The term Impressionism describes a 19th century art movement that began around a group of Parisian artists. The name of the movement was coined by an art critic named Louis Leroy in a published review of Claude Monet's painting Impression, Soleil Levant (Sunrise). Impressionists rejected the portrayal of what was considered ideal beauty, and instead attempted to capture the beauty of moment to moment living. They also focused less on individual details in their paintings and attempted to create an effect with the work as a whole.

The works of artists after this movement can also be called impressionistic if they emphasize the same virtues that were important to this style of painting. Impressionist paintings are done of normal everyday subject matter. In the time of the 19th century movement, impressionists painted outdoors instead of in the studio, which was usually the custom. Painting outside allowed them to capture the movement and changes of the sunlight. Time was measured by the placement of the sunlight and how the shadows fell onto a picture.

The movement and playfulness of natural light is very important to the impressionist. Artists in this genre reflect light off the objects and natural elements in their work. Before this movement, the paint on a finished canvas was smooth. The impressionists, however, used a lot of thick paint, and left visual paint strokes to add dimension. The paintings from this movement were done using light colors and painters rarely blended or mixed the pigments of the paint. When darker colors were needed, black was not used as a tint; instead, complementary colors were used to make darker shades. Black was only used as a separate color alone.

Adding Impressionist Prints to Your Décor
As mentioned above, impressionistic paintings are full of light and movement. A large impressionist landscape can add an extra window to any room in the home. The soft colors used in this style of painting can add nice highlights to the darker and deeper colors of traditional furniture. Cover Your Walls offers a large variety of framed prints that embrace impressionist values.