Impressionism
Grade 12 · ART · Art Movements
A Grade 12 Visual Arts resource introducing Impressionism and its distinctive approach to painting and visual expression.
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About this resource
"Impressionism" is a lesson presentation for Grade 12 Art, filed under Art Movements, prepared by Nilmini Jayasekara.
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Slides work best as revision after the lesson rather than instead of it: read the matching pages in the reading book first, then use these to check what you remember. For Grade 12 this is usually a single topic per file.
Impressionism (from the 1870s, led by painters including Monet, Renoir and Degas) broke from the smooth, detailed finish expected by the academic art of its time: visible, loose brushstrokes, a focus on capturing changing light and atmosphere rather than precise outline, and everyday, often outdoor subject matter painted directly from observation.
It's taught as the hinge point between academic tradition and modern art - the movement that first made 'how it's painted' (visible brushwork, colour, light) as important as 'what's painted'. That shift in priority is exactly what Post-Impressionism, Cubism and Surrealism, covered elsewhere in this unit, all build on and react against.
