Impression: Painting Quickly in France, 1860-1890

by Richard R. Brettell

With 169 illustrations.

Genres: Art, Art History

240 pages, Paperback

First published December 11, 2000

Reviews

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fabulous book and richly illustrated guide to Impressionism. It is a formalist (that is looking at painting style rather than cultural context or themes) analysis of impressionism as the painting of impressions which are captured with rapid strokes in a relatively short period of time. Not all paintings we classify as Impressionist fall into this category, but this book does a great job in looking successively at Manet, Monet, Renoir, Morisot, Pisarro and even Van Gogh to see how they painted some of their more rapid masterpieces and what their influences were. Van Gogh is included here, not because he was officially an Impressionist (he was painting after the Impressionist heyday (1865-1881 for impressionisme whereas most of VG's work was late 1880s and 1890s) more on the expressionist/fauvist side), but because of his painterly technique with visible quick strokes and thick paint textures.
A fantastic book for lovers of impressionist art taken from a series of expositions in 1999-2000.

[Jamie Froebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book and wonderful images!

[Sam Schulman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have largely given up reading books about art, except for biographies, and the works of Daniel Schulman, but I came upon this book on impressionism, written for an exhibit that ran in London and the Clark Gallery in 2001 (closing on 9/9/2001), and it's completely fresh and it made me think about a hoary old subject - impressionism - in a completely rejuvenated way. Brettell makes the obvious but to me utterly overlooked point that impressionism is about impressions - forming and presenting a quick impression of a moment - recollected not in tranquility but in frenzied activity, which apparently painting used to be (before it took place on floors, as we all know it should do). So little as I thought I cared to read another single word about Monet, Manet, Renoir and the whole galere, I found myself racing through this book as it traced paintings brushstoke by brushstroke. I don't know how I missed it, but no one should.