Beginning by considering how impressionism refined and redirected the artistic aims of 19th-century realism, follows the development of progressive art to the brink of cubism and pure abstraction in the first years of the 20th century. Following impressionism and post-impressionism, close attention is paid to symbolism, aestheticism, art nouveau, the Arts and Crafts movement, fauvism, and expressionism. The aesthetic aims of these movements are analyzed in tandem with the social and cultural conditions that generated them.