Photography and painting have always been intertwined.

In the nineteenth century, the salons and juried exhibitions tended to favor the larger and more realistic entries, some of them quite complex in their subject matter. This trend had been underway for some time, but it reached its zenith just about the time that something would come along that would upset the balance of things -- the invention of photography.

Even the crudest early photographs, still in black and white, showed that the contest for realism had been lost. Photography soon advanced into pictorial and artist scenes, with groups formed to promote photography as an art form.

I think that this is one of the things that motivated the Impressionist painters. While most of them were classically trained, they saw an end to the age of realism in painting. What they did, in terms of Information Theory, was to remove some of the explicit detail from their work, creating an "impression" of their subjects. At the same time, they went from the current trend in mythological, historic, and exotic themes to simpler, everyday themes taking place in the world around them.

This may be the reason that their work struck a chord with the viewing public, one that still resonates today. When you look at these works, you are not inundated with a flood of detail. Your mind fills in the gaps in what's missing. As a result, everyone who sees one of these works will probably see a slightly different version, leaving some of the interpretation to the viewer.