HART1500W: Impressionism

In this work, Nathalia Brodska examines the contradictions of this late 19th-century movement through the paradox of a group who, while forming a coherent ensemble, favoured the affirmation of artistic individuals. Between academic art and the birth of modern, non-figurative painting, the road to recognition was long. Analysing the founding elements of the movement, the author follows, through the works of each of the artists, how the demand for individuality gave rise to modern painting.

When Monet falls and injures his leg, young Frederic Bazille entertains the sufferer by painting his portrait in bed; when Monet is penniless and his mistress pregnant, Bazille buys one of his paintings out of charity. But Bazille dies in the Franco-Prussian War, while Monet lives on to become a great master and to enjoy a productive and prosperous old age lasting well into the twentieth century. This story, which stretches from the 1860s to the 1920s, is just one of a vast number of intriguing narratives that weave through this unique diary of the Impressionist movement.

From Renaissance and Mannerism to Impressionism and Post Impressionism, from the Gothic Revival to the Arts and Crafts Movement and Art Nouveau, the rich and varied history of Western Art is here narrated through more than 180 articles on its styles and movements. Covering all forms of the visual arts architecture and decorative arts as well as painting and sculpture this book describes the most important features of popular European and American.

To mark the centenary in 1986 of the first eight major impressionist group shows, an exhibition was held in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., that contained works from the shows. What also resulted from the curators' extensive research were these two volumes recording the objects exhibited in, and the critical reactions and comments regarding, those eight shows.

Covers painters, critics, patrons, and collectors, and describes the cultural background of the time.

Essays discuss the work and family life of Renoir, Degas, and Cezanne, the impressionist style of painting, and the role of Paul Durand-Ruel, an influential art dealer.

The luminous palette and spontaneous brushwork of Renoir, Monet et al. inspired or coincided with an individualistic, responsive approach taken by painters from Canada and Latin America to Russia and the Far East. In Britain, the impressionist impulse helped liberate artists from Victorian painting's moralizing norms; in Japan, it fostered a style able to convey the artist's unique personality; in places as diverse as Italy, Finland and Australia, it became linked with nationalist aspirations.