Impressionist 1860 - 1920

It was a dappled and daubed harbor scene that gave Impressionism its name. When Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet was exhibited in April 1874, critics seized upon the work's title and its loose stylistic rendering of light and motion upon water to deride this new, impressionistic, tendency in art.

As with many seminal art movements, the critics got their comeuppance. Today, Impressionism is close contender for the world's favorite period of painting. With blockbuster exhibitions, record-breaking auction prices, and packed museums, the works once dismissed as unfinished or imprecise are now beloved for their atmospheric evocation of time and place, as well as the stylistic flair of rapid brushstrokes upon canvas.

Despite its popularity and a whole host of publications, many areas and artists of Impressionism remain inadequately researched. This Taschen book fills the gap, raising the profile of unjustly neglected pioneers such as Berthe Morisot, Lucien Pissarro, and Gustave Caillebotte, while exploring the characteristics of Impressionism, from painting a plain air to vivid color contrasts, not only in the movement's native France but also across the rest of Europe and North America.

This book is from the Bibliotheca Universalis series.

Editor's Preface
Impressionism in France

• Appraising Impressionism
• The Prehistory of Impressionism
• English Antecedents
• Art and Reality
• Art in Paris around 1860
• A New Generation
• The Salon and Rejection
• Establishing a Position
• Impressionism
• Getting There
• War and Dispersal
• The Barrier of Mistrust
• A Group Show and a Name
• From Self-Confidence to Doubt
• Evolving a New Style
• Debating Content and Strategies
• Neo-Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
• The Colour of Light: Pointillism
• The Synthesist Moment
• Light for the World
• The Pain of Pleasure
• The Fruits of Persistence
• Success and Disappointment at the End of the Century
• A Harmony Parallel to Nature
• The Wisdom of Age
• The Masters will last

Impressionism in Europe and North America

• Painting in the Netherlands and Belgium in the Impressionist Period
• Tradition and Modernity: The Hague School and the Amsterdam Impressionists
• Impressionism in Belgium
• The Light of Freedom: Impressionism in Germany
• German and French Impressionism
• A Brief History of German Impressionism
• The New Reality: Impressionism in Scandinavia
• Scandinavian Artists in Paris
• The Encounter with Impressionism
• Artists' Colonies
• Plein-air Painting
• Nature and Civilisation
• Man and Nature
• Effects of Light
• Plein-airisme and the Interior
• Point of View and Composition
• The Sense of Movement
• La Vie Moderne
• Homelands and Europe: East and Southeast European Impressionists
• Russia
• Poland
• Bohemia and Moravia
• Hungary
• Romania
• Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia