What is it about the Impressionism art movement that makes it one of the most influential and popular movements? The characteristics of Impressionism art were new, exciting, and radical. In many ways, the art was rebellious from classical art prior to Impressionism.
In this article I outline five of the main Impressionism art characteristics that will not only help you understand this art on a deeper level but also help you easily identify Impressionism art when you see it:
- Quick, loose brush strokes
- Bright paintings
- “En plein air” (Painting Outside)
- Relative color
- Clearer picture from further away
5 Impressionism Art Characteristics
Quick, loose brush strokes
The first characteristic is the quick, loose brush strokes. This is probably the most commonly talked about and easily recognized of the Impressionism art characteristics. When you zoom in on an Impressionist piece, you can see the artist’s hand with individual, small, and loose brush strokes. This is because the artist often doesn’t have a lot of time to complete these images, which I’ll explain in the third characteristic.
The focus of Impressionist artworks is not on the fine details. Instead, Impressionists are trying to capture a moment – an “impression”. And in so doing, they move quickly, without much detail, as the artist’s hand moves across the canvas with quick brush strokes. This is why you can often see individual strands of the paintbrush being used in an Impressionist piece.
Bright paintings
The second of the five Impressionism art characteristics I want to focus on is the brightness of the paintings from this movement. Now, colors and brightness differed by artist and different times during the movement, but in general you’ll see a lot of brightness in Impressionism art.
To really understand why this was groundbreaking at the time, let’s jump back in art history. The art movement prior to Impressionism was Realism. The artists during Realism typically used blacks, grays, and browns, which resulted in darker, more earthbound paintings. Also, you can look back to the Baroque period. Baroque art is full of darker tones. In fact, a lot of Baroque artists painted a dark brown or black “ground” color on their canvas. This was the primer that they painted on their canvas before painting the rest of the painting on top of this dark brown or black.
(See an analysis of Caravaggio’s The Entombment of Christ for an example of Baroque art.)
Instead, Impressionist artists used light “ground” colors or even unprimed canvases. In addition, they used hues from the light spectrum in their paintings – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Finally, they didn’t blend their colors on the canvas. They would often paint complementary colors next to each other to give the painting a more vibrant, alive feeling.
So, using hues from the light spectrum on this light “ground” and not blending the colors, but often painting complementary colors next to each other, created colorful, bright, vibrant paintings.
“En plein air” (outdoors painting)
The third Impressionism art characteristic is called “en plein air”, which refers to painting outdoors. Paintings prior to Impressionism were usually completed in some sort of studio. Studios were controlled environments, often with models and apprentices involved.
Impressionists decided to take their canvases outside, which was unheard of at the time. The Impressionists wanted to capture a moment in time and the feeling or “impression” of that moment. In order to do so, they needed to be on-scene. So, they painted “en plein air”, meaning out in the open. Therefore, you get a lot of landscapes and outdoors scenes from Impressionism.
Relative color
The fourth characteristic of Impressionism art is the use of relative color. This is the opposite of “local color”. The term “local color” refers to the color an object would naturally appear in neutral, white light. Another way to think of “local color” is the colors that we typically attribute to things – grass is green, snow is white, the sky is blue.
Impressionist artists didn’t like to use “local color”. In capturing the moment they were painting, they captured objects and colors as they saw them. The artists wanted to depict objects in the light that they saw at certain times of day or in certain environments. So, these objects didn’t necessarily have the colors you would naturally attribute to them, but what they looked like as the Impressionists were painting “en plein air”. Water could be purple. Grass could be blue. A mountain range orange. This is called “relative color”.
Clearer picture from further away
Finally, one of my favorite Impressionism art characteristics is how the paintings become clearer the further away you are physically from the canvas. The closer you view Impressionism art, the less clear the painting becomes and the more chaotic it gets. As you get close to the canvas, you see the artist’s hand in every individual brush stroke and glob of paint. But the painting lacks detail. As you move further away from the painting, the scene, the emotion, and the details become clearer.
I think this is a great connection with how people typically experience the world as we age. As we get older, we tend to realize how chaotic and messy life is. Yet, somehow, the entire messy picture makes more sense.
Viewing Impressionism art in person
I love the way Impressionist paintings make me feel. The idea of capturing a moment in time before it disappears and having it last forever is beautiful. We will never see the most beautiful second of that sunset from last weekend again. But maybe we can capture that impression with a painting.
I also love the experience of seeing Impressionist art in real life. The ability to get close and see the artist’s hand and paint brush at work and then step back as everything comes together is amazing. It’s a wonderful experience.
Understanding the Impressionism art characteristics covered in this article will help you better understand the art from this movement. You should also be able to easily identify an Impressionist piece the next time you see one. Look for these five characteristics and see if you notice any others.
To see how the Impressionism movement fits within art history, you can download this condensed western art history timeline. You can also check out these art history movements and periods videos to dive in deeper to each movement or period.