Impressionism started with a group of artists who sought to capture the moment of a painting rather than the details. In the 1870s artists took a look at how their surrounding made them feel and tried to capture that onto canvas. They focused on the impression that their subject had on them which is why we call them Impressionists. To capture the moment brush strokes are soft and fluid. The paintings are often characterized by splashes of color that gets blended into the background. 
Overall the Impressionistic style is one of wonderful colors and emotional paintings. I rather enjoy these painting. One of the things that I like about this era was the outdoor them. The painting to the left is The Cliff at Fécamp by Claude Monet. Is beauty lies in its simplicity. Just some clouds and grass overhanging a cliff, with a few clouds in the sky. So simple yet so beautiful to the eye. It takes a different approach to the classical idea of extreme detail and gives the scene life through colors and harmony.
While Impressionist paintings focused of the lights of a scene, Post-Impressionist took the techniques of the Impressionists and added emotion. Vincent van 
Gogh’s painting is a great example of where color blending and soft brush strokes combine to form a picture of the event. In a Starry Night Gogh captures the shades of the night how they would appear in a dramatic movie, the glow of the stars overpowering the city below. The dark tower rests outside of town trying to reach the stars but not quite making it there. The moment is there and it’s happening now. The painting brings the town and the sky to life while harnessing the bright glows to signify the joy in the night sky.
The paintings that came directly from the Impressionist were fantastic works of art that 
are a masterpiece by and definition. But it is the seeds that these artists planted that paved the way for modern art, abstract art, expressive art, etc. The spectrum of art was widened and continued to widen until anything could be art. At this point art loses its meaning. When My Bed, by Tracey Emin, is considered art, the idea of a artizen is replaced with that of a philosopher. The exhibit goes beyond the art as a creative expression that I like to see in a museum. It shows not the skill of the artist but more of the poet who is able to craft a story around something until it is expressed as art. Impressionism was a beautiful time of amazing artists creating something out of nothing. Some works now take nothing and turn it into something.
Bibliography:
“Lesson #5.” Impressionism.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2015. <http://www.impressionism.org/teachimpress/browse/lesson5.htm>.
“Vincent Van Gogh Starry Night.” Vincent Van Gogh Gallery. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2015. <http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/starry-night.html>.
“Tracey Emin – Contemporary Artists.” Tracey Emin. The Saatchi Gallery, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2015. <http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/artpages/tracey_emin_my_bed.htm>.
pushing his wife on a swing toward her other lover. Created by Jean-Honore Fragonard in 1797 this piece has come to symbolize the Rococo era. The patron who commissioned the work is seen in full view of the women’s legs. Her shoe is coming off in the heat of the moment. As the strict moral high grounds of the church began to loosen, artists had more freedom in risque subject matter.
Venus. Francois Boucher portrays Venus with full nudity except for a small, almost translucent, piece of cloth covering her privates. She is bathing her son, Cupid, as two doves get close in the pool. The art centralizes on female beauty and the female form. The pascal colors are typical of paintings from the era. While Venus has been seen in many paintings for her beauty, the erotic nature of the painting was much more limited in the past or at least the erotic nature was less obvious.
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