Impressionism

A revolution in visual arts occurred when ready-made paint in tubes came onto the market; painters no longer had to mix their paints themselves in the studio and could thus paint outdoors. In a collision between academic tradition and the young generation of artists, controlled indoor light and the constantly shifting natural landscape came into conflict. The young artists no longer cared about exactly reproducing what they saw but simply of creating an impression of it. The musical world was also inspired by this shift in visual art.

This school has abandoned two things: line, without which it is impossible to depict the shape of an object or a living thing, and colour, which gives a shape the appearance of reality. –La Presse, 29 April 1874