Synopses & Reviews
During the 1870s and 1880s, a loose group of French artists, including Pissarro, Monet, and Renoir, adopted a style of painting and subject matter that challenged the art prompted by the Academie Francaise and the Salons where "official" assumptions about the meaning of painting prevailed. What has been called "the revolutionary nature of the Impressionist enterprise" emerged from political radicalism, belief in science and individualism, and a view of art true to modern life and to immediate visual perception. In all these respects, Impressionism initiated the radical tendencies of modern art.
Today the revolutionary aims of Impressionist artists are generally overlooked. Impressionist art has been marketed more successfully than any other style: the price of Impressionist paintings surpasses that of the Old Masters, exhibitions draw blockbuster crowds, and books and mass reproductions are ubiquitous.
In her perceptive new survey, Belinda Thomson challenges both sentimentalized and simplistic views of Impressionism. Drawing upon recently discovered documents -- critical reviews and letters between artists, writers, and dealers -- she illuminates the thinking and the personal lives of the artists themselves, examining the factors and experiences that allowed Impressionism to develop when it did. She investigates the family background of the Impressionists, the importance of the art market and collecting, and the influence of the critical reception to their exhibitions.
Synopsis
This groundbreaking new study redefines Mary Cassatt's status in the Parisian avant-garde and in American art, placing her work in the wider context of nineteenth-century feminism and art theory. Admired by Degas--who invited her to exhibit with the Impressionists in 1877--Cassatt brought a New Women's perspective to the theater, drawing room, garden, and studio. Griselda Pollock emphasizes Cassatt's study of Old Masters and interest in Manet's work, and stresses her great influence on the creation of American collections of French modernism. She argues that Cassatt's experimentation with etching and pastels from the late 1880s enabled her to represent women and children without sentiment, but with a