Monet, Sisley, Morisot, and Pissarro may be considered the "purest" Impressionists, in their consistent pursuit of an art of spontaneity, sunlight, and colour. Other artists who identified with impressionism were not strictly impressionistic in their art. A list of the principal artists is below.
Main French Impressionists
The central figures in the development of Impressionism in France, listed alphabetically, were:
- Frédéric Bazille (who only posthumously participated in the Impressionist exhibitions) (1841–1870)
- Gustave Caillebotte (who, younger than the others, joined forces with them in the mid-1870s) (1848–1894)
- Mary Cassatt (American-born, she lived in Paris and participated in four Impressionist exhibitions) (1844–1926)
- Paul Cézanne (although he later broke away from the Impressionists) (1839–1906)
- Edgar Degas (who despised the term Impressionist) (1834–1917)
- Armand Guillaumin (1841–1927)
- Édouard Manet (who did not participate in any of the Impressionist exhibitions) (1832–1883)
- Claude Monet (the most prolific of the Impressionists and the one who embodies their aesthetic most obviously)(1840–1926)
- Berthe Morisot (who participated in all Impressionist exhibitions except in 1879) (1841–1895)
- Camille Pissarro (1830–1903)
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir (who participated in Impressionist exhibitions in 1874, 1876, 1877 and 1882) (1841–1919)
- Alfred Sisley (1839–1899)