhibition\u2014called the Salon\u2014and very few art galleries devoted to\u00a0the work of living artists. For most of the nineteenth century then,\u00a0the Salon was the only way to exhibit your work (and therefore the only way to establish your reputation and\u00a0make a living as an artist). The works exhibited at the Salon were chosen by a jury\u2014which could often be quite arbitrary. The artists we know today as Impressionists\u2014Claude Monet,\u00a0August Renoir,\u00a0Edgar Degas,\u00a0Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley (and several others)\u2014could not afford to wait for France to accept their work. They all had experienced rejection by the Salon jury in recent years and felt that waiting an entire year between exhibitions was too long. They needed to show their work and they wanted to sell it.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 392px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image237.jpeg\" alt=\"Edgar Degas, The Dance Class features ballerinas warming up and preparing for their ballet lesson. Figures are set in an asymmetrical composition featuring various angles of perspective to create a sense of chaos and movement.\" width=\"392\" height=\"450\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Edgar Degas,<em> The Ballet Class<\/em>, 1871-1874, oil on canvas, 75 x 85 cm (Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Edgar_Degas_-_La_Classe_de_danse.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The artists pooled their money, rented a studio that\u00a0belonged to the\u00a0photographer Nadar, and set a date for their first collective exhibition. They called themselves the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Printmakers and their first show\u00a0opened at about the same time as the annual Salon in\u00a0May 1874. The Impressionists held eight exhibitions from 1874 through 1886.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 604px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image238.jpeg\" alt=\"Renoir, Bal du moulin de la Galette painting depicting a lively outdoor dance scene with numerous people socializing and dancing under glowing street lamps and trees. The artwork features detailed clothing from the late 19th century, vibrant brushstrokes, and a warm, festive atmosphere capturing movement and light.\" width=\"604\" height=\"450\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pierre-Auguste Renoir, <em>Bal du moulin de la Galette<\/em>, 1876, oil on canvas, 131 x 175 cm (Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Pierre-Auguste_Renoir,_Le_Moulin_de_la_Galette.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The impressionists regarded Manet as their inspiration and leader in their spirit of revolution, but Manet had no desire to join their cooperative venture into independent exhibitions. Manet had set up his own pavilion during the 1867 World\u2019s Fair, but he was not interested in giving up on the Salon jury. He wanted Paris to come to him and accept him\u2014even if he had to endure their ridicule in the process.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"lack-of-finish\">Lack of finish<\/h3>\n<p>Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Sisley had met through classes. Berthe Morisot was a friend of both Degas and Manet (she would marry \u00c9douard Manet\u2019s brother Eug\u00e8ne by the end of 1874). She had been accepted to the Salon, but her work had become more experimental since then. Degas invited Morisot to join their risky effort. The first exhibition did not repay the artists\u00a0monetarily but it did draw the critics, some of whom decided their art was abominable. What they saw wasn\u2019t finished in their eyes; these were mere \u201cimpressions.\u201d This was not a compliment.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 366px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image239.jpeg\" alt=\"Morisot, The Cradle painting depicting a woman seated beside a cradle with a baby lying inside, partially covered by a sheer white canopy. The artwork features soft, muted colors with emphasis on the delicate fabric and intimate domestic scene, highlighting themes of motherhood and care.\" width=\"366\" height=\"450\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Berte Morisot, <em>The Cradle<\/em>, 1872, oil on canvas, 56 x 46 cm (Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Berthe_Morisot_-_The_Cradle_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The paintings of Neoclassical and Romantic artists had a finished appearance. The Impressionists\u2019\u00a0\u00a0completed works looked like sketches,\u00a0fast and\u00a0preliminary \u201cimpressions\u201d that artists would dash off to preserve an idea of what to paint more carefully at a\u00a0later date. Normally, an artist\u2019s \u201cimpressions\u201d were not meant to be sold, but were meant to be aids for the memory\u2014to take these ideas back to the studio for the masterpiece on canvas. The critics thought it was absurd to sell paintings that looked like slap-dash impressions and to present these paintings as\u00a0finished works.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"landscape-and-contemporary-life\">Landscape and contemporary life<\/h3>\n<p>Courbet, Manet and the Impressionists also challenged the Academy\u2019s category codes. The Academy deemed that only \u201chistory painting\u201d was great painting. These young Realists and Impressionists questioned the long-established hierarchy of subject matter. They believed that landscapes and genres scenes (scenes of contemporary life)\u00a0were worthy and important.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 2536px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image240.jpeg\" alt=\"Monet, Coquelicots, La promenade (Poppies) painting depicting a countryside scene with a field of red poppies on the left and green grass on the right under a partly cloudy sky. Four figures, including a woman holding a blue parasol, are scattered across the field, with trees and a white house visible in the background.\" width=\"2536\" height=\"1826\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Claude Monet, <em>Coquelicots, La promenade (Poppies)<\/em>, 1873, oil on canvas, 50 x 65 cm (Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Claude_Monet_037.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"light-and-color\">Light and color<\/h3>\n<p>In their landscapes and genre scenes, the Impressionist\u00a0tried to arrest a particular moment in time by pinpointing specific atmospheric conditions\u2014light flickering on water, moving clouds, a burst of rain. Their technique tried to capture what they saw. They painted small commas of pure color one next to another. When viewer stood\u00a0at a reasonable distance their eyes would see a mix of individual marks;\u00a0colors that had\u00a0blended\u00a0optically. This method created more vibrant colors than colors mixed as physical paint on a palette.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 601px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image241.jpeg\" alt=\"Monet, La Gare Saint-Lazare Impressionist painting depicting a busy train station interior with steam and smoke filling the air under a large glass roof. The scene features trains on tracks, industrial buildings, and several figures, with muted colors and soft brushstrokes conveying movement and atmosphere.\" width=\"601\" height=\"450\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Claude Monet, <em>La Gare Saint-Lazare<\/em>, 1877, oil on canvas, 75 x 104 cm (Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:La_Gare_Saint-Lazare_-_Claude_Monet.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>An important aspect of the Impressionist painting was the appearance of quickly shifting light on the surface of forms and\u00a0the representation\u00a0changing atmospheric conditions. The Impressionists\u00a0wanted to create an art that was modern by capturing the rapid pace of contemporary life\u00a0and the fleeting conditions of light.\u00a0They painted outdoors (<em>en plein air<\/em>) to capture the appearance of the light as it\u00a0flickered and faded while they worked.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"reception\">Reception<\/h3>\n<p>By the 1880s, the Impressionists accepted the name the critics gave them, though their reception in France did not improve quickly. Other artists, such as Mary Cassatt, recognized the value of the Impressionist movement and were invited to join.\u00a0American\u00a0and other non-French collectors purchased numerous works by the Impressionists. Today, a large share of Impressionist work remains outside French collections.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"impressionist-pictorial-space\">Impressionist pictorial space<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 1336px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Claude_Monet_1873-74_Boulevard_des_Capucines_oil_on_canvas_80.3_x_60.3_cm_Nelson-Atkins_Museum_of_Art_Kansas_City.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Claude_Monet_1873-74_Boulevard_des_Capucines_oil_on_canvas_80.3_x_60.3_cm_Nelson-Atkins_Museum_of_Art_Kansas_City.jpg\" alt=\"Monet, Boulevard des Capucines Impressionist painting depicting a bustling city street scene with numerous pedestrians and tall buildings fading into a misty background. Soft, muted colors and loose brushstrokes create an atmospheric effect, highlighting movement and urban life in a late 19th-century setting.\" width=\"1336\" height=\"1800\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monet, <em>Boulevard des Capucines<\/em>, 1873-74, oil on canvas, 80.3 x 60.3 cm (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Claude_Monet,_1873-74,_Boulevard_des_Capucines,_oil_on_canvas,_80.3_x_60.3_cm,_Nelson-Atkins_Museum_of_Art,_Kansas_City.