It can be said that Impressionism was born in a café named Café Guerbois in the Grande rue de Batignolles, France where some painters of that era gathered in the evening and often had quite heated discussion. They were known as the Painters of Batignolles. Manet was the center of this group. There were also writers and art critics such as Zola, Theodore Duret, Zacharie Astruc and Edmond Duranty. Renoir and Manet were also part of this group.

Before, objects had been painted mostly in studio which gave result to lack of brightness, a condition that could be achieved only when objects were painted outside, in the sunlight. In their endeavor to depict nature more and more truthfully the painters came up against the problem of colored shadows.

“One morning one of us had run out of black;
and that was the birth of Impressionism.
–Pierre Auguste Renoir—



On closer inspection they discovered that there was in fact a great variety of different shades even in shadows, with blue as the predominant color. By working outside in the open air, they could see how the various objects changed their colors, depending on the lighting conditions and the colors reflected from other things around them. They noticed how the flickering of the air dissolved the sharpness of the contours and how light sometimes diffused some part of an object.

What they were looking for was beauty in the life of the people around them, i.e. in the intimate circle of the family, on a walk, during their leisure time, while having a lively chat in a garden party, or under the rapidly changing conditions of the big city.

The chance encounter of a random but attractive moment had to be captured as quickly as it occurred. Everything was in motion, and the light was forever changing. It was this continuous state of flux with its luminous colors that had to be caught. These were what world called years after as: Impressionism.