ABSTRACT
The Impressionist painters believed that, by discarding preconceived notions of how reality appeared, by painting only what the unmediated eye saw at a given moment, they could present a more direct and ultimately accurate depiction of reality than had been previously offered. Henry James appears to advocate a complex attitude whereby the receiving consciousness must cultivate and build upon 'a capacity for receiving straight impressions' with analysis itself cautious and impartial. Only thus can the impression be verified as much as is practically possible, countering any distortion that may have occurred. Psychological distortion in impressionist literature is readily apparent in the visual and immediate stories of Crane. Literary impressionism perhaps simply exploited a greater capacity, at least at this period in art history, to reveal the psychological distortion of a receiving consciousness, through the presentation of fictional characters.
