Impressionism (c. 1860s–1880s) was a French movement that sought to capture the fleeting effects of light and color in outdoor scenes, breaking from the dark palettes and polished surfaces of academic painting. Aided by the invention of portable paint tubes, artists began painting en plein air, working outdoors directly from nature rather than in the studio, in order to record natural light and atmospheric conditions with fresh immediacy. Visible brushstrokes, pure unmixed color, and open compositions replaced traditional finish and clarity of contour.
Claude Monet (1840–1926) was the founding figure of the movement, whose painting Impression, Sunrise (1872) gave the group its name. He is famous for his serial paintings of subjects like haystacks, Rouen Cathedral, and especially the Water Lilies at his garden in Giverny, in which he returned repeatedly to the same motif to explore how changing light transformed appearance. Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) celebrated Parisian social life in works like Bal du moulin de la Galette and Luncheon of the Boating Party, with vibrant light and saturated color applied through lively brushwork. Edgar Degas (1834–1917), who preferred to call himself a Realist, brought the discipline of draftsmanship and an interest in unusual, photographic compositions to his depictions of ballet dancers, horse races, and modern urban life. Berthe Morisot (1841–1895) was a leading female Impressionist and a founding member of the movement, known for intimate domestic scenes rendered with loose brushwork and a delicate, atmospheric quality.
Post-Impressionism (c. 1886–1905) encompassed diverse artists who extended Impressionist color and brushwork while rejecting what they saw as its limitations. Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) used bold colors, expressive brushwork, and emotional intensity; though he sold few paintings in his lifetime, works like The Starry Night, painted from his asylum window in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, and the Sunflowers series are now among the most recognized images in art. Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), often called the Father of Modern Art, sought the underlying geometric structure of nature, paving the way for Cubism. Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) found inspiration in Tahiti and the South Pacific, where he used bold, flat areas of color and Symbolist imagery, as in Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? Georges Seurat (1859–1891) developed Pointillism, applying small distinct dots of pure color that optically blend from a distance to create luminous effects, as seen in his monumental Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
Around the same period, Art Nouveau (c. 1890–1910) emerged as a decorative style featuring sinuous, organic lines inspired by natural forms such as flowers, vines, and insects, influencing architecture, furniture, jewelry, and graphic design. Artists like Alphonse Mucha defined its elegant posters, while the Austrian Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) brought the movement's decorative sensibility to fine art with lavishly patterned works like The Kiss, shimmering with gold leaf and intricate ornament.