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In the years following the Civil War, American art underwent a fundamental shift. The traditional Romantic style of painting, which focused on portraying majestic scenes in stark, vivid lines and shapes, gave way to a new concern for light and atmosphere. It was the age of Impressionism. Impressionism was not indigenous to America. In fact, its origins lay in France, which had long been at the fore of artistic innovation. The French Impressionists threw off …

…ways a precursor to Impressionism, had its heyday before the explosion of European influence in American art. Finally, it was the effective use of photography which freed artists to explore their own creative styles and escape the restrictions of objective reality. These factors led to the creation of something great and beautiful, at once a part of a larger movement, but at the same time very definitely American. It was the age of American Impressionism