Impressionism
paintings & oil reproductions

Impressionist paintings: the guide

In April 1874 a group of painters rejected by the official Salon put on their own exhibition in Paris, in the former studio of the photographer Nadar. A critic mocked one canvas by Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, and called them all “Impressionists”. The name stuck. Over eight exhibitions until 1886, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Sisley, Morisot and Caillebotte changed painting for good: they worked outdoors, quickly, with visible strokes of bright colour, and they painted the modern world around them, from boating parties to railway stations.

The most famous Impressionist paintings

Impression, Sunrise, Claude Monet (1872)

An orange sun over the port of Le Havre: the painting that gave the movement its name. Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris. Read the story.

Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1876)

A Sunday dance in Montmartre, dappled with sunlight through the trees. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Read the story.

Woman with a Parasol, Claude Monet (1875)

Monet’s wife and son on a windy hill, seen from below against the sky. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Read the story.

Luncheon of the Boating Party, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1880 to 1881)

Friends lingering over lunch on a balcony by the Seine. Phillips Collection, Washington. Read the story.

Water Lilies, Claude Monet (1906)

The surface of his pond at Giverny, with no shore and no horizon. Art Institute of Chicago. Read the story.

The Dance Class, Edgar Degas (1874)

Young ballerinas stretch, scratch and wait while the old ballet master leans on his stick. Degas painted dancers more than any other subject. Read the story.

L’Absinthe, Edgar Degas (1876)

A woman staring into a glass of absinthe in a Paris café, a picture so bleak that critics in London called it a scandal. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Read the story.

Paris Street; Rainy Day, Gustave Caillebotte (1877)

Umbrellas on a wet crossroads of Haussmann’s new Paris, as crisp as a photograph. Art Institute of Chicago. Read the story.

The Floor Scrapers, Gustave Caillebotte (1875)

Three workmen planing a parquet floor in a Paris apartment. The Salon rejected it as vulgar, so Caillebotte showed it with the Impressionists. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

The Boulevard Montmartre at Night, Camille Pissarro (1897)

Gaslights and shop windows shimmering on a wet boulevard, his only night scene in a series painted from a hotel window. National Gallery, London.

The Cradle, Berthe Morisot (1872)

The painter’s sister watching over her sleeping baby through a veil of white gauze. Shown at the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, Édouard Manet (1882)

A barmaid gazes past us while the mirror behind her fills with the crowd. Manet never exhibited with the Impressionists, but he was their hero. The Courtauld, London. Read the story.

What makes a painting Impressionist?

• Light first: the subject matters less than the light falling on it at one moment.
• Visible brushstrokes of pure colour placed side by side, so they mix in the eye.
• Coloured shadows: blue and violet instead of black.
• Modern life: cafés, boulevards, dances, trains and suburban rivers.
• Painting outdoors, made possible by new paint in tubes.

Meet the painters in our guide to the most famous Impressionist artists, read more stories in famous Impressionist paintings, or visit the artist pages for Monet and Renoir. Every Impressionist painting in our shop is in the public domain and can be ordered as a hand-painted oil reproduction on canvas, in the size you choose.