Impressionist Movement Photos

In the early 1860s several French artists joined together to move away from the dictated standards of the Académie des Beaux-Arts and what the Academy would accept for exhibit in its annual Salon. The artists involved were inspired to paint landscapes & contemporary life outdoors directly "en plein air" with newly introduced synthetic oil paints, instead of simply making landscape sketches to be turned into paintings back in the studio. Impressionists were not inclined to create the historical scenes preferred by the Academy. They set up their own annual exhibits which a critic labeled "Impressionism" after one of Monet's works called Impression Sunrise.