The French Impressionists

Fülszöveg

THE FRENCH IMPRESSIONISTS
By Clive Bell
With 48 colour plates

'Let the artist walk into the street or railway-station or suburban garden, or on to the racecourse, and there he will find beauty galore.' The realization that the representation of everyday life was vahd subject-matter for art was probably the Impressionists' most important discovery. It represented a breakthrough in Western art, at a time when the artist was still expected to paint mythological, historical or literary subjects no longer compatible with the values and preoccupations of an industrial society in the second half of the nineteenth century. Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Cézanne, all of them now household names, chose to paint the world around them -a still undisturbing, cheerful world of sunny landscapes, bustling city streets, riverside picnics, carefree Parisian night-life and wholesome young girls. What they had in common was an attitude to life and art, more than a doctrine or technique,... Tovább

Fülszöveg

THE FRENCH IMPRESSIONISTS
By Clive Bell
With 48 colour plates

'Let the artist walk into the street or railway-station or suburban garden, or on to the racecourse, and there he will find beauty galore.' The realization that the representation of everyday life was vahd subject-matter for art was probably the Impressionists' most important discovery. It represented a breakthrough in Western art, at a time when the artist was still expected to paint mythological, historical or literary subjects no longer compatible with the values and preoccupations of an industrial society in the second half of the nineteenth century. Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Cézanne, all of them now household names, chose to paint the world around them -a still undisturbing, cheerful world of sunny landscapes, bustling city streets, riverside picnics, carefree Parisian night-life and wholesome young girls. What they had in common was an attitude to life and art, more than a doctrine or technique, and each found his own style in which to express it.
Clive Bell's lively and outspoken essay, first published in 1951, conveys much of the excitement of this time of experiment and innovation. He examines the aims and theories of the group as a whole, and then assesses the achievement of each of the principal artists. This edition contains an entirely new selection of colour plates, reproducing many of the best-loved Impressionist paintings as well as a large number of less familiar ones. It also includes works by less well-known artists associated with the Impressionists, among them Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt.
Clive Bell (1881-1964) was a well-known critic and writer on art, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Other works by him include Art (1914) and Since Cézanne (1922).
Jacket: The Singer in Green by Degas (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art) Vissza