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"modern-paris\">Modern Paris<\/h3>\n<p>Monet\u2019s\u00a0<em>Boulevard des Capucines<\/em>\u00a0depicts one of the grand boulevards of Paris. The\u00a0boulevard was designed by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/haussmann-the-demolisher-and-the-creation-of-modern-paris\/\">Baron Haussmann<\/a>\u00a0in the mid-19th century to cut through the tightly packed medieval center of the city. The unusually high viewpoint of the painting is taken from one of the new multistory, mixed-use commercial and apartment buildings that lined these boulevards. The painting is modern in the very simple sense that its subject would not have been possible fifty years earlier.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1032px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Degas-Cafe-Concert.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Degas-Cafe-Concert.jpg\" alt=\"Degas, Caf\u00e9-Concert at Les Ambassadeurs pastel drawing depicting a lively indoor social scene with a woman in a red dress dancing on a stage or platform, surrounded by seated and standing spectators wearing hats and formal attire. The artwork features soft, blended colors with emphasis on figures and movement, capturing the atmosphere of a late 19th-century cabaret or theater setting.\" width=\"1032\" height=\"1340\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Edgar Degas, <em>Caf\u00e9-Concert at Les Ambassadeurs<\/em>, pastel on monotype, 37 x 26 cm (Mus\u00e9e des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Degas_-_Caf%C3%A9_Concert_-_at_Les_Ambassadeurs_1876-77.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Similarly, Degas\u2019s\u00a0<em>Caf\u00e9-Concert aux Ambassadeurs<\/em>\u00a0shows a scene in one of the new nightclubs for which Paris became famous in the late nineteenth century. Starting as occasional musical acts in what were called\u00a0<em>caf\u00e9-concerts<\/em>, these nightclubs quickly evolved into massive cabarets, often with multiple stages, that included dance revues and acrobatics as well as large orchestras. Degas situates us in the crowded pit of one of these cabarets, looking through a forest of fancy hats and musical instruments at the performers on stage, who glow in the modern gas footlights. Both of these works typify the Impressionists\u2019 exploration of the new spaces of Paris, as well as the new vantage points and ways of seeing that these spaces allowed.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"the-creation-of-modern-paris-narrow-streets-and-barricades\">The Creation of Modern Paris: Narrow streets and barricades<\/h3>\n<p>During each of the previous political revolts (1789, 1830, 1848, and again in 1871), sections of Paris had succumbed to the revolutionaries. These successes were due in part to the political sympathies of the citizens of Paris, but the crooked narrow lanes of the medieval city also played a role. During times of conflict, urban mobs would blockade the maze that was the streets of Paris. Such\u00a0barricades\u00a0proved very effective and made Paris all but uncontrollable at times. Think back to Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix\u2019s painting of the revolution of 1830,\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/delacroix-liberty-leading-the-people\/\">Liberty Leading the People<\/a>\u2014<\/em>Marianne (Liberty) is shown rising over a barricade of just\u00a0this sort.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_28_Juillet._La_Liberte_guidant_le_peuple.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Eugene_Delacroix_-_Le_28_Juillet._La_Liberte_guidant_le_peuple-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830) painting depicting a dramatic revolutionary scene with a central female figure holding a French flag, leading a diverse group of fighters over fallen bodies. The composition features dynamic poses, dark and muted colors contrasted with the bright flag, and a smoky, chaotic background symbolizing struggle and uprising.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2054\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix, <em>Liberty Leading the People (July 28, 1830)<\/em>, September\u2013December 1830, oil on canvas, 260 x 325 cm (Mus\u00e9e du Louvre, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:La_Libert%C3%A9_guidant_le_peuple_-_Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre_Peintures_RF_129_-_apr%C3%A8s_restauration_2024.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure style=\"width: 1948px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Charles_Marville_Rue_St._Nicolas_du_Chardonnet_de_la_rue_Traversine_ca._1853%E2%80%9370.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Charles_Marville_Rue_St._Nicolas_du_Chardonnet_de_la_rue_Traversine_ca._185370-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Black and white photograph of a narrow, empty street lined with tall, aged buildings showing signs of wear and decay. The scene captures an urban environment with uneven pavement, visible architectural details, and a distant view of more structures under soft daylight.\" width=\"1948\" height=\"2560\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charles Marville, Rue St. Nicolas du Chardonnet, ca. 1853\u201370, one of the narrow medieval streets near the Pantheon (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Charles_Marville,_Rue_St._Nicolas_du_Chardonnet,_de_la_rue_Traversine,_ca._1853%E2%80%9370.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a> in the United States)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"napoleon-iii-and-the-second-empire\">Napoleon III and the Second Empire<\/h3>\n<p>During the period known as the Second Empire (1852\u201370), Napoleon III, the great-nephew of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/ingres-napoleon-on-his-imperial-throne\/\">Napoleon Bonaparte<\/a>\u00a0(emperor of France in the early 19th century), ruled France. He asked an administrator, Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann, to modernize Paris\u2014to bring clean water and modern sewers to the fast growing city, to light the streets with gas lanterns, to construct a central market (Les Halles), and to build parks, schools, hospitals, asylums, prisons, and administrative buildings. But the most ambitious aspect of Haussmann\u2019s plan was to literally reshape the city.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"haussmanns-reconstruction-of-paris\">Haussmann\u2019s reconstruction of Paris<\/h3>\n<p>For his role in changing the Paris cityscape, Haussmann would acquire the nickname \u201cthe demolisher.\u201d He plowed over the ancient, winding streets of the city (the same narrow streets that had proved so useful to revolutionaries). In their place, he created broad straight boulevards that were impervious to the barricade\u2014and, equally important, they could better accommodate the free movement of troops.<\/p>\n<p>The avenues also allowed for the easy flow of commerce and so were a boon for business. Napoleon III had dreamed of a new imperial city whose very streets spoke of the glory of the French empire. Haussmann delivered.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/The_Boulevard_Montmartre_on_a_Winter_Morning.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/The_Boulevard_Montmartre_on_a_Winter_Morning-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"Pissarro, The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning Impressionist painting depicting a busy Parisian street scene with horse-drawn carriages, pedestrians, and leafless trees lining both sides of the wide avenue. Soft, muted colors and loose brushstrokes create a hazy atmosphere, capturing movement and daily life in the late 19th-century urban setting.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2049\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Camille Pissarro, <em>The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning<\/em>, 1897, oil on canvas, 64.8 x 81.3 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/art\/collection\/search\/437310\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/a>, New York, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As with nearly every urban renovation, a percentage of the population was displaced. Haussmann forced citizens from their homes as these buildings were torn down to make way for the clean lines of the new city. The wealthy were quickly accommodated. The new boulevards were lined with fashionable apartment houses. It was, as usual, the poor that really suffered.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"a-change-in-pictorial-space\">A change in pictorial space<\/h3>\n<p>The Impressionists\u2019 treatment of pictorial space was also often unusual. Traditional\u00a0Academic\u00a0artists tended to favor centered, closed, and balanced compositions such as David\u2019s\u00a0<em>Oath of the Horatii<\/em>, in which the action is carefully staged for the viewer at a measured distance back from the picture plane.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/davidoathsm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/davidoathsm-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"David, Oath of the Horatii painting depicts a group of ancient soldiers swearing an oath by raising swords, symbolizing loyalty and unity. Scene features classical architecture with arches and columns, soldiers in armor on left, and distressed women seated on right.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2022\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jacques-Louis David, <em>Oath of the Horatii,<\/em> 1784, oil on canvas, 3.3 x 4.25 m, painted in Rome, exhibited at the salon of 1785 (Mus\u00e9e du Louvre, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:David-Oath_of_the_Horatii-1784.