In their work, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Berthe Morisot presented reality as seen through the eyes of the artist. The French Impressionists drew inspiration from the realistic style of the French Barbizon School, as well as the paintings of the somewhat older Dutch artist Johan Barthold Jongkind. They used bright colours, applied short, loose brushstrokes, and chose to paint subjects from modern life. The paintings were sketchy in style, and this meant they sometimes looked like they had been made quickly and spontaneously. This led to critics saying these artworks looked unfinished. The appreciation of French Impressionism grew in the Netherlands in the late 1880s.
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