Some people can make quite an impression, especially if

your last name is Monet, Degas, Renoir, or Cassatt.  Of course, keeping in mind that these are only a few of the prodigious impressionist artists from the Impressionism Movement in the 19th century (1800).

We are still working our way through The Mystery of History and have now arrived in the 19th century, and we are kicking off lesson 41 with a few impressionistic artist.  I love art, both my girls do as well so this is more like fun than school to us especially since we also love to be outside.

Claude Monet, Water Lilies

Not familiar with impressionism?  No worries, we have you covered.  So impressionism is a painting style which began in France (Paris) in the mid-1800s.  Impressionists like to focus on natural subjects and paint outdoors.  Basically, they just packed up their supplies, headed outside (en plein air), and painted whatever they saw; people, family members, a tree, the ocean, a field, whatever was out there, they would paint it.  This new form of art did not include a religious theme as did most art up until this point.

Lydia Leaning on Her
Arms in a Theatre Box (Mary Cassatt) 

Impressionists painted with light colors, unmixed colors, and used unusual visual angles with spontaneous, rapid, and loose brush strokes which were visible (Gasp!).  They basically just wanted to capture a moment in time.

Rehearsal of the Scene-Degas

The credit for naming this type of new artform goes to an art critic who was insulted by Claude Monet's painting Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant) in 1872.  Louis Leroy, art critic made fun of Monet's painting.  He actually thought it was junk.

Renoir, The Skiff 

It is a good thing that Monet and others impressionist artist continued to paint as they did, otherwise, we would have missed out on a lot of amazing art pieces.  Some of these original works are valued at over $78 million dollars.  Whoa!

Check out all of the great links below and then head outside to make some impressions and memories of your own.  Happy homeschooling...

Khan Academy 
Great lesson plans for K-5 here.
High school impressionism art on Pinterest.
Tons of high school lesson plans here.
More on Monet.
More on Degas.
More on Renoir.
More on Cassatt, American impressionist artist.