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IMPRESSIONISM
"[A]n art-historical tour de force. . . . It really is top notch and a pleasure to read."
— Linda Nochlin, author of
The Body in Pieces
Today the revolutionary
aims of Impressionist artists are generally overlooked. Impressionist
art has been marketed more successfully than any other style: the price
of Impressionist paintings surpasses that of the Old Masters, exhibitions
draw blockbuster crowds, and books and mass reproductions are ubiquitous.
In her perceptive
new survey, Belinda Thomson challenges both sentimentalized and simplistic
views of Impressionism. Drawing upon recently discovered documents —
critical reviews and letters between artists, writers, and dealers —
she illuminates the thinking and the personal lives of the artists themselves,
examining the factors and experiences that allowed Impressionism to
develop when it did. She investigates the family background of the Impressionists,
the importance of the art market and collecting, and the influence of
the critical reception to their exhibitions. Belinda Thomson
studied French and Art History at the University of East Anglia and
at the Sorbonne, and completed graduate work at the Courtauld Institute.
She has published books on Gauguin, Vuillard, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism,
and is currently preparing a book on van Gogh for the Art Institute
of Chicago. ISBN 0-500-20335-0
· 5 7/8" x 8 1/4"
paper · 250 illustrations, 200 in color · 288 pages ·
ART |
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During
the 1870s and 1880s, a loose group of French artists, including Pissarro,
Monet, and Renoir, adopted a style of painting and subject matter that
challenged the art prompted by the Académie Française and the
Salons where "official" assumptions about the meaning of painting prevailed.
What has been called "the revolutionary nature of the Impressionist enterprise"
emerged from political radicalism, belief in science and individualism,
and a view of art true to modern life and to immediate visual perception.
In all these respects, Impressionism initiated the radical tendencies
of modern art.