Impressionism

Fülszöveg

Impressionism was one of the most important breakthroughs in the history of páinting. The young Impressionists of the 1860s and '70s in Francé not oníy abandoned the c^hventional theories of academic painting, but opened the way to the future. In 1874 a group of experimentál and virtually unknown artists, including Renoir^ MonetJPtesarro and Sisley, held a highly unsuccessful exhibition of their revolutionary, works in Paris, defying the hidebound traditionalism of the official Sálon. Yet yvithin fittle more than a decade, the originality of their approach tö painting proved a vitai challenge^to all preconceptions of style, subject-matter, colour and technique. That challenge was to become the premise of modern art. Phoebe Pool has written a valuable survey which relates the lmpj:essionists to both their predecessors and their heirs. She shows how they were influenced, and to somé degree anticipated, by the less academic of the Vstablished artists such as Delacroix, Courbet and the... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Impressionism was one of the most important breakthroughs in the history of páinting. The young Impressionists of the 1860s and '70s in Francé not oníy abandoned the c^hventional theories of academic painting, but opened the way to the future. In 1874 a group of experimentál and virtually unknown artists, including Renoir^ MonetJPtesarro and Sisley, held a highly unsuccessful exhibition of their revolutionary, works in Paris, defying the hidebound traditionalism of the official Sálon. Yet yvithin fittle more than a decade, the originality of their approach tö painting proved a vitai challenge^to all preconceptions of style, subject-matter, colour and technique. That challenge was to become the premise of modern art. Phoebe Pool has written a valuable survey which relates the lmpj:essionists to both their predecessors and their heirs. She shows how they were influenced, and to somé degree anticipated, by the less academic of the Vstablished artists such as Delacroix, Courbet and the painters of the Barbizon school. Special attention is given to Manet and Degas who, though drawn to Impressionism and closely associated with individual Impressionists, never becametotally committed to the style. Though short-lived, Impressionism engendered the paintings of Cézanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh, whose connection with the movement is alsó discussed. HDeserves to be reád by a wide public,' Denys Sutton, in The Financial Times.- 'There is no concise account of thé movement which' covers the subject so admirably,' The l/lustrated London News. Phoebe Pool was born in London and read for a degree in modern history at Oxford. Later she embarked on a course of study at fhe Courtauld Institute of Art, where she specialized in nineteenth-century French painting. She later lectured at the University óf Reading. Her interest in the inter-relationship between the painters, writers and social background of a given period and country led her to study the milieu of Picasso in Barcelona and Paris, and in collaboration with Sir Anthony Blunt she wrote Picasso: theFormative Years. Vissza