Context and Exhibitions

Industrial Paris, new leisure spaces, and changing class dynamics provided subjects. Rebuffed by the Salon, artists organized independent exhibitions starting in 1874 (Nadar’s studio), asserting autonomy from academic juries.

Techniques and Materials

• Plein-Air Practice: Portable easels and pre-mixed paint tubes enabled on-site work.
• Broken Color: Short, visible strokes of complementary hues to vibrate light on the surface.
• High-Key Palette: Lighter grounds and reduced browns/black; shadows often rendered in cool colors.
• Modern Framing: Cropped viewpoints and asymmetry influenced by photography and Japanese prints.

Major Artists and Works

• Claude Monet: Serial views (haystacks, Rouen Cathedral, water lilies) exploring changing light.
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Social leisure scenes (“Le Moulin de la Galette”), luminous skin tones, convivial atmospheres.
• Edgar Degas: Ballet rehearsals, racecourses, cafés; inventive cropping and unusual vantage points.
• Camille Pissarro: Rural and urban vistas; pointillist experimentation later.
• Berthe Morisot & Mary Cassatt: Domestic interiors, motherhood, and leisure with nuanced color and light.

Subjects of Modern Life

Boulevards, train stations, cafés, boating parties, and suburban riversides replace myth and history. Atmosphere and weather—fog, snow, twilight—are primary actors in the scene.

Reception and Legacy

Initially mocked for “unfinished” canvases, Impressionism soon transformed taste and paved the way for Post-Impressionism (6.2), where artists bent color, structure, and symbolism beyond mere optical impressions.