Unlike realistic predecessors, the Impressionists were not interested in political subjects but rather in seeming-frivolous matters such as leisure, landscape and entertainment. The urban environment became popular, especially where large crowds (engaged in customarily urban activities, of course) were concerned. Influenced by imported Japanese prints and photographic developments, Impressionism was a logical development from realism - broad social observation translated into specific direct observations of human custom. Changes in and natural properties of light, colour, weather, reflections and shadows were all characteristics of the Impressionistic movement, which signalled the first use of darker shades of basic colours to express shadows, rather than shades of grey, black or brown. I call it Romanticism with textures.