Tour: Impressionism and beyond

Detail from Claude-Oscar Monet, 'Bathers at La Grenouillère', 1869

This short tour will take you on a journey from the French countryside to the streets of Paris and showcases 5 examples of impressionist art by masters such as Cézanne, Degas and Monet.

Introduction

The Impressionists were a loosely associated group of artists working in and around Paris in the late nineteenth century. Their work incorporates visible brushstrokes of bright colours, an emphasis on the light in its changing qualities and contemporary subjects.

Works were on small-scale canvases, and were mainly painted outside (en plein-air). The combination of small portable canvases and the introduction in the 1840s of pre-mixed paint tubes made it far easier for artists to take their work out of the studio and literally into the fields.