Lyudmila Kirilicheva, English Teacher. School Chekhov-7

In the early 1860s, four young painters—Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille began to develop a lighter and brighter manner of painting. When they submitted paintings to the Salon, their work were usually rejected! The Salon jury encouraged and rewarded traditional paintings. To them, the work of the young painters, with its loose brushwork and daring colors, seemed shocking, unfinished and insulting.Claude MonetPierre-Auguste RenoirAlfred SisleyFrédéric Bazille

In 1874 thirty progressive artists participated in their first joint exhibition. The critical response was mixed. Monet and Cézanne received the harshest attacks. Critic and humorist Louis Leroy wrote a scathing review in which, making wordplay with the title of Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise he gave the artists the name by which they became known. Impression, Sunrise Claude Monet

The term impressionists quickly gained favour with the public. It was also accepted by the artists themselves. They exhibited together eight times between 1874 and The public, at first hated the paintings, then gradually came to believe the Impressionists had captured a fresh and original vision The Impressionists' style, with its loose, spontaneous brushstrokes, became synonymous with modern life.

Visible Brushstrokes Light Colours Emphasis on Light and Changing Qualities of it Ordinary Subject Matter Unusual Visual Angles Open Compositions

Claude Monet Plum Trees in Blossom

Marie Bracquemond On the Terrace at Sèvres

Claude Monet In The Garden

Claude Monet Haystacks, (Midday) Claude Monet Haystacks, (Sunset) Claude Monet The Magpie

Camille Pissarro Flock of Sheep in a Field after the Harvest

Edouard Manet The Bar at the Foiles Bergere

Claude Monet The Railway Bridge

Frédéric Bazille (1841–1870)Фредерик Базиль Gustave Caillebotte (1848–1894)Гюстав Кайботт Mary Cassatt (1844–1926)Мэри Кассат Paul Cézanne (1839–1906)Поль Сезанн Edgar Degas (1834–1917)Эдгар Дега Armand Guillaumin (1841–1927)Арман Гийомен Édouard Manet (1832–1883)Эдуард Мане Claude Monet (1840–1926)Клод Моне Berthe Morisot (1841–1895)Берта Моризо Camille Pissarro (1830–1903)Камиль Писсарро Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) Огюст Ренуар Alfred Sisley (1839–1899)Альфред Сислей

Monet, Sisley, Morisot, and Pissarro may be considered the "purest" Impressionists, in their consistent pursuit of an art of spontaneity, sunlight, and colour. Degas rejected much of this, as he believed in the primacy of drawing over colour and belittled the practice of painting outdoors. Renoir turned away from Impressionism for a time during the 1880s, and never entirely regained his commitment to its ideas. Édouard Manet, although regarded by the Impressionists as their leader, never abandoned his liberal use of black as a colour, and never participated in the Impressionist exhibitions.

Claude Monet – Lily ponds and Gardens August Renoir – People Outdoors Edgar Degas – Dancers and Theatre Camille Pissarro – Cities and Streets Alfred Sisley – Rivers and Landscapes Édouard Manet – Scenes of Parisian Social Life

Self-portrait with a beret

Japanese bridge over the water-lilies pond at Giverny

Women in the garden

Regattas at Sainte-Adresse

Self-portrait

Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette

Luncheon of the Boating Party

Two Sisters/On the terrace

By the Seashore

Self-portrait

The Blue Dance

The Dance Class

Musicians in the Orchestra

Self-portrait

Peasants’ Houses, Eragny

Boulevard Montmartre, night effect

Boulevard Montmartre, night effect B oulevard Montmartre, Afternoon Sun

August Renoir Portrait of Alfred Sisley

The Wave, Lady's Cove, Langland Bay

Street in Louveciennes

The Restaurant La Barque During the Flood at Port Marly

Self-Portrait with Palette

Music in the Tuileries

Argenteuil

The Railway

The Impressionists created a model for freedom and subjectivity that promoted artistic freedom that which many artists of the past longed for. Their example empowered later artists that took it much further than they did. Impressionism became the birth of modern art. All the major art movements that would follow, including Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art owe their beginnings to Impressionism

“Impressionism is at the root of all modern art, because it was the first movement that managed to free itself from preconceived ideas, and because it changed not only the way life was depicted but the way life was seen” Franceso Salvi