Impressionism is a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists. The name of the style derives from the title of a Claude Monet work, Impression, Soleil Levant (Impression, Sunrise).

印象主义起源于19世纪的巴黎。而这个流派的名字，来源于莫奈的名画——《日出 印象》。

Impressionist painting characteristics include relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time). They painted realistic scenes of modern life, and often painted outdoors. They portrayed overall visual effects instead of details, and used short "broken" brush strokes of mixed and pure unmixed colour—not blended smoothly or shaded, as was customary—to achieve an effect of intense colour vibration.

印象主义的特征包含了：短小精悍的笔触、开放式构图，重点在于能够精准捕捉到变幻莫测的光影。描绘的也往往是生活中的真实场景，一些户外的景象。

印象主义家们侧重的是整体的视觉效果，而不是细节；使用“断裂”的笔触以及不似从前那样混合均匀的颜料，来达到一种强烈的视觉冲击。

Oscar-Claude Monet (14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a founder of French Impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific (多产的) practitioner (从业者) of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions (见解) before nature, especially as applied to plein-air (外光画法的) landscape painting.

Monet's ambition of documenting the French countryside led him to adopt a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons. From 1883 Monet lived in Giverny (法国小镇 吉维尼), where he purchased a house and property and began a vast (巨大的) landscaping project which included lily ponds (莲花池) that would become the subjects of his best-known works. In 1899 he began painting the water lilies (睡莲), first in vertical (垂直的) views with a Japanese bridge as a central feature, and later in the series of large-scale paintings that was to occupy him continuously for the next 20 years of his life.

作为创始人的莫奈喜欢多次重复去画同一场景，从而捕捉住光以及四季的变化。而其中最为出名的系列作品就是《睡莲》，这一场景来源于莫奈购于法国小镇吉维尼家中的莲花池。