The most important element of an impressionist painting is natural light, or rather, the effect of natural light,sunlight, upon a subject.
Claude Monet (1840-1926), for instance, painted whole series of canvases on the same subject in different light: Rouen Cathedral, haystacks, poplars and especially the water lilies in his pond at Giverny. His paintings became more and more incorporeal, verging in his last years on the abstract. The word "impressionism" was coined in 1874 by an unfriendly critic looking at a picture of Monet entitled Impression:Sunrise . The dazzling patches of flickering colour, which at first blinded the conservative critics, have become an accepted way of looking at nature.
The impressionists went outdoors for their subjects, not only in the country but in the city as well. They painted the boulevards of Paris, with their throngs of strollers and people watchers on the terraces of cafes, as well as picnics and fairs and lanes in the country.
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) painted exquistie canvases of both city and country life. The impressionists convey an enthusiasm for life, for gaiety, for leisure. They are the absolute opposties of the expressionists.
~Facts on File dictionary of Cultural and Historical Allusions
