Synopses & Reviews
Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Cézanne, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt. Though they were often ridiculed or ignored by their contemporaries, today astonishing sums are paid for the works of these artists, whose paintings are celebrated for their ability to capture the moment, not only in the fleeting lights of a landscape but in scenes of daily life. Their dazzling pictures are familiar but how well does the world know the Impressionists as people?
The Private Lives of the Impressionists tells their story. It is the first book to offer an intimate and lively biography of the world's most popular group of artists.
In a vivid and moving narrative, biographer Sue Roe shows the Impressionists in the studios of Paris, rural lanes of Montmartre and rowdy riverside bars as Paris underwent Baron Haussmann's spectacular transformation. For more than twenty years they lived and worked together as a group, struggling to rebuild their lives after the Franco-Prussian War and supporting one another through shocked public reactions to unfamiliar canvases depicting laundresses, dancers, spring blossoms and boating scenes.
This intimate, colorful, superbly researched account takes us into their homes and studios, and describes their unconventional, volatile and precarious lives, as well as the stories behind the paintings.
Review
"Roe synthesizes the welath of published...work on half a dozen artists into a coherent narrative of kith and kinship" Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian
Review
"The title suggests titillation and does not disappoint....Intelligent and well-crafted portraits of some of history's most intriguing geniuses." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
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"Roe constructs a penetrating group portrait...scintillatingly detailed and empathic." Booklist (Starred Review)
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"Widely researched...[Roe] has a neat, light touch." Tom Rosenthal, Independent on Sunday
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"Vivid, superbly researched....Sue Roe transports us back to their Paris" Daily Mail (London)
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"An illuminating insight into the lives of aesthetic revolutionaries"
Daily Telegraph (London)
Synopsis
A lively group portrait of the Impressionist artists traces how the movement's early leaders met in the studios of Paris and lived and worked together closely for several years, supporting one another through a series of emotional and financial difficulties. 25,000 first printing.
Synopsis
This intimate, colorful, superbly researched account of the world's most popular artists, the Impressionists, takes readers into the artists' homes, as well as their studios and describes their unconventional, volatile, and precarious lives, as well as their canvasses and theories.
Synopsis
New York Times Bestseller
"Anyone who has ever lost themselves in Monet's color-saturated gardens or swooned over Degas's dancers will enjoy this revealing group portrait of the artists who founded the Impressionist movement. . . . For the armchair dilettante, as well as the art-history student, this is lively, required reading." -- People
The first book to offer an intimate and lively biography of the world's most popular group of artists, including Manet, Monet, Pissarro, C zanne, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Berthe Morisot, and Mary Cassatt.
Though they were often ridiculed or ignored by their contemporaries, today astonishing sums are paid for their paintings. Their dazzling works are familiar to even the most casual art lovers--but how well does the world know the Impressionists as people?
Sue Roe's colorful, lively, poignant, and superbly researched biography, The Private Lives of the Impressionists, follows an extraordinary group of artists into their Paris studios, down the rural lanes of Montmartre, and into the rowdy riverside bars of a city undergoing monumental change. Vivid and unforgettable, it casts a brilliant, revealing light on this unparalleled society of genius colleagues who lived and worked together for twenty years and transformed the art world forever with their breathtaking depictions of ordinary life.
About the Author
Sue Roe is the author of several books, including a widely praised biography of the artist Gwen John. She lives and teaches in Brighton, England.