Like the Realists before them, the Impressionists chose subjects from daily life. Instead of peasants, however, they painted the leisured members of the Parisian middle class. The transitory effects of light and atmosphere were central to their depictions of boating parties, trips to the seaside, and the cafés and boulevards of Paris. Working quickly, often out-of-doors, the Impressionists used light colors and a flickering, broken brushstroke to express the immediacy of a scene. The major Impressionist figures were August Renoir, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, and Berthe Morisot. Critics initially reviled what they saw as their slipshod technique and unconventional subjects, but by the time Van Gogh first saw their paintings in 1886, the style was gaining acceptance.