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Although we can infer our viewpoint in Monet\u2019s\u00a0<em>Boulevard des Capucines<\/em>, it is unusual in that the artist gives us no clear place to stand in the work, and the orthogonal lines of the boulevard sweep off the right-hand side of the canvas, as though we were leaning perilously out a window or over a balcony railing. Similarly, Degas\u2019s\u00a0<em>Le Caf\u00e9-Concert aux Ambassadeurs<\/em>\u00a0is remarkable for its failure to use any perspectival techniques to create space for its thicket of bodies, which emphasizes the sense of being jostled in the middle of a crowd.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/DegasAtTheRaces.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/DegasAtTheRaces-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Degas, At the Races in the Countryside (detail) painting depicting a leisurely outdoor scene with people in horse-drawn carriages on a vast green field under a partly cloudy sky. Central figures include a man in a top hat holding reins and a woman with a parasol, accompanied by a black dog, highlighting a calm, social atmosphere.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1526\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Edgar Degas, <em>At the Races in the Countryside<\/em> (detail), 1869, oil on canvas, 36.5 x 55.9 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Edgar_Degas_-_At_the_Races_in_the_Countryside_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Even more unusual is Degas\u2019s treatment of pictorial space in his painting\u00a0<em>At the Races in the Countryside<\/em>, a scene set at one of the racetracks situated on the outskirts of Paris. The main focus of the work is obvious: the\u00a0wet nurse\u00a0and child, who are framed by the carriage door below and by a yellow parasol above, and who are the focus of attention of the child\u2019s mother, the driver of the carriage (Paul Valpin\u00e7on, the child\u2019s father), and their dog. This focal point is placed at the exact horizontal center of the canvas, as we might expect, but Degas appears to have achieved this placement at considerable cost to the rest of the composition. The work is egregiously unbalanced, the right hand side being crowded with heavy, dark shapes and the left hand side relatively light and empty. Furthermore, one of the horses is cropped awkwardly at the nose; the legs of both horses and the wheels of the carriage are abruptly truncated; and the carriage on the left, which is already leaning perilously to the right, has had its left supporting wheel cut off by the edge of the canvas. The work has the appearance of an amateur photographic snapshot, where subjects are frequently centered but little attention is paid to what is happening at the edges of the composition.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike a photograph, however, a painting cannot be executed in a fraction of a second, and it would have been remarkably careless if Degas had trapped himself into this unbalanced composition and these odd truncations of the figures by beginning his work in the wrong place or at the wrong scale\u2014or if, when he saw what was happening, he did not correct it. We must conclude that Degas actively sought the effects of imbalance and seemingly arbitrary cropping, no matter how unusual or awkward they may seem. Why? In a review of the second exhibition of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/what-does-impressionism-mean\/\">Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 anonyme<\/a>\u00a0(1876), the critic Edmond Duranty justified these and similar violations of conventional pictorial space and carefully organized compositions by asserting their greater truth to lived visual experience:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople and things have a thousand ways of being unexpected in reality. Our point of view is not always in the middle of a room with two side walls receding toward the back wall; it does not always arrange the lines and angles of cornices with mathematical symmetry. . . .[One\u2019s viewpoint] is sometimes very high, sometimes very low, sometimes it misses the ceiling, views objects from their undersides, unexpectedly cuts off the furniture. . . .<\/p>\n<p>A man in a room or on a street is not always standing in a straight line at an equal distance from two parallel objects; he is likely to be situated on one side of the space. He is never in the center of the canvas or in the center of the setting. He is not always shown as a whole; sometimes he appears cut off at mid-leg, or half-length, or sliced longitudinally. Sometimes, one sees him very close-up, at full size, while very tiny, far back in the distance appears a crowd in the street or groups assembled in a public place. <a class=\"footnote\" title=\"As quoted in Linda Nochlin,\u00a0Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, 1874-1904: Sources and Documents\u00a0(Prentice Hall, 1966), p. 6.\" id=\"return-footnote-3155-1\" href=\"#footnote-3155-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"old-systems-fall-apart-and-new-ones-take-their-place\">Old systems fall apart and new ones take their place<\/h3>\n<p>Notice that Duranty justified the radical spatial and compositional effects of Impressionism by describing the new artists\u2019 paintings as more accurate than the established conventions of academic painting. Our views as we move through the world are not always centered and balanced; nor does space always recede with the mathematical regularity typical of traditional academic paintings. The systematic perspectival techniques that had dominated Western art since the Italian Renaissance, and which had been formulated to help make paintings look more true to life, are revealed to be mere artifices. The type of argument Duranty employed becomes a commonplace not only of Impressionism but of other movements as well: surprising new pictorial effects, which at first sight appear to be errors, are justified as being more accurate than the established conventions of past art. In this way modern art can sometimes remind us that what we think of as \u201crealistic\u201d or \u201cnatural\u201d really only describes the social and artistic conventions to which we are so habituated that we accept them without question.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"impressionism-painting-modern-life\">Impressionism: painting modern life<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 2500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Monet-Bridge-at-Argenteuil.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Monet-Bridge-at-Argenteuil.jpg\" alt=\"Monet, The Railroad Bridge in Argenteuil painting of a train crossing a bridge over a river, showcasing impressionist brushwork and a natural landscape. Features smoke from the train, reflections in water, and lush greenery framing the scene.\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1848\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Claude Monet, <em>The Railroad Bridge in Argenteuil (Le pont du chemin de fer \u00e0 Argenteuil)<\/em>, 1873-74, oil on canvas, 54 x 71 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.musee-orsay.fr\/en\/collections\/index-of-works\/notice.html?no_cache=1&amp;nnumid=001012&amp;cHash=885c21ee93\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris<\/a>, Souce: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Claude_Monet_-_The_Railway_Bridge_at_Argenteuil_(Philadelphia).jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"aggressively-modern\">Aggressively modern<\/h3>\n<p>This is one of many paintings by Monet of the railroad bridge leading to Argenteuil, a small town on the outskirts of Paris where the artist lived in the 1870s. The painting demonstrates the Impressionists\u2019 well-known interest in depicting nature and the effects of weather and light, seen here in the expanse of white clouds in blue sky and the reflections in the rippling surface of the river. Highly textured dark green bushes and grass are built up with visible brushstrokes and anchor the painting\u2019s composition on left and right. The subject of the painting, however, is not a timeless rural scene (these were popular with the public \u2014 see, for example,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/artsandculture.google.com\/asset\/seine-and-old-bridge-at-limay\/8AE7F2g5kUUYsw\">this painting<\/a>\u00a0by Corot), but an aggressively modern one of a railroad bridge with a train heading over the river.<\/p>\n<p>The bridge was rebuilt at the beginning of the decade after its predecessor was destroyed in the Franco-Prussian war, and its parts were forged at the local ironworks. The steam engine racing across the bridge creates its own billowing gray steam clouds, competing with the natural ones. The sweeping perspective of the bridge suggests the speed and dynamism of modern transportation technology, but Monet also shows that technology as integrally connected to the natural world. The rickety wooden fence in the foreground creates a contrast between old construction materials and the massive concrete and iron pylons supporting the new bridge. Old and new strain to integrate in the modern landscape.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1336px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Claude_Monet_1873-74_Boulevard_des_Capucines_oil_on_canvas_80.3_x_60.3_cm_Nelson-Atkins_Museum_of_Art_Kansas_City.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Claude_Monet_1873-74_Boulevard_des_Capucines_oil_on_canvas_80.3_x_60.3_cm_Nelson-Atkins_Museum_of_Art_Kansas_City.jpg\" alt=\"Monet, Boulevard des Capucines Impressionist painting depicting a bustling city street scene with numerous pedestrians and tall buildings fading into a misty background. Soft, muted colors and loose brushstrokes create an atmospheric effect, highlighting movement and urban life in a late 19th-century setting.\" width=\"1336\" height=\"1800\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Claude Monet, <em>Boulevard des Capucines<\/em>, 1873-74, oil on canvas, 80.3 x 60.3 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/art.nelson-atkins.org\/objects\/17852\/boulevard-des-capucines?ctx=a1c38e73-576b-4ef6-b3bb-201881ca83f0&amp;idx=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City<\/a>, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Claude_Monet,_1873-74,_Boulevard_des_Capucines,_oil_on_canvas,_80.3_x_60.3_cm,_Nelson-Atkins_Museum_of_Art,_Kansas_City.