Critical Readings in Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: An Anthology

by Mary Lewis (Editor), Robert L. Herbert (Contributor), Paul Tucker (Contributor)

The essays in this wide-ranging, beautifully illustrated volume capture the theoretical range and scholarly rigor of recent criticism that has fundamentally transformed the study of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. Readers are invited to consider the profound issues and penetrating questions that lie beneath this perennially popular body of work as the contributors examine the art world of late nineteenth-century France—including detailed looks at Monet, Manet, Pissarro, Degas, Cézanne, Morisot, Seurat, Van Gogh, and Gauguin. The authors offer fascinating new perspectives, placing the artworks from this period in wider social and historical contexts. They explore these painters' pictorial and market strategies, the critical reception and modern criteria the paintings engendered, and the movement's historic role in the formation of an avant-garde tradition. Their research reflects the wealth of new documents, critical approaches, and scholarly exhibitions that have fundamentally altered our understanding of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. These essays, several of which have previously been familiar only to scholars, provide instructive models of in-depth critical analysis and of the competing art historical methods that have crucially reshaped the field.

Contributors: Carol Armstrong, T. J. Clark, Stephen F. Eisenman, Tamar Garb, Nicholas Green, Robert L. Herbert, John House, Mary Tompkins Lewis, Michel Melot, Linda Nochlin, Richard Shiff, Debora Silverman, Paul Tucker, Martha Ward

Genres: Art

368 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2007

Reviews

[Jessica]

This is the second textbook for my Humanities Scholars Program seminar "Images of Modernity". It is the first art history book I have read (I don't consider it a textbook for reasons that follow) and I have got to say: hearing about color and brush stroke with 3" by 4" black and white pictures is less than scintillating. In the entire book, which covers all of the big names in Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, there are about 9 color prints. So frustrating!

This book is not really a textbook because it assumes you already know the body of criticism surrounding Impressionism. Well, I don't. However it isn't to hard to infer what was going on, even if it means having to re-read sections once I know why van Gogh was into Dutch weavers or how Realism (but not realism) was a political movement from the Franco-Prussian war. After the lack of color, probably the least helpful aspect of this book is some authors (as it is collection of critical essays) choose to use French phrases without translating them. Spanish I could handle, Latin I can cope, but the phrases in French are so period and art-critic specific I am at a loss.

Overall, this is a good textbook. Interestingly, it has a large number of female contributors Counting the main editor, of 14 authors, 6 are female, 6 are male and 2 have gender inconclusive names. Knowing Eleanor Dickinson's studies of discrimination in the art field, this nearly 50/50 ratio is fantastic. This book gives analysis of history along with the history which makes it a much more lively read than the factual biography found in most high school textbooks. It is also nice to see how much controversy there is over Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.