A celebration of the Impressionists artists, including Monet, Renoir and Pissarro, whose paintings are inextricably linked to the birth of modern art. Today, our passion for these artists remains, and their paintings are amongst the best-loved works in the history of art. By choosing to paint extraordinary pictures of modernity that shocked the bourgeois elite, the Impressionists challenged the academic ideals of the French Salons, rejected the past and embracing colour to portray a sense of joie de vivre. Their revolutionary use of colour, free brushstrokes and modern subject matter, painted en plain air gave rise to one of the most important and influential art movements of the nineteenth century. Featuring many of the most famous and important pieces by the groups" key figures, this beautifully illustrated reference book also includes a collection of less well-known but equally important works to show the diversity of this exceptional movement.