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"subjects-that-matter\">Subjects that matter<\/h3>\n<p>Until the last decades of the twentieth century the scholarship on Impressionism paid relatively little attention to the subject matter chosen by the artists. \u00a0Before then, art historians mostly concentrated on the style of the works and the way Impressionist innovations in form heralded or consolidated what seemed to them to be the most significant feature of modern art: the liberation of the artist from the constraints of convention, and the \u201cevolution\u201d of art toward flatness and abstraction. In recent decades, however, art historians have seriously considered the subject matter represented in Impressionist paintings and how this subject matter would have been understood by contemporary viewers.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"painting-modern-life\">Painting modern life<\/h3>\n<p>The Impressionist style can, of course, be applied to any subject matter, but Impressionist artists concentrated on a surprisingly limited range of subjects: typically, middle-class leisure in modern urban or suburban environments such as the Paris boulevard depicted in Monet\u2019s\u00a0<em>Boulevard des Capucines<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0<em>Railroad Bridge at Argenteuil.<\/em>\u00a0In one sense, the Impressionists continued the tradition of earlier nineteenth-century\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/a-beginners-guide-to-realism\/\">Realists<\/a>\u00a0like Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet (for example in his painting\u00a0<em>L\u2019Ang\u00e9lus<\/em>) in their insistence on painting scenes from contemporary life. They rejected historical, mythological, and other exotic subjects and took as their dictum, \u201c<em>Il faut \u00eatre de son temps,<\/em>\u201d \u201cone must be of one\u2019s own time.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 2538px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/angelus.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/angelus.jpg\" alt=\"Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet, The Angelus, painting depicting two peasants standing in a field during sunset, heads bowed in prayer. Dark earthy tones dominate, with a pitchfork and wheelbarrow visible, emphasizing themes of labor and humility.\" width=\"2538\" height=\"2106\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet, <em>L\u2019Ang\u00e9lus<\/em>, c. 1857-1859, oil on canvas, 21 x 26 (53.3 \u00d7 66.0 cm) (Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Millet_-_The_Angelus_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>However, for the Impressionists, unlike the Realists, contemporary subjects typically did not mean rural or provincial scenes, which often suggested timeless forms of life and labor (as in Millet\u2019s\u00a0<em>L\u2019Ang\u00e9lus<\/em>), but rather urban and suburban subjects that were changing rapidly. In this they are among the first artists to examine an important change in human geography that had significantly transformed the human experience: the shift of populations from primarily rural to urban areas that accompanied the Industrial Revolution and its large-scale economic shift from agricultural to industrial production.<\/p>\n<p>In 1863, the poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire wrote an influential essay titled \u201cThe Painter of Modern Life\u201d that called for an artist who would stroll through the new spaces of the city, keenly observing the actions of its inhabitants and viewing the streets and crowds as though they constituted a sort of improvised theater put on for his observation. Monet\u2019s\u00a0<em>Boulevard des Capucines<\/em>\u00a0presents a characteristically modern scene of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/haussmann-the-demolisher-and-the-creation-of-modern-paris\/\">broad, tree-lined boulevards<\/a>\u00a0that were cut across the older, less regular streets and alleys of Paris, offering a sweeping perspective that was not previously available in the city.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 2500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Manet-bar-full.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Manet-bar-full.jpg\" alt=\"\u00c9douard Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re, painting depicting a barmaid standing behind a marble counter with various bottles, a bowl of oranges, and a glass with a flower. Background shows a crowded caf\u00e9 with patrons and a large mirror reflecting the scene, highlighting social interaction and urban nightlife.\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1883\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00c9douard Manet, <em>A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re<\/em>, 1882, oil on canvas, 96 x 130 cm (Courtauld Gallery, London; photo:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/XK1i57\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Steven Zucker<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/2.0\/deed.en\">CC BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Although they did not insist upon technological subjects as much as later modern art movements such as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/balla-light\/\">Italian Futurism<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/charles-demuth-i-saw-the-figure-5-in-gold\/\">American Precisionism<\/a>\u00a0did, the Impressionists had a recognizable predilection for painting the spaces of Paris as it had been transformed within the past few decades. Along with the more stereotypical\u00a0<em>plein-air<\/em>\u00a0garden and landscape subjects, the Impressionists also frequently turned to scenes of contemporary urban experience. They painted Parisian caf\u00e9s and beer halls; they painted the large theaters, opera houses, and cabarets of the city\u2019s night-life, illuminated by the eerie green glow of the new gas lighting; they painted the bridges and grand boulevards of\u00a0modern urban planning; they painted the new train stations, glass-and-iron cathedrals to modern technology and its promise of rapid movement of goods and ease of travel; and they painted the suburban restaurants, racetracks, beach resorts, and parks where the rising middle classes spent their leisure hours. \u00a0These subjects may appear charmingly quaint to our eyes, but at the time they were as aggressively contemporary as paintings of skyscrapers, airports, highway rest areas, and office parks would be today.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"middle-class-leisure\">Middle-class leisure<\/h3>\n<figure style=\"width: 2500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Caillebotte-Rainy-Day.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/Caillebotte-Rainy-Day.jpg\" alt=\"Caillebotte, Paris Street; Rainy Day painting depicts a rainy urban street scene with several people walking under umbrellas along cobblestone pavement. Central figures include a well-dressed man and woman holding umbrellas, surrounded by muted tones and detailed architecture, emphasizing atmosphere and daily life in a historical city setting.\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1910\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gustave Caillebotte, <em>Paris Street; Rainy Day<\/em>, 1877, oil on canvas, 212.2 x 276.2 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/artworks\/20684\/paris-street-rainy-day\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Art Institute of Chicago<\/a>, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Gustave_Caillebotte_-_Paris_Street;_Rainy_Day_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Also unlike the Realists, the Impressionists tended to paint\u00a0<em>middle class leisure<\/em>\u00a0rather than\u00a0<em>lower class labor<\/em>. This is a somewhat surprising limitation. Living alongside affluent urban professionals and moving through the same streets were thousands of poor manual laborers. \u00a0But when we examine a panoramic street scene such as Gustave Caillebotte\u2019s\u00a0<em>Paris Street; Rainy Day<\/em>\u2014another view of a modern boulevard\u2014it is surprising to note there is only one person on the street whose dress marks him as lower class and whose occupation signals active labor: a distant man carrying a ladder, easily overlooked just to the right of the foreground man\u2019s head. The exceptions to this general rule that the Impressionists painted bourgeois leisure rather than lower-class labor actually help to prove the rule. Impressionist paintings that show lower-class labor tend to depict the support industries of middle-class leisure: caf\u00e9 waiters, beer-hall waitresses, cabaret singers, ballet dancers, laundresses, milliners, and prostitutes (and not the labor necessary to maintain the infrastructure of the city and the basic needs of its inhabitants). Even the paintings of lower class labor are fundamentally about middle class leisure.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"claude-monet-impression-sunrise\">Claude Monet,\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em><\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/dezoomify-result-27-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/dezoomify-result-27-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"Monet, Impression Sunrise painting depicting a harbor scene at sunrise with boats on water and industrial structures in the background. Features muted blue and gray tones with a striking red sun and its reflection creating contrast and atmosphere.