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Impressionism

Heading Changes
Beginnings -> The Beginning of the Impressionists

Impressionist techniques -> Technique and Style fo Impressionists

Content and composition -> Composition and Content

Main Impressionists -> Significant French Impressionists

Associates and influenced artists -> Impact of Impressionism Methods

Sculpture, photography and film -> Other Types of Impressionistic Art Forms

Music and literature -> Impressionistic Music and Literature

Editing the 'Beginnings' section
First Paragraph:

In the middle of the 19th century—a time of change, as Emperor Napoleon III rebuilt Paris and waged war—the Académie des Beaux-Arts dominated French art. The Académie was the preserver of traditional French painting standards such as historical subjects, religious themes, and portraits. The Académie preferred carefully finished images that looked realistic when examined closely. Paintings in this style were made up of precise brush strokes carefully blended to hide the artist's hand in the work.[3] Colour was restrained and often toned down further by the application of a golden varnish.[4]

Third Paragraph:

In the early 1860s, four young painters—Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille—met while studying under the academic artist Charles Gleyre. They discovered that they shared an interest in painting landscape and contemporary life rather than historical or mythological scenes. Following a practice that had become increasingly popular by mid-century, they often ventured into the countryside to paint in the open air, but not for the purpose of making sketches for studio works.[5] By painting in sunlight directly from nature and making bold use of the vivid synthetic pigments that had become available since the beginning of the century, they began to develop a lighter and brighter manner of painting. A favourite meeting place for the artists was the Café Guerbois in Paris, where the discussions were often led by Édouard Manet, whom the younger artists greatly admired. Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, and Armand Guillaumin later joined these discussions.[6]

Fifth Paragraph

After Emperor Napoleon III saw the rejected works of 1863, he decreed that the public be allowed to judge the work themselves, and the Salon des Refusés (Salon of the Refused) was organized. While many viewers came only to laugh, the Salon des Refusés drew attention to the existence of a new style of art and attracted more visitors than the regular Salon.[9]

Seventh Paragraph

The critical response was mixed. Monet and Cézanne received the harshest attacks. Critic and humorist Louis Leroy wrote a scathing review in the newspaper Le Charivari in which, making wordplay with the title of Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant), he called the article, The Exhibition of the Impressionists. Leroy declared that Monet's painting was at most, a sketch, and could hardly be termed a finished work.

Eighth Paragraph

The term Impressionist quickly gained favour with the public. It was also accepted by the artists themselves, even though they were a diverse group in style and temperament, unified primarily by their spirit of independence and rebellion. They exhibited together—albeit with shifting membership—eight times between 1874 and 1886. The Impressionists' style would soon become synonymous with modern life.[4]

Tenth Paragraph

Among the artists of the core group, defections occurred as Cézanne, followed later by Renoir, Sisley, and Monet, abstained from the group exhibitions so they could submit their works to the Salon. Disagreements arose from issues such as Guillaumin's membership in the group, championed by Pissarro and Cézanne against opposition from Monet and Degas, who thought him unworthy.[17] Degas invited Mary Cassatt to display her work in the 1879 exhibition, but also insisted on the inclusion of Jean-François Raffaëlli, Ludovic Lepic, and other realists who did not represent Impressionist practices, causing Monet in 1880 to accuse the Impressionists of "opening doors to first-come daubers".[18] The group divided over invitations to Paul Signac and Georges Seurat to exhibit with them in 1886. Pissarro was the only artist to show at all eight Impressionist exhibitions.

Eleventh Paragraph

The individual artists achieved few financial rewards from the Impressionist exhibitions, but their art gradually won a degree of public acceptance and support. Their dealer, Durand-Ruel, played a major role in this as he kept their work before the public and arranged shows for them in London and New York. By this time the methods of Impressionist painting, in a diluted form, had become commonplace in Salon art.[20]

Impressionist Techniques
Cut the whole first paragraph