IMPOSTORS. 506 IMPRESSMENT. liy E. Wellor, with German translation, Leipzig, 1846; without the trauslalion, Heilbronn, 1870. In the eijjhtecnth eentury renewed attention di- reeted to the subject by the spread of infidelity caused the apix'aranoe of an apocryphal edition, ■whieh has been frequently reprinted. IMPOTENCY (from Lat. impotenlia, inabil- ity, from i//i/((>(t';i», powerless, from in-, not + potcns, able, from i/olis, powerful; connected with Lith. pat is, Skt. pali, lord). As a legal term, an incurable incapacity that admits of neither copulati<^n nor procreation. It i.s a ground for divorce by either spouse if it existed at the time of marriai;e and is incurable, whether it results from a defect caused by nature, or by accident, or by the acts of the party. It has been held that "where impotency is simply the result of old age, the marriage is still binding; that a man of sixty who marries a woman of fifty-two should be content to take her tumquam suror." The burden of proving impotency is U])on the party alleging it as a ground for a divorce. Consult tlie authorities referred to under Divobce; Husbanu and Wife. IMPOUNDING, llie placing in a pound goods which have been taken by distress (q.v.), or cattle which have been taken damage feasant or found astray. See Pound: Kstbay. Also, the retention of a deed or other legal document in the eu.stody of a court in which it is produced. This may be done where the instru- ment is suspected of being forged, or is other- wise of such a character as to satisfy the court that it may be used as the basis of a criminal prosecution. It is then impounded by order of the court, in order that it may be available when required for that purpose. IMPRESSIONIST SCHOOL OF PAINT- ING (from Lat. impnusiu, from impriiiurc, to impress, from t)i, in + premere, to press). A group of painters who endeavor to render the impression of an object, or being, exactly as it is in nature. Strictly speaking, every painter is an impressionist, in so far as he renders his own impressions, and the term 'Luminists' has been proposed by Van Dyke as more appropriate, since the school is mainly concerned with rendering light. They constitute a branch of the Realist school, and are also called Naturalists, corre- sponding to the modern Naturalist schools of sculpture and literature. They differ from Real- ists like Courbet in that they conceive nature to present a series of flat, colored surfaces, and not figures in rounded contours. Their pictures are marked by an absence of modeling. The chief object of the Impressionists is to render the effects of light. They paint every- thing in full light, and condemn the practice of painting in the studio as giving untrue tones. All their pigments are light. Bright colors are placed side by side, and the school avoids the middle tones by which earlier painters achieved harmony of color. Their works, being momentary impressions, are marked by great rapidity of execntion. and seem sketchy in character. In- deed, the members of the school have justly laid them,«elves open to the criticism of exhibiting unfinished sketches for pictures. So great a painter as Monet, for example, held an exhibi- tion of studies of poplars seen at different times of day and seasons of the year. Closely inspected, their paintings seem mere blotches of color rough- ly applied; but seen at a distance they present pictures strikingly true to nature. Their rapid- ity of execution cnaldes the impressionists to |)or- tray motion and the nuances of expression to an extent not previously attained. Their figures are real men and women in the actions of daily life, not models posed in a studio. They took the final ftep in the liberation of modern art from ancient tradition in color — a revolution begun by the Romanticists under Delacroix, and continued by the Realists under Courbet. Being the latest school, they have also come nearest to solving the specific problem of nineteenth- century art — the representation of light, color, and moving life. The Impressionists found their way to public favor very slowly. At first they were the sub- ject of much ridicule. Manet, the founder of llie school, had to exhibit his first Impressionist pic- ture in the Salon des Refuses in 1803. A power- ful factor in their progress to public favor was their championship by Zola, whose articles in behalf of Manet attracted great attention. They were much aided by the i)icture dealer Durand- Ruel, who, at a time when they were generally condemned, held exhibitions of their woik side by side with that of the Barbison masters. It was not until the early seventies that critics and the general public began to take them seri- ously. Painters, however, were quicker to recog- nize the progress in color and atmosphere which Impressionism represents. Its work is quite generally accepted and followed, and its perma- nent influence has been to raise the pitch of light in present painting. It is, however, a question whether there will not be a reaction in favor of greater form and solidity in painting than is the present practice. The chief French representatives of Impres- sionism are Monet, the present head of the .school, and Sisley, in landscape; Degas, Uaffaelli, and Pi.ssaro, in figure and genre painting. Its influ- ence is strongly felt at Munich and Glasgow, and in the United States, where the chief representa- tives are Weir and Twachtmann. The late Theo- dore Robinson was also a prominent exponent of the school. Consult: Duranty, La nouvelle pein- lure (Paris, 1876) ; Duret, Les pcintrcs imprcs- sionisles (ib.. 1878) : I>ecomte, L'art imprcsfiion- istc (ib., 1892): Muther, History of Modem I'aintinf) (London, 1896). IMPRESSMENT. A procedure formerly adopted in (ircat Britain to obtain additional seamen for manning the navy. It was admitted to l>c unjust to the individual, but was made legal on the ground that the country had the right in time of war to the ser'ices of any indi- vidual. -Ml seafaring men, except masters and mates of merchant vessels, watermen-apprentices, and certain other exempted persons, were liable to be forcibly seized, taken on board men-of-war, and compelled to serve. The practice was extend- ed to cover men on hoard vessels in other than home waters. As the British Government claimed a ri?ht to the services of her seamen wherever found, men were seized on board foreign merchant vessels, and even on men-of-war which were too weak to resist. Similarity of language and the fact that many American seamen were of British birth caused the United States to be the greatest sufferer from the British press-gangs, and eventu- ally this grievance became a leading cause of the War of 1812. It is stated that the number of
