to create the environment that produced the diverse painting styles that followed.Impressionism’s official theory, color should be dropped pure on the canvas instead of getting mixed on the palette, was only respected by a few of the artists for a couple of years. The style of painting is characterized by concentration on the general impression produced by a scene or object and the use of unmixed primary colors and small strokes to stimulate actual reflected light (Nissen, 1998, p.3). The sketches, used as the base of the painting, capture the basic form and general layout of where the objects are positioned. The sketch also focuses on the locations of the shadows and the lines of light in the sky. The main characteristic of Impressionistic art was an attempt to accurately and objectively record visual reality in terms of transient effects of light and color. Impressionists’ paintings are typically snapshots of real life, full of color and light.The expressions “independents” or “open air painters” may be more appropriate than “Impressionists” for those artists continuing a tradition inherited from Eugene Delacroix, who thought that the drawing and the colors were a whole (Pioch, 1996, p.2). These artists were drawn together by a common desire to bring a new kind of realism to painting. Impressionists astonished their contemporaries with their revolutionary treatment of color and light. Sunlight dappled water, the evanescent atmosphere of outdoor scenes and fleeting moments on everyday life characterize their work at its most delightful (Nissen, 1998, p.1). Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissaro, Alfred Sisley, Berthe Bazille, and Edouard Manet were world famous Impressionists. The established painter Edouard Manet, of the 1860’s, greatly influenced the group by adopting the Impressionistic approach during the 1860’s. The Impressionists worked together,...
