Impressionism was a 19th century art movement, which began as a private association of Paris-based artists who exhibited publicly in 1874. The movement was named after Claude Monet's Impression, soleil levant (1873); the term being coined by critic Louis Leroy.
See also Impressionist music, American Impressionism
Impressionism is still widely practiced today, and a variety of successive movements were influenced by it.
painters who showed in the Impressionist exhibitions
Impressionism as Painting Technique
The Impressionist approach to painting is usually identified with a strong concern for light in its changing qualities, often with an emphasis on the effects of a particular passage of time.
Pigeons have been trained to distinguish between cubist and impressionist paintings; see discrimination abilities of pigeons for details.
see also: History of painting, Post-Impressionism