"Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love."
-Claude Monet
Impressionism was an art movement (in painting) originating in France in the 1860s, characterized by a concern with depicting the visual impression of the moment, especially in terms of the shifting effect of light and color.
The focus of the artists were not to create photo-realistic paintings but to visually share their experience, a moment in time.