The Impressionists

The Impressionists is a 2006 three-part factual docudrama from the BBC, which reconstructs the origins of the Impressionist art movement. Based on archive letters, records and interviews from the time, the series records the lives of the artists who were to transform the art world. Narrative The Impressionists is a tale of motivation, creation, poverty, hope, and of the struggle for recognition, set against a backdrop of war, revolution and Parisian artistic movements. At the heart of the story is the brotherhood of artists, bonded by enduring friendships and their commitment to a new type of art. The story is led by the paintings. Some of the world's most memorable art works are recreated, following the same techniques that the artists used at the time. The series reveals how Claude Monet, in a race against time to capture the light, took just 40 minutes to paint his seminal work Impression, Sunrise; why Édouard Manet's depiction of Olympia, in which his model brazenly gazes out of the canvas, so outraged Parisian society; and how Paul Cézanne's 60 paintings of one mountain, Montagne Saint-Victoire, helped to lay the foundations for Cubism and modern art.