French Impressionism

Fülszöveg

To this day, Impressionism has remained the most fascinating epoch in modern art, and the most popular with a broader public. In recent years, spectacular exhibitions of Degas, Gauguin, van Gogh, Renoir, Toulouse-Lau-trec or Monet have pulled attendances of over half a million. The sums paid for their paintings are now astronomical. A century ago, though, Impressionist art was avant-garde, derided by a shocked society, ridiculed and rejected by the press, with enemies everywhere. The very term "Impressionist" began as abuse from the pen of a waspish art journalist. It was the Impressionist approach that was so avant-garde, so revolutionary. Landscapes, cityscapes and scenes of everyday life were atmospherically painted, brightly and in luminous colours, in distinctively economical brushwork. The artists liked to paint directly from Nature, in the open. Their strategy was a protest against the leaden studio art of the time, such as the academies preached. It was a protest against... Tovább

Fülszöveg

To this day, Impressionism has remained the most fascinating epoch in modern art, and the most popular with a broader public. In recent years, spectacular exhibitions of Degas, Gauguin, van Gogh, Renoir, Toulouse-Lau-trec or Monet have pulled attendances of over half a million. The sums paid for their paintings are now astronomical. A century ago, though, Impressionist art was avant-garde, derided by a shocked society, ridiculed and rejected by the press, with enemies everywhere. The very term "Impressionist" began as abuse from the pen of a waspish art journalist. It was the Impressionist approach that was so avant-garde, so revolutionary. Landscapes, cityscapes and scenes of everyday life were atmospherically painted, brightly and in luminous colours, in distinctively economical brushwork. The artists liked to paint directly from Nature, in the open. Their strategy was a protest against the leaden studio art of the time, such as the academies preached. It was a protest against the painting of lofty historical, religious and mythological subjects in dark, earthy colours with lighting that did not correlate with reality. Despite their popularity, and the shelves of publications written about the Impressionists (mostly on the best-known artists), their art remains under-researched, and many of the second rank of artists are little known, their works almost forgotten. This volume presents Monet, Renoir, Manet, Pissarro, Sisley, Degas, Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, van Gogh, Seurat and Signac, but also examines painters who are now less familiar. Among them are the long undervalued Caillebotte (jy of whose paintings are included), Bazille, Brac-quemond, Cross, Forain, Gonzales, Guillaumin, Lebourg, Lépine, Luce, Morisot, L. Pissarro, Raffaëlli, Rouart and Vignon.
The 40-page appendix includes a directory of Impressionism containing brief biographies, bibliographies and portraits of the artists featured.
Vissza