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1980\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Claude Monet, <em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>, 1872, oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marmottan.fr\/notice\/4014\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mus\u00e9e Marmottan<\/a>, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Monet_-_Impression,_Sunrise.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a> in the United States).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cImpression\u2014I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in it \u2026 and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! Wallpaper in an embryonic state is more finished than that seascape.\u201d Louis Leroy, \u201cExhibition des Impressionnistes,\u201d\u00a0<em>Le Charivari<\/em>\u00a0(25 April 1874), as translated in John Rewald,\u00a0<em>The History of Impressionism<\/em>\u00a0(1946)<\/p>\n<p>The bright, burning orange sun rises in the distance, casting rays of light across a calm morning in the Port of Le Havre. The rippling waters of the port\u2019s inlet create small waves that anticipate the day\u2019s activity. Three fishing boats float into the distance, where construction of a dock is visible through the morning mist. The cool blue, green, and white hues dominating the landscape are interrupted by the sunlight that radiates across the water.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"industry-and-global-exchange\">Industry and global exchange<\/h3>\n<p>Claude Monet\u2019s<em>\u00a0Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0is best known for being the painting that established Impressionism as a new movement in art history, as it shocked critics who first saw it in an 1874 exhibition in Paris.<\/p>\n<p>On the surface, the painting appears to capture a quiet morning at Le Havre, but a closer look offers insight into its context. The painting\u2019s material, technique, and subject matter reflects the influence of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/becoming-modern-an-introduction\/\">modernity<\/a>\u00a0on artmaking at this time, and also highlights trade networks between France and Japan that gained momentum in the 1860s and 1870s. Monet\u2019s\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0is not only an engaging study of the effects of light and color, but it also reveals a changing world of industry and global exchange in 19th-century France.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"modernity-en-plein-air\">Modernity\u00a0en plein air<\/h3>\n<p>Monet\u2019s painting was made shortly after he returned to France from London, where he lived for two years to avoid the\u00a0Franco-Prussian War.\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0was one of several paintings Monet made during his visit to Le Havre, a major port city in Northern France where he spent most of his childhood. Although the perspective of the scene indicates that Monet painted from his window at the H\u00f4tel de l\u2019Amiraut\u00e9, the painting captured the fleeting effect of a sunrise on the water.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1753px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/monet-impression-sky.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/monet-impression-sky.jpg\" alt=\"The misty sky over Le Havre (detail), Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise depicting an industrial landscape with smokestacks emitting dark smoke against a hazy sky. The scene features muted colors with a prominent orange sun, highlighting environmental pollution and atmospheric effects.\" width=\"1753\" height=\"986\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The misty sky over Le Havre (detail), Claude Monet, <em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>, 1872, oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marmottan.fr\/notice\/4014\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mus\u00e9e Marmottan<\/a>, Paris)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The expressive movement of Monet\u2019s brush is evident in the streaks of orange, red, pink, gray, blue, and white pigment that blend together to form the misty sky over Le Havre. These painterly brushstrokes reflect a new technique called\u00a0<em>en plein air<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cin open air\u201d), which gained popularity in the 1860s. Artists that worked in this style left their studios to paint outdoors, using rapid brushstrokes to quickly capture the effect of light and color on the atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>Although\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0was painted in a room overlooking the port, Monet had started experimenting with the\u00a0<em>plein air<\/em> technique by 1872, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tate.org.uk\/art\/artworks\/sargent-claude-monet-painting-by-the-edge-of-a-wood-n04103\">1885 painting by John Singer Sargent<\/a> shows him painting in this style.<\/p>\n<p>The palette in Monet\u2019s left hand is loaded with fresh paint that he carried with him to this destination. He leans forward to add more pigment to the canvas on his easel, which is turned toward the viewer to reveal a loosely painted landscape. Sargent\u2019s rendering also embraced\u00a0<em>plein air<\/em>\u00a0painting, as the artist worked quickly to capture his friend.<\/p>\n<p>Artists who painted\u00a0<em>en plein air<\/em>\u00a0were influenced by new tools for art-making that developed as a result of the\u00a0Industrial Revolution.\u00a0 John Rand\u2019s collapsible paint tube, for example, changed the way paint could be stored. For centuries, artists had preserved their expensive pigments in pig\u2019s bladders, but they were unable to be sealed, which meant that paint was sometimes wasted. The collapsible paint tube not only solved this problem because artists could open and close them with a cap, but they also improved the portability of materials. The canvases they painted out in the world were no longer preliminary sketches or studies, but the finished work of art.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"fleeting-moments-in-paint-and-print\">Fleeting moments in paint and print<\/h3>\n<p>Monet\u2019s composition for\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0was influenced by his interest in and collection of Japanese prints. Prior to 1853 (and for 200 years), Japan had been isolated from the rest of the world. In 1853, American warships were sent on a mission to Tokyo Harbor to pressure Japan to open trade negotiations with the United States and Europe. Japanese prints, fabrics, ceramics, and other art materials flooded European and American shops, and were snatched up by collectors looking for the latest fashionable items.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/whistler.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/whistler-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Whistler, Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden Screen, painting depicting a woman dressed in a richly patterned purple and white kimono seated on a carpeted floor, surrounded by colorful prints or paintings. The background features a folding screen with traditional Japanese artwork, and an easel stands to the right, suggesting an artistic or contemplative setting.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1875\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James McNeill Whistler, <em>Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden Screen<\/em>, 1864, oil on wood panel, 50.1 x 68.5 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/asia.si.edu\/explore-art-culture\/collections\/search\/edanmdm:fsg_F1904.75a\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Museum of Asian Art<\/a>, Washington, D.C., Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:James_McNeill_Whistler_-_Caprice_in_Purple_and_Gold-_The_Golden_Screen_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>James Whistler\u2019s\u00a0<em>Caprice in Purple and Gold<\/em>\u00a0depicts a model dressed in a kimono gazing at a collection of prints. Whistler\u2019s painting reflects the prevalence of<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/japonisme\/\">\u00a0japonisme<\/a>, a term that describes the Euro-American fascination with Japanese art and aesthetics at this period. The folding screen creates the impression of a flattened background, which evokes the flatness and closely-cropped compositions of Japanese\u00a0ukiyo-e\u00a0prints.<\/p>\n<p>Japonisme coincided with modern art\u2019s radical upending of the Western artistic tradition and had significant effects on Western painting and printmaking. In this regard, Japanese art affected modern art in much the same way that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/primitivism-and-modern-art\/\">encounters with African and Oceanic art<\/a>\u00a0and artifacts did a few decades later. Many late-19th century modern artists not only admired and collected Japanese prints, they derived and adopted both compositional and stylistic approaches from them.<\/p>\n<p>Japanese woodblock prints called\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/hokusai-under-the-wave-off-kanagawa-the-great-wave\/\">ukiyo-e<\/a>, or \u201cpictures of the floating world,\u201d were a cheap popular art form in Japan during the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/japan-edo-period\/\">Edo Period<\/a>\u00a0(1615-1868).\u00a0 They were associated with urban entertainment districts (the so-called floating world) in Japan and typically portrayed famous actors, courtesans, and wrestlers, as well as landscape views of well-known sites. Ukiyo-e prints first appeared in Europe as packaging material used to protect valuable imported porcelain objects, but they attracted the interest of European artists and art collectors and were soon imported for their own sake.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1335px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/DP121525.