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.
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.
He undertakes a nostalgic but sometimes painful journey as he looks back on his past life in an interview with a journalist conducted at his garden, pond and home in Giverny.
Young Monet, played by Richard Armitage, leads the group of friends with his vision for paintings that capture the images, energy and light of the modern world.
Using quotes from the primary sources, the series depicts the characters' idiosyncrasies—Cézanne's hatred of barking dogs, his mistress Hortense's love of lemonade, Monet's flamboyant dress sense, and Degas' irritability.