II.

Origins

In 1874 French art critic Louis Leroy coined the term impressionist in a satirical review of a private exhibition of paintings by a group called The Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Engravers, etc. Leroy was prompted to use this term in part by a modest and sketchy harbor scene called Impression, Sunrise (1873, Musée Marmottan, Paris) by Monet. The term impressionist struck Leroy as an appropriate description of the loose, inexact manner of painting of Monet and several other painters in the exhibition, namely Pissarro, Morisot, and Sisley. Leroy argued that as soon as these artists had suggested an impression of a subject by means of a few abrupt, shorthand brushstrokes, they were satisfied and stopped work. He did not apply the term to Degas, Renoir, Paul Cézanne, or Armand Guillaumin, who also took part in the exhibition and are now classified as impressionists. Even at this early stage it was clear that the name fit the styles of some artists less neatly than others.

The impressionists held seven subsequent exhibitions between 1876 and 1886. What united this group was not style so much as a desire to gain independence from an annual government-sponsored exhibition in Paris called the Salon. To exhibit at the Salon, artists were required to submit work to a jury that applied outmoded standards in deciding which works were acceptable. Although most of the impressionists previously had work accepted by the Salon, they had also experienced rejection. They were especially indignant at the humiliating way in which the Salon had responded to the work of fellow painter Édouard Manet. Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (1863, Musée d'Orsay, Paris) was rejected by the official Salon of 1863, but shown instead at a special exhibition of rejected paintings (called the Salon des Refusés) in 1863. Critics responded with outrage to this painting, which shows two men clothed in contemporary dress seated at a picnic with a naked woman. At the time, nudes were an acceptable subject in allegorical or historical paintings, but not in scenes of everyday life. In fact, Manet had borrowed his composition from Italian Renaissance sources and reworked it in pointedly modern ways.

The critics’ hostility toward Manet made him a hero to the younger generation of painters, who rallied round him. Manet provided the link between most of the artists who took part in the first impressionist exhibition, and in turn he responded to the innovations of the impressionists, particularly to the work of Monet. However Manet never joined forces with the new group, because he still regarded acceptance by the Salon as the true test of a painter's reputation.

Despite its negative associations, the name impressionist stuck, and helped give both critics and the artists themselves a sense of joint purpose. In 1877 a short-lived journal entitled L’Impressioniste was published to coincide with the third exhibition held by this group; its purpose was to champion the artists and defend them against critical attack.

Critics and historians have defined the impressionist style in various ways over time, and have reordered the importance assigned to individual impressionist artists. For the first historians of the movement, the landscapes of Monet, Sisley, and Renoir represented impressionism in its purest form. Their technique of applying paint in small dabs perfectly captured the flickering quality of sunlight, especially its reflections on water. Art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, who worked hard to sell impressionist works, promoted this view of impressionism as a movement concerned primarily with landscape painting, with Monet as its central figure. Art historians tended to overlook the work of Morisot despite her similar technique and participation in the original 1874 exhibition—partly because she was a woman and partly because she had fewer works in circulation than the others. For years Monet's reputation overshadowed that of Pissarro, whose paintings offer a more solid, structured view of nature in rural France, seen for instance in Market Garden at l’Hermitage, Pontoise (1879, Musée d'Orsay). Since about 1980, art historians have increasingly recognized Pissarro’s importance as the movement's most loyal exhibitor and most influential teacher. Similarly, historians have focused renewed attention on the immense achievements in figure painting of Degas, Renoir, American expatriate Mary Cassatt, and Gustave Caillebotte.

Many of the practices and objectives of the impressionists had precedents in earlier French painting of the 19th century. Most of the impressionists shared a belief in painting the unembellished truth of what they saw, and in this concern for realism they followed the tendencies of earlier French realists such as Gustave Courbet. They emulated French painter Camille Corot in his sensitivity to the effects of light in nature. They also learned from French landscape painters of the Barbizon School, many of whom practiced outdoor painting. Especially influential in their practice of painting in the open air were French painter Eugène Louis Boudin and Dutch painter Johan Barthold Jongkind, who were noted for their seascapes. The impressionists also admired the vibrant color and lively brushstrokes of Eugène Delacroix, although they avoided his religious, moral, and historical subject matter in order to concentrate on themes from everyday life.