Steamboat watercolor study, 1868 by Édouard Manet.
Manet is often credited, in part, with helping modern art transition from realism to impressionism. While this particular painting does not have anything to do with that – I think it is a great showing of how art isn’t about reality but about impression.
The date of this painting puts Manet at about 36 years old when he visited Boulogne, France and was struck by the goings on of everything maritime. If it wasn’t for impressionism I’d never be able to paint. Thanks Manet.
/found via Impressionism & the Making of Modern Art.