In the early 1860s, a group of Parisian artists fed up with the strict rules of France’s Académie des Beaux-Arts formed the Société Anonyme Coopérative des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs (or “Cooperative and Anonymous Association of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers”) to independently exhibit their artwork. This was looked upon very critically by the art establishment, and one critic named Louis Leroy wrote an extremely negative review where he derisively nicknamed this group the “Impressionist School” based on Claude Monet’s painting Impression, Sunrise. Since the other name was too long and they sort of agreed with the name, the group cheerfully adopted the moniker, and that’s how we got the word impressionism.
