The art of the impressionists

by Horst Keller

This comprehensive tome presenting a survey of works by French artists of the Impressionist movement, a uniquely significant period in art history, focuses on Pissarro, Sisley, Manet, Morisot, Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Cassatt, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Guillaumin and others. A popular and historical guide to the paintings and practices of the major Impressionist painters, the book boasts over 220 illustrations, 207 full-color plates. These painters, whose artistic roots in realist and landscape painting led to timeless scenes of modern urban life, found, in 1870s France, an idyllic spot on the north bank of the Seine, where the river slowly winds its way north-westward beyond Paris. There, almost midway between two great bends of the river, lies the village of Argenteuil – a very peaceful place at that time, deep in the countryside. The name of no other place in the world can recall with equal vividness that period when the French “plein-air” painters first set up their easels in the meadows and country lanes, or in houseboats gently rocking on the Seine. Here is a good place to being these remarks on the paintings of the Impressionists, here in Argenteuil…

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History

271 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1980