How Did Claude Monet Influence French Impressionism

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As one of the most celebrated painters of all time, Claude Monet helped create French Impressionism and is often credited as the father of the Impressionist Movement. Impressionism is considered to be one of the first major movements of modern art. A time period made distinct by each new generation of artists striving to be radically different from its predecessor. This philosophy is the driving force for Monet and several other artists who were apart of this wave of French impressionists seeking to change the status quo created by the salons of the time. Starting in France in the mid-late 19th century, and eventually making its way throughout Europe and America, impressionism was a widely-known movement for its loose brushwork, brightly colored …show more content…

The Salon, or the art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, was the major influence of fine arts in France and essential for an artist to be successful or at least profitable. The strict boundaries of style and content set by the Salon were disliked by many young artists. Unsatisfied with the rejection and lack of freedom the young artists set out to create their own exhibition and, with the help of Emperor Napoleon III, titled it the “Salon des Refusés”, or “The Exhibition of Rejects”. These galleries gathered huge crowds and although the public and critical reception of the galleries was generally that of ridicule the amount of attention given to these artists legitimized the new movement. These artists consisted of Édouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, and Claude Monet. These artists would be key contributors to the new Impressionist movement. Monet being one of the most prevalent. The movements name was born from one of his most famous works Impression, Sunrise, a work depicting the port of Le Havre, which he had submitted for a Salon des Refusés exhibit. A key factor of Impressionism is its loose brushwork and lack of formal detail. Monet recognized this and when asked for the title of the painting he felt he couldn’t claim it to be a view of the port and decided to put “impression” in the title. Many critics used this

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