II.

History

Although the particular characteristics of French Impressionism were innovative in 19th-century painting, the attempt to depict the effects of natural light was not new. In the 17th century, Jan Vermeer had used a sharp contrast of light and shadow to bathe his canvases in natural light. Diego Velázquez in the 18th century and Francisco de Goya in the early 19th century conveyed the impression of natural light by eliminating minor shadows and representing areas of light rather than details of form. Their brushwork is similar to that of the French Impressionists.

The direct precursors of Impressionism were the English landscape painters John Constable and J. M. W. Turner. When Monet and Pissarro first saw their work, in 1871, they were particularly impressed by Turner's rendering of atmosphere and his representation of the diffusing effects of light on solid objects. The Barbizon School of painting was also a precursor of the Impressionist movement in France. Thirty years before the first Impressionist exhibition, Camille Corot, an occasional member of the Barbizon School who is sometimes called the “father of Impressionism”, interpreted the fleeting aspects of changing light in a series of subjects painted during different hours of the day. Eugène Louis Boudin, Monet's first teacher, a pre-Impressionist painter of seascapes swiftly executed at their actual locales, taught his successors to convey a feeling of spontaneity. Gustave Courbet encouraged the Impressionists to seek inspiration from everyday life.