Impressionism, in painting, developed in the late nineteenth century in France. It began with a loosely structured group of painters who got together mainly to exhibit their paintings. Their art was characterized by the attempt to depict light and movement by using pure broken color. The movement began with four friends who met in a cafe; Monet, Renoir, Siley, and Baxille. They were reacting against the academic standards of their time and the romantic emphasis on emotion as a subject matter. They rejected the role of imagination in art. Instead, they observed nature closely, painting with a scientific interest in visual phenomena. Their subject matter was as diverse as their personalities. Monet and Siley painted landscapes with-changing effects of light, while Renoir painted idealized women and children, the works of impressionists were received with hostility until the 1920s. By the 1930s impressionism had a large cult following, and by the 1950s even the least important works by people associated with the movement commanded enormous prices.

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