Impressionism

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
Impressionism/ɪmˈpreʃənɪzəm/

▶noun

• 1 a style or movement in painting characterized by a concern with depicting the visual impression of the moment, especially in terms of the shifting effect of light.

• 2 a literary or artistic style that seeks to capture a feeling or experience rather than to achieve accurate depiction.

• 3 Music a style of composition in which clarity of structure and theme is subordinate to harmonic effects.

– derivatives
Impressionist noun & adjective.

– origin from Fr. impressionnisme, from impressionniste, orig. applied unfavourably with ref. to Monet's painting Impression: soleil levant (1872).