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/DP121525.jpg\" alt=\"Utagawa Hiroshige, &quot;Sudden Shower over Shin-\u014chashi Bridge and Atake,&quot; woodblock print depicting a curved wooden bridge with five people crossing under heavy rain, each wearing traditional Japanese rain gear. Dark blue and green tones highlight rain streaks and distant landscape, with red rectangular cartouches containing Japanese characters in upper right and lower left corners.\" width=\"1335\" height=\"1908\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Utagawa Hiroshige, <em>Sudden Shower over Shin-\u014chashi Bridge and Atake<\/em>, from the series<em> One Hundred Famous Views of Edo<\/em>, 1857, woodblock print, ink and color on paper, 34 x 24.1 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/art\/collection\/search\/36461\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/a>, New York, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Claude Monet started building his own collection of Japanese prints in the 1860s. A famous work in his collection was Utagawa Hiroshige\u2019s \u201cSudden Shower over Shin-\u014chashi Bridge and Atake.\u201d Hiroshige\u2019s scene captures a view of the Sumida River during a torrential downpour. People crossing the bridge in the foreground duck under parasols, hats, and blankets to protect themselves from the rain. Through the streaks of rain, a single figure is on the river, guiding their boat through the water. Hiroshige\u2019s scene is closely cropped, giving the viewer a diagonal viewpoint toward the river. The artist uses varying shades of blue to show the sky, distant shore, and river, and dark lines create the impression of moving water and pouring rain.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/dezoomify-result-27-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/dezoomify-result-27-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"Monet, Impression Sunrise painting depicting a harbor scene at sunrise with boats on water and industrial structures in the background. Features muted blue and gray tones with a striking red sun and its reflection creating contrast and atmosphere.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1980\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Claude Monet, <em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>, 1872, oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marmottan.fr\/notice\/4014\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mus\u00e9e Marmottan<\/a>, Paris, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Monet_-_Impression,_Sunrise.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a> in the United States)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0uses several techniques employed in\u00a0<em>Sudden Shower<\/em>, indicating that Monet borrowed from Hiroshige\u2019s print. Instead of using traditional techniques like\u00a0linear perspective, Monet painted three boats at the center of the work to produce a diagonal line that implies receding space. The sky and water are only distinguishable from each other through the shadowy dock (the Quai au Bois) that stretches from one side of the painting to the other. The painterly brushwork creates an impression of flatness. Hiroshige and Monet both use a cool color palette to evoke the essence of a moment: whereas Hiroshige\u2019s scene shows the power of the\u00a0<em>y\u016bdachi<\/em>, a powerful rainfall that darkened the daytime skies, Monet depicts the calm, misty start to a busy day at the sea port.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"industry-and-trade-at-the-port-of-le-havre\">Industry and trade at the Port of Le Havre<\/h3>\n<p>Although\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0was neither Monet\u2019s first, nor his only painting to feature Le Havre, it captures a period of growth for the port, indicative of France\u2019s participation in global trade and commerce. In the 18th century, Le Havre underwent its first major expansion to increase France\u2019s participation in the slave trade, and by the 19th century, it was rebuilt several times to meet the needs of a newly industrialized nation.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 2483px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/boudin.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/boudin.jpg\" alt=\"A maritime painting depicting several sailing and rowboats on choppy waters near a harbor under a cloudy sky. The scene features detailed ships with billowing sails, smoke from steam vessels, and figures rowing, capturing dynamic movement and atmospheric weather conditions.\" width=\"2483\" height=\"1775\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eug\u00e8ne Louis Boudin, <em>Port of Le Havre<\/em>, 1887, oil on canvas, 65.4 cm. x 90.5 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bowdoin.edu\/art-museum\/exhibitions\/2019\/bowdoin-collects-19th-century.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bowdoin College Museum of Art<\/a>, Brunswick)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Eug\u00e8ne Louis Boudin\u2019s 1887 painting shows Le Havre on a busy day, with boats making their way across the harbor as ships enter to escape the storm clouds billowing in the distance. The dock on the right side of the painting is filled with workers who have already unloaded a ship.<\/p>\n<p>Monet painted several scenes of the port between 1865 and 1880, and they reveal the way that his style and technique developed over time. His <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nortonsimon.org\/art\/detail\/M.1999.2.2.P\">1867 painting of Le Havre<\/a> shows a busy port scene <em>en plein air<\/em>, with several shades of green and white to indicate the motion of churning waves. By 1872, Monet had embraced singular, horizontal strokes of dark blue to imply the water\u2019s movement in\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>As he painted\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>, the Quai au Bois was being reconstructed as part of a larger project to widen Le Havre\u2019s entrance, and Monet emphasized this industrial progress in the form of cranes silhouetted against the morning sky. In another 1872 painting,<em>\u00a0Le Havre: Night Effect<\/em>, Monet painted the same scene at night.\u00a0 Its predominant shades of black, blue, and gray are interrupted by touches of white, yellow, and red.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/MB-Mon-04_Monet_Der-Hafen-von-Le-Havre-am-Abend_1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/MB-Mon-04_Monet_Der-Hafen-von-Le-Havre-am-Abend_1.jpg\" alt=\"Monet, The Port of Le Havre, Night Effect, painting depicting a nighttime harbor scene with boats and reflections of lights on water. Dark blue and black tones dominate, with small bright spots of yellow, red, and green highlighting distant lights and boat details.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1477\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Claude Monet, <em>The Port of Le Havre, Night Effect<\/em>, 1872, oil on canvas, 60 x 81 cm (<a href=\"https:\/\/sammlung.museum-barberini.de\/en\/MB-Mon-04_claude-monet-the-port-of-le-havre-night-effect\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Museum Barberini<\/a>, Potsdam, Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Monet_-_the-port-of-le-havre-night-effect.jpg\">Wikimedia<\/a>, License: <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/mark\/1.0\/\">Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Monet\u2019s painterly technique used in the 1872 scenes of Le Havre visually evoked the transitory nature of port life in the 1860s and 70s: it highlights the constant ebb and flow of trade, commerce, and nature. Both paintings are recognizable in that they depict an identifiable subject\u2014but their surfaces have been dematerialized. Monet\u2019s painting is a collection of brushstrokes on a canvas support. It is not a representation of a sunrise but an impression of one.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"a-revolution-in-painting\">\u201cA Revolution in Painting!\u201d<\/h3>\n<p>On April 15, 1874, eager visitors gathered in a studio on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris to view one hundred and sixty-five works by members of the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers. The exhibition took place in a private studio owned by the photographer Nadar, and represented a significant moment in the Parisian art world. The 1874 show highlighted a broad range of artworks that defied the rigid categories embraced by the traditional art world, and\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0was among the most notable of them.<\/p>\n<p>The exhibition marked a public rejection of the\u00a0Salon\u00a0system in Paris, and established itself as independent from other official spaces dedicated to art. Although smaller venues existed in which artists could show their work, the Salon had been the primary venue for exhibiting since the 17th century. In the second half of the 19th century, artists more frequently showed their work in spaces free from the constraints of the Salon\u2014but this traditional venue continued to wield significant power in the art world. Although the 1874 show is commonly referred to as \u201cthe first Impressionist exhibition,\u201d it was populated by artists who worked in a variety of styles and formats. They consciously departed from Salon practices by hanging their works in two rows so that visitors could clearly see all of them.<\/p>\n<p>Monet exhibited five paintings and seven pastels at the show.