Impressionism Art Leisure & Parisian Society

Few movements in art are more beloved than French impressionism. It was during this period that artists like Monet moved outside the studio to paint elaborate plein air andldquo;impressionsandrdquo; of the world around them, from cheerfully colored city scenes, to seascapes during stormy weather and detailed landscapes awash in natural light.

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Monet: Lost in Translation. Revisiting Impressionism brings together two hundred full-color images from the period. In addition to their undeniable beauty that leaves viewers breathless, part of the fascination with the French impressionists lies with what these works can tell us about the time of their productionandmdash;from favorite places like the beaches of Normandy and the banks of the Seine to popular pastimes like picnics and promenades and even the importance of the railroad and other innovations of the day. Beginning with the precursors of the plein air tradition, the book takes readers through masterworks by Corot, Degas, Renoir, Gauguin, Caillebotte, and many of their contemporaries before ending on what is undeniably the movementandrsquo;s most well-loved masterwork: Monetandrsquo;s Water Lilies, painted in his famous garden in Giverny.

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Drawing on a vast collection of masterworks from museums around the world, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and New Yorkandrsquo;s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the book guides readers through the major works of the movement.

"Long-awaited, this full-scale revision of Impressionism immediately supersedes all other studies in the field. Herbert rejuvenates even the most famous paintings by seeing them in a dense and flexible context touching on everything from the hierarchy of theater boxes to the role of beer-hall waitresses. His mind and eye are as supple as his lucid prose, and his command of sociological data is staggering. In this classic of art history, both art and history are triumphantly reborn."--Robert Rosenblum, New York University
This remarkable book will transform the way we look at Impressionist art. The culmination of twenty years of research by a preeminent scholar in the field, it fundamentally revises the conventional view of the Impressionist movement and shows for the first time how it was fully integrated into the social and cultural life of the times.
Robert L. Herbert explores the themes of leisure and entertainment that dominated the great years of Impressionist painting between 1865 and 1885. Cafes, opera houses, dance halls, theaters, racetracks, and vacations by the sea were the central subjects of the majority of these paintings, and Herbert relates these pursuits to the transformation of Paris under the Second Empire.
Sumptuously illustrated with many of the most beautiful Impressionist images, both familiar and unfamiliar, this book presents provocative new interpretations of a wide range of famous masterpieces. Artists are seen to be active participants in, as well as objective witnesses to, contemporary life, and there are many profound insights into the social and cultural upheaval of the times.
"A social history of Impressionist art that is truly about the art, informed by a penetrating analysis of the ways in which its pictorial structure and qualities communicate its social content. Herbert brings that society to life, but above all he makes some of the most familiar and frequently discussed works in the history of art come wonderfully and vividly to life again."--Theodore Reff, Columbia University
Robert L. Herbert is Robert Lehman Professor of the History of Art at Yale University. He is the author or editor of numerous books and articles on nineteenth-century French art.

Suzanne Greub is the founder and director of the Art Centre Basel and the editor of Gauguin Polynesia, also published by Hirmer Publishers.