Impressionism was one of the most interesting artistic movements in the nineteenth century. It came as a rebellion against the established form of painting. Their innovative techniques drew the disproval of most critiques but after a grinding start the Impressionist movement took off. Impressionism was based on the capturing of color in its purest form. For this Impressionists were some of the first artists to paint outdoors. They preferred the twilight in order to catch the softer generous colors of the sun at sunset. Catching the perfect moment required speed in painting. This is why the Impressionists focused their attention on the overall visual effect rather than the details, and their subjects had more to do with scenes of modern life rather than still life or models in a studio which were the established subjects. What defined the Impressionist movement was the use of short, thick strokes of paint. Brushstrokes weren’t hidden anymore; instead they were used to reflect the personality of the painter. Colors were applied with as little mixing as possible, most times side by side, so the mixing of color would take place in the viewer’s eye. This made for a more vibrant image. All these factors gave the Impressionists an air of rebellion inside the art community. So let’s see who the greatest Impressionist painters were:

1.      Claude Monet: He was one of the founders of the new movement. The term of Impressionism actually came from the name of one of his paintings Impression, Sunrise. An art critic named Louis Leroy coined the phrase Impressionism referring to the painters in a pejorative manner. The founders of the movement actually licked and agreed to call themselves Impressionists. After becoming famous as an artist for founding Impressionism, Monet embarked on task to paint as many of the great landscapes of France that he could. For this, he would travel a great deal, and the success of this series of paintings was very big. Later, after he started painting more and more at his garden where he had a lily pond with a very beautifully crafted bridge, he became obsessed with botany. He hired seven gardeners and he instructed them very strictly about what kind of plants he wants and where he wants them in order to create the perfect image, in his eyes. Claude Monet was without a doubt, one of the greatest Impressionist painters in the world.

2.      Van Gogh: This Dutch painter is famous for cutting one of hi ears of. It comes as no surprise that Van Gogh was suffering from epilepsy and required institutionalization and medical assistance for a long period in the later stage of his life. He is famous for his rough self-portraits and for his depiction of the beautiful golden wheat fields of Southern France. Van Gogh never became very well known during his lifetime and relied heavily on the support of his brother Theo with which he had a very close relationship. In the earlier part of his life Van Gogh desperately wanted to become a priest but he was denied by the church because they considered that he had too much zeal. In an attempt to fulfill what he thought was his destiny he started painting without formal training in order to touch the souls of as many people as he could. Van Gogh is without a doubt one of the greatest Impressionist painters in the world.

3.      Camille Pissarro: Pissarro was part of the Paris based painters which initially formed the Impressionist movement. He was very well respected amongst his colleagues and he was the only painter out of the group or the founders of Impressionism, to exhibit in all eight of the galleries they organized. Pissarro was Danish, although his father was a Frenchman, and he was born in the Virgin Islands. One of his biggest contributions to the Impressionist movement, alongside his vast number of paintings, was the fact that he was a mentor for two other great painters Cezanne and Gaugin. 

I believe that Impressionism was a huge breath of fresh air considering the fact that the artistic establishment was kind of stuck in a rut. Disobeying one of the fundamental rules of painting as it was seen in that time, the idea that color was more important than drawing or contour, the Impressionist movement made a big change for what art really means, and opened the doors for other non-conformist styles such as cubism. The greatest Impressionist painters put their own personal mark on every painting especially in the way the brushstrokes were distributed and thought out. The abundant use of color led to the negation of black. Shadows weren’t cast in black but with the help of complementary colors. Al these effects managed to give Impressionism a great legacy for the word: colorful, vibrant, dynamic moving paintings that always manage to strike a cord even in the most skeptic viewer. 

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