\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0captured the attention of critics who were shocked by the work\u2019s sketchiness. In his review of the 1874 show, Louis Leroy disparaged Monet\u2019s painting by comparing it to \u201cwallpaper,\u201d implying that the work had no value or purpose beyond decoration. <a class=\"footnote\" title=\"\u201cThese are everyone\u2019s personal notes. The common concept which unites them as a group and gives them a collective strength in the midst of our crumbling epoch is the determination not to search for a smooth execution, but to be satisfied with a general aspect. Once the impression is captured, they declare their work is done. The adjective Japonais, which was first applied to them, was meaningless. If one wants to characterize them with a single word that explains their efforts, one would have to create the new term of \u2018Impressionists.\u2019 They are Impressionists in the sense that they render not a landscape but the sensation produced by a landscape. This very word has entered their language: not landscape but impression, in the title given in the catalogue for Mr. Monet\u2019s Sunrise. From this point of view, they have left reality behind for a realm of pure idealism.\u201d Jules-Antoine Castagnary, exhibition review,\u00a0Le Si\u00e8cle\u00a0(April 29, 1874), reproduced in\u00a0Monet\u2019s\u00a0Impression Sunrise: The Biography of a Painting\u00a0(Paris: Mus\u00e9e Marmottan Monet, 2014), p. 19.\" id=\"return-footnote-3155-2\" href=\"#footnote-3155-2\" aria-label=\"Footnote 2\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Monet\u2019s loose brushwork and the subject matter of a modern working port did not reflect the traditional characteristics for high art. It does not depict the mythological or battle scenes embraced by French history paintings, nor does it express an overt moral or political message. Instead, it captures a fleeting moment in time using rapid brushwork and bright colors.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/claude-monets-impression-sunrise\/?__cf_chl_f_tk=NIaTwwca7OXUrKt2.kfrdsopoMaxMxl8UoW1MPcstrQ-1782756120-1.0.1.1-bAvGDQHO7S_Crqvtcfs.NzTSEdPpW5XDxPxCdvtSBt0\">An 1874 cartoon<\/a> depicts men gasping in horror at the framed paintings in the show. The curved lines on the canvases implies that they are painted <em>en plein air<\/em>. One figure exclaims, \u201cA Revolution in Painting! And a terrorizing beginning.\u201d Other visitors to the exhibition celebrated Monet\u2019s work for its modern characteristics. Jules-Antoine Castagnary emphasized his ability to capture a subject using an innovative technique, arguing that it depicted \u201cnot a landscape, but the sensation produced by a landscape.\u201d <a class=\"footnote\" title=\"\u201cImpression\u2014I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in it \u2026 and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! Wallpaper in an embryonic state is more finished than that seascape.\u201d Louis Leroy, \u201cExhibition des Impressionnistes,\u201d published in\u00a0Le Charivari (25 April 1874), translated in John Rewald,\u00a0The History of Impressionism\u00a0(New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1946 and reproduced on Artchive).\" id=\"return-footnote-3155-3\" href=\"#footnote-3155-3\" aria-label=\"Footnote 3\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[3]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On the surface, Claude Monet\u2019s\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em>\u00a0captures a quiet morning in the port of Le Havre, but a closer look at the work offers insight into many changes taking place in 19th-century Europe. Monet\u2019s work depicts a moment of growth for the port, indicative of France\u2019s participation in global trade and commerce. Moreover, its flattened composition not only reflects Monet\u2019s embrace of new, industrial art materials, but also provides insight into the artist\u2019s collection and study of Japanese prints. Monet\u2019s inclusion of this work in the 1874 exhibition reveals a new moment of painting that departs from past traditions.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"pierre-auguste-renoir-moulin-de-la-galette\">Pierre-Auguste Renoir,\u00a0<em>Moulin de la Galette<\/em><\/h2>\n<p>A French painter, printmaker, and sculptor, Pierre-Auguste Renoir is known for his personal form of Impressionism, creating monumental works inspired by Old Masters.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-1\" title=\"Renoir, Bal du moulin de la Galette\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o6amlRsb1n4?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox textbox--key-takeaways\">\n<header class=\"textbox__header\">\n<h2 class=\"textbox__title\">Practicing Visual Analysis<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"textbox__content\">\n<p>Renoir\u2019s <em>Moulin de la Galette<\/em> illustrates Impressionism\u2019s interest in the transitory effects of <strong>light<\/strong> and <strong>color<\/strong>. Using Impressionism\u2019s technique of the optical mixing of <strong>color<\/strong>, Renoir layered his oil paint in strokes of color directly on top of one another rather than premixing on the palette. Look closely. You will see that one figure\u2019s coat is comprised of layered blue, green, and white. The black you <em>think<\/em> you see is really blue and purple, with yellow and white for highlights. The dappling of <strong>sunlight<\/strong> on the figures\u2019 clothes suggests the light filters in from a canopy of unseen trees. No <strong>contour lines<\/strong> are used. Instead, <strong>forms<\/strong> are suggested through brushstrokes of <strong>color<\/strong>. In his <strong>asymmetrical composition<\/strong>, the lack of <strong>contour lines<\/strong> contributes to the suggestion of movement. Influenced by photography, Impressionists like Renoir integrated aesthetics from photography like the snapshot effect, where a figure or form is cut off from the <strong>composition<\/strong>, and blur (motion captured). With the <strong>forms<\/strong> in movement, Renoir suggested a dynamic scene of Parisians enjoying the joie-de-vivre (joy of life) of the new modern urban Paris.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2 id=\"\u00e9douard-manet-a-bar-at-the-folies-berg\u00e8re\">\u00c9douard Manet,\u00a0<em>A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re<\/em><\/h2>\n<p>Most strongly associated with Realism, \u00c9douard Manet experimented with multiple styles in his pursuit of subject matter that reflected modern urban life. Manet\u2019s <em>A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re<\/em> uses Impressionist techniques while maintaining his interest in the new modern world.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-2\" title=\"Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iHuewgZR17s?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"edgar-degas-the-dance-class\">Edgar Degas,\u00a0<em>The Dance Class<\/em><\/h2>\n<p>Although a founding member of the Impressionists, Edgar Degas regarded himself as a Realist, capturing modern urban life in pastel, paint, and sculpture. The elegance of the performance has been stripped away for an intimate look at off-duty ballerinas.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-3\" title=\"Degas, The Dance Class\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NigP3DjV3NY?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"charles-garnier-the-paris-op\u00e9ra\">Charles Garnier, <em>The Paris Op\u00e9ra<\/em><\/h2>\n<p>A master of the Beaux-Arts style, Charles Garnier is best known for his design of the Op\u00e9ra in Paris and his influence on French and American architecture. Seeing and being seen: the opera was a place of voyeurism and spectacle among the prosperous classes of the city.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-4\" title=\"Garnier, Paris Opera\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EtTGyLsR7lk?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Paris Op\u00e9ra, designed by Charles Garnier, is one of the jewels of\u00a0Napoleon III\u2019s newly reconstructed city. Frequented by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/edgar-degas-the-dance-class\/\">Edgar Degas<\/a>\u00a0and the source for much of his ballet imagery, the Paris Op\u00e9ra is key to understanding the somewhat perverse culture of voyeurism and spectacle among the prosperous classes of the\u00a0Second Empire.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 2079px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/ParisOpera.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/ParisOpera.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph of Palais Garnier, a historic opera house in Paris, showcasing its ornate Beaux-Arts architecture with a green copper dome, golden statues, and detailed stone carvings. People walking and standing in front highlight its status as a popular cultural landmark and tourist attraction.\" width=\"2079\" height=\"1397\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charles Garnier, Paris Op\u00e9ra, 1860\u201375, masonry walls with concealed iron floors (photo:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Paris_Opera_full_frontal_architecture,_May_2009_sky.JPG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Peter Rivera<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/deed.en\">CC BY 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Art historians Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabel Hyman have called the huge Op\u00e9ra house,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cthe \u2018new cathedral\u2019 of bourgeois [middle, really upper-middle class] Paris\u2026. The glittering centerpiece of the new Paris\u2026.was meant to be much more than a theater in the ordinary sense. For Charles Garnier, an architect of the \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts, it was a setting for a ritual in which the spectators were also actors, participants in the rite of social encounter, seeing and being seen.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabel Hyman,\u00a0Architecture, from Prehistory to Post-modernism: The Western Tradition\u00a0(New York: H.N. Abrams, 1986), p. 449.