Where did Impressionism get its name?

Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape!'"*. Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872, oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm (Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris). And on it goes, ever more sarcastically. The article was titled, "Exhibition of the Impressionists," and the term stuck. read more

Although the first Impressionist exhibition was well attended, the critics were merciless. Trained to expect the polished illusions of the Salon painters, they were shocked by the raw, unblended, ill-defined paint used by Degas, Renoir, Monet and company. read more

In 1904 the artist and writer Wynford Dewhurst wrote the first important study of the French painters published in English, Impressionist Painting: its genesis and development, which did much to popularize Impressionism in Great Britain. By the early 1880s, Impressionist methods were affecting, at least superficially, the art of the Salon. read more