Impressionism: Origins, Practice, Reception: 0 (World of Art) - Softcover

Thomson, Belinda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0500203350 ISBN 13: 9780500203354

Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 2000

Synopsis

Belinda Thomson illuminates Impressionist art through the thinking and personal lives of the artists themselves, examining the factors that allowed Impressionism to develop when it did. In her discussion of the style and subject matter of the paintings themselves, she draws on a wide range of sources and comparative material. 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.

About this title

Review:

'Full of new insights and informed by recent developments in the social history of art, it is also, to its credit, written in an eloquent and eminently readable style ' - Linda Nochlin

From the Back Cover:

'Full of new insights and informed by recent developments in the social history of art, it is also, to its credit, written in an eloquent and eminently readable style.' - Linda Nochlin

The enormous popularity of Impressionist painting today belies what the group of painters dubbed Impressionists stood for. During the 1870s and 1880s, a loose group of French artists, including Pisarro, Monet and Renoir, adopted a style of painting and subject matter that challenged the canonical art promoted by the French Academy and the Salons. The revolutionary nature of Impressionism emerged from anarchism and political radicalism, from a belief in science and individualism, creating a view of art true to modern life and to immediate visual perception.

In the light of recently discovered documents - critical reviews and letters between artists, writers and dealers - Belinda Thomson illuminates the thinking and 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. Her highly accessible and thoughtful account brings together the very latest research on this fascinating and complex development in art.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0500203350
• ISBN 13: 9780500203354
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272