\" id=\"return-footnote-3155-4\" href=\"#footnote-3155-4\" aria-label=\"Footnote 4\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[4]<\/sup><\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 870px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/AuditoriumGarnierOpera.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/72\/2026\/06\/image265.jpeg\" alt=\"Photograph of an ornate theater interior featuring a grand stage with a richly decorated red curtain and multiple tiers of balconies adorned with gold accents and red seating. The ceiling showcases an elaborate chandelier and a colorful painting, highlighting the theater's luxurious and historic design.\" width=\"870\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charles Garnier, the auditorium and stage of the Paris Op\u00e9ra, 1860\u201375 (photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/kAzF68\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fougerouse Arnaud<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/2.0\/deed.en\">CC BY-NC 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Behind the stage are the rehearsal rooms where Degas often sketched. But the single largest area, from the front fa\u00e7ade to the seats below the dome, is reserved for the foyers and the grand stair hall. This area was, in essence, a second stage. Far more ornate then the performance stage, the lobbies of the Paris Op\u00e9ra were where the social dramas of the rich were enacted.<\/p>\n<p>Strolling along the new boulevards or posing in the opera\u2019s grand foyers, the ruling classes paraded their wealth. The\u00a0<em>fl\u00e2neur<\/em>, a new denizen of the city, was a man of leisure (itself a by-product of the capital generated by industrialization). Walking the streets not for work or need, but for the pleasures of observation, the\u00a0<em>fl\u00e2neur<\/em>\u00a0was at home in the Op\u00e9ra.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"mary-cassatt-in-the-loge\">Mary Cassatt,\u00a0<em>In the Loge<\/em><\/h2>\n<p>An American artist active in France, Mary Cassatt was a member of the Impressionists, creating works that reflected upper-class women\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-5\" title=\"Cassatt, In the Loge\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HVuyK_vIMfc?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"conclusion-9\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>Impressionists, such as Cassatt, Degas, Renoir, and Monet, are considered painters of modern life. The word \u201cmodern\u201d was introduced in the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century and became synonymous with industrialization, capitalism, secularism, and technology. Impressionists captured the new \u201cmodern\u201d world of a revitalized Paris with its caf\u00e9 concerts, Opera House, and other venues for leisure and entertainment. Working with the techniques of painting en plein air, the optical mixing of colors, and the snapshot effect, the Impressionists transformed the entire idea of what it meant to be an artist in the modern world.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"citation-and-licensing-9\">Citation and Licensing<\/h3>\n<p>The following sections were written by Chelsea Wright and licensed <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA 4.0<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Chapter Overview and Introduction<\/li>\n<li>Focus artwork and term list compiled by Chelsea Wright<\/li>\n<li>Practicing Visual Analysis<\/li>\n<li>Conclusion<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The following articles from <em>Smarthistory<\/em> licensed <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA 4.0<\/a> were remixed and adapted for the chapter:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dr. Beth Gersh-Nesic, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/a-beginners-guide-to-impressionism\/\">Impressionism, an introduction<\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Charles Cramer and Dr. Kim Grant, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/impressionist-pictorial-space\/\">Impressionist pictorial space<\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, December 24, 2018.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/haussmann-the-demolisher-and-the-creation-of-modern-paris\/\">Haussmann the Demolisher and the creation of modern Paris<\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Charles Cramer and Dr. Kim Grant, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/painting-modern-life\/\">Impressionism: painting modern life<\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, April 14, 2019.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Maura Gleeson, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/claude-monets-impression-sunrise\/\">Claude Monet,\u00a0<em>Impression, Sunrise<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 8, 2023.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Charles Cramer and Dr. Kim Grant, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/japonisme\/\">Japonisme<\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, June 14, 2020.<\/li>\n<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/pierre-auguste-renoir\/\">Pierre-Auguste Renoir<\/a>,\u201d in <em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/auguste-renoir-moulin-de-la-galette\/\">Auguste Renoir,\u00a0<em>Moulin de la Galette<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, November 27, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/edouard-manet\/\">\u00c9douard Manet<\/a>,\u201d in <em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/edouard-manet-a-bar-at-the-folies-bergere\/\">\u00c9douard Manet,\u00a0<em>A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, October 1, 2017.<\/li>\n<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/edgar-degas\/\">Edgar Degas<\/a>,\u201d in <em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/edgar-degas-the-dance-class\/\">Edgar Degas,\u00a0<em>The Dance Class<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, November 25, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/charles-garnier\/\">Charles Garnier<\/a>,\u201d in <em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/garnier-paris-opera\/\">Charles Garnier, The Paris Op\u00e9ra<\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, August 9, 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Smarthistory, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/artist\/mary-cassatt\/\">Mary Cassatt<\/a>,\u201d in <em>Smarthistory<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/smarthistory.org\/mary-cassatt-in-the-loge\/\">Mary Cassatt,\u00a0<em>In the Loge<\/em><\/a>,&#8221; in\u00a0<em>Smarthistory<\/em>, December 4, 2015.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-3155-1\">As quoted in Linda Nochlin,\u00a0<em>Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, 1874-1904: Sources and Documents<\/em>\u00a0(Prentice Hall, 1966), p. 6. <a href=\"#return-footnote-3155-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-3155-2\">\u201cThese are everyone\u2019s personal notes. The common concept which unites them as a group and gives them a collective strength in the midst of our crumbling epoch is the determination not to search for a smooth execution, but to be satisfied with a general aspect. Once the impression is captured, they declare their work is done. The adjective Japonais, which was first applied to them, was meaningless. If one wants to characterize them with a single word that explains their efforts, one would have to create the new term of \u2018Impressionists.\u2019 They are Impressionists in the sense that they render not a landscape but the sensation produced by a landscape. This very word has entered their language: not landscape but impression, in the title given in the catalogue for Mr. Monet\u2019s Sunrise. From this point of view, they have left reality behind for a realm of pure idealism.\u201d Jules-Antoine Castagnary, exhibition review,\u00a0<em>Le Si\u00e8cle<\/em>\u00a0(April 29, 1874), reproduced in\u00a0<em>Monet\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0<em>Impression Sunrise: The Biography of a Painting<\/em>\u00a0(Paris: Mus\u00e9e Marmottan Monet, 2014), p. 19. <a href=\"#return-footnote-3155-2\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 2\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-3155-3\">\u201cImpression\u2014I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in it \u2026 and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! Wallpaper in an embryonic state is more finished than that seascape.\u201d Louis Leroy, \u201cExhibition des Impressionnistes,\u201d published in\u00a0<em>Le Charivari (<\/em>25 April 1874), translated in John Rewald,\u00a0<em>The History of Impressionism<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1946 and reproduced on Artchive). <a href=\"#return-footnote-3155-3\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 3\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-3155-4\">Marvin Trachtenberg and Isabel Hyman,\u00a0<em>Architecture, from Prehistory to Post-modernism: The Western Tradition<\/em>\u00a0(New York: H.N. Abrams, 1986), p. 449. <a href=\"#return-footnote-3155-4\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 4\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"menu_order":11,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-3155","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/3155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/3155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3495,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/3155\/revisions\/3495"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/3155\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=3155"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=3155"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.palomar.edu\/arthc1200\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=3155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}