Online Lecture "American Impressionism"

American Impressionism was a significant artistic movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that carried French lightness and mastery of light into the soil of American optimism, pragmatism, and love of local landscapes.

While the French Impressionists struggled for recognition and were seen as rebels, their American counterparts achieved commercial success almost immediately and were loved by the public.

Unlike the French, who celebrated Parisian cafes and boulevards, American Impressionists preferred the countryside. They founded art colonies where they spent their summers.

American Impressionists were the first to admire the architecture of modern metropolises. They enthusiastically painted the lights of New York, the first skyscraper, the Flatiron, in a snowstorm, bridges, and crowded squares, turning industrial chaos into poetry of light.