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I don't like art. Not most of it.

But I have always loved impressionism. Always. This isn't something that has developed as I approach my 40th birthday. I remember having posters of impressionist paintings on my childhood bedroom wall (Monet's Bordighera) and in my university dorm (more Monet, this time Impression Sunrise).

Sad, I know.

And so as I travelled in my 20s and 30s I made sure that I would always check out the impressionist section of the fine arts museum of whichever city I happened to be in.

I live in London so the National Gallery and Courtauld Gallery are favourite hangouts. But I've been to the D'Orsay in Paris, the Met and MoMA in New York, the National Gallery in Washington, the Fine Arts Museum in Boston and loads more galleries besides (Toronto, Ottawa, Lisbon, Geneva ...).

The thing that I've only realised over recent years is that the impressionists as people were also truly amazing.

They were ridiculed for the best part of the 1860s and 1870s, but they kept going; many of them struggled to make ends meet (Monet sent scores of begging letters in the 1870s); and they did quite remarkable things (Manet fought a duel and defended Paris when the Prussians laid siege to it, for instance).

And so I've slowly put this website together ...

Reading (Sue Roe's The Private Lives of the Impressionists is a good place to start), writing, reading some more, updating, learning some CSS and HTML, buying an impressionist reproduction from Hong Kong (for $540, but it is 2 metres wide!), learning some javascript (I'm very proud of my quiz page!), checking my google rankings, reading (I've been through Rewald's The History of Impressionism, which should impress you--it is no page-turner!), and so on and so forth.

I hope you like the site. Any comments, information, updates, musings, complaints, rants can be emailed to info@impressionistarts.com.

Tim

P.s. I've recently teamed up with Elizabeth Harris to get more content onto the site. Here's a little bit about her:

I’m a writer, editor and content marketer from the UK. I’ve had an interest in art and history from a young age. I’ve been happy to call many places home and I’ve travelled across the world, seeking out the art and architecture of every destination I visit. I now split my time between the UK and Budapest, Hungary.

For me, Impressionism is fascinating for its precariousness. There were so many times when the movement could have ended, fading away into history without anyone ever taking much notice of it. But it didn’t end and here we are, still talking and writing about it today.