■ noun
1》 a style or movement in painting characterized by a concern with depicting the visual impression of the moment, especially in terms of the shifting effect of light.
2》 a literary or artistic style that seeks to capture a feeling or experience rather than to achieve accurate depiction.
3》 Music a style of composition in which clarity of structure and theme is subordinate to harmonic effects.
Derivatives
Impressionist noun & adjective
Origin
from Fr. impressionnisme , from impressionniste , orig. applied unfavourably with ref. to Monet's painting Impression: soleil levant (1872).