From the 1890s through the 1910s, American impressionism flourished in art colonies—loosely affiliated groups of artists who lived and worked together and shared a common aesthetic vision. Art colonies tended to form in small towns that provided affordable living, abundant scenery for painting, and relatively easy access to large cities where artists could sell their work. Some of the most important American impressionist artists gathered at Cos Cob and Old Lyme, Connecticut, both on Long Island Sound; New Hope, Pennsylvania, on the Delaware River; and Brown County, Indiana. American impressionist artists also thrived in California at Carmel and Laguna Beach; in New York on eastern Long Island at Shinnecock, largely due to the influence of William Merritt Chase; and in Boston where Edmund Charles Tarbell and Frank Weston Benson became important practitioners of the impressionist style.
Notable American impressionists
| John White Alexander | Theodore Earl Butler | Daniel Garber | Willard Metcalf | Edward Willis Redfield | Edmund Charles Tarbell |
| J. Ottis Adams | Mary Cassatt | Robert F. Gault AWS | Richard Edward Miller | Robert Reid | John Henry Twachtman |
| Lucy Bacon | William Merritt Chase | Arthur Hill Gilbert | Abram Molarsky | Theodore Robinson | Edward Charles Volkert |
| George Herbert Baker | Alson S. Clark | Edmund Greacen | Robertson Kirtland Mygatt | Guy Rose | Robert Vonnoh |
| John Noble Barlow | Colin Campbell Cooper | Richard Gruelle | George Loftus Noyes | Porfirio Salinas | Clark Voorhees |
| Thomas P. Barnett | Paul Cornoyer | Childe Hassam | Frank Nuderscher | John Singer Sargent | Marion Wachtel |
| Reynolds Beal | Joseph DeCamp | Wilson Irvine | Leonard Ochtman | Paul Sawyier | Fred Wagner |
| Marilyn Bendell | Thomas Dewing | Charles S. Kaelin | Julian Onderdonk | Christian von Schneidau | Martha Walter |
| Frank Weston Benson | George W Dinckel | Joseph Kleitsch | William McGregor Paxton | Edward Simmons | J. Alden Weir |
| Johann Berthelsen | Frank DuMond | Albert Henry Krehbiel | Edgar Alwin Payne | Sueo Serisawa | Catherine Wiley |
| Warren Eugene Brandon | John Joseph Enneking | William Langson Lathrop | Clara Elsene Peck | Tim Solliday | Robert William Wood |
| John Leslie Breck | Carl Eytel | Hayley Lever | Van Dearing Perrine | George Sotter | Mary Agnes Yerkes |
| Matilda Browne | Pedro Figari | Laura Muntz Lyall | Lilla Cabot Perry | Anna Huntington Stanley | |
| John Elwood Bundy | Frederick Carl Frieseke | Theodore Lukits | Fritz Poock | Otto Stark | |
| Dennis Miller Bunker | Victor Matson | Edward Henry Potthast | T. C. Steele |