Bibliotheca Universalis: Modern Art. A History from Impressionism to Today

Modern Matters

A blow-by-blow account of modern art movements

Most art historians agree that the modern art adventure first developed in the 1860s in Paris. A circle of painters, whom we now know as Impressionists, began painting pictures with rapid, loose brushwork. They turned to everyday street life for subjects, instead of overblown heroic scenes, and they escaped the power of the Salon by organizing their own independent exhibitions.