The Birth of Impressionism

Impressionism is a style of art that developed in France in the 1870's. This style of art began when four students of the painter Marc Gleyre started getting together, and questioning the traditional rules of art. These four students were Manet, Renoir, Sisley, and Bazille.
Since 1648 the rules of art had been set by the French Academy of Fine Arts. The Academy did not consider paintings of everyday events to be art. They emphasized paintings that taught ethical or moral lessons through historic, mythological, or Biblical themes. …