Women in Impressionism: From Mythical Feminine to Modern Woman

by Susan Strauber, Therese Dolan, John House

The women in Impressionist painting represent the full spectrum of faces of the 19th-century woman, from elite portraiture to working class scenes. Women and Impressionism examines the avant-garde position of the Impressionists, whose paintings depicted a series of conceptual and historical shifts by depicting traditional, visual schemes with added new meanings, contributing visually to the breakthrough of the modern. The concept of "the new woman" came into existence in this confrontation of conflicting interests. Women and Impressionism begins with an examination of two works by Manet-La Maîtresse de Baudelaire couchée, 1862, and Portrait de Zacharie Astruc, 1866. The volume then traces the representation of women as it manifested in the work of the Impressionists in the 1870s and the early 1880s. The exhibition catalog includes a number of works from the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek collection as well as from prestigious international private and public institutions.

Genres: History

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 16, 2007

Reviews

[Amélie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Immediately after seeing the "Women Impressionists" exhibition in Dublin, I reserved a book on the subject in the library... only to realise when it arrived that I had mistakenly ordered a book on women painted by Impressionists instead - with the emphasis on the artists, most of them men.

I don't read much about art (not for lack of interest) so I did find these essays quite dense, difficult to get through, and at times the points made were not very clear to me. I did enjoy John House's Women out of Doors, as well as the final chapter by Hughes Wilhelm for all the historical notes it had, but most of the rest didn't leave a strong impression.

The paintings, however, were great, and the works of Berthe Morisot that did make it solidified my admiration for her. I do wish that the book's layout had been better thought through though so you wouldn't have to search so far for the paintings mentioned.