Impressionism was an art movement that began in France in the 1860s and 1870s. Painters such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissarro tried to capture the changing effects of light and color and scenes of modern everyday life. They often painted outdoors with quick, visible brushstrokes.
The name comes from Monet's painting "Impression, Sunrise". The first group exhibition, in 1874, was held in Paris in the former studio of the photographer Nadar. Impressionism later influenced pictorialist photographers, who used soft focus and atmospheric light to make photographs look more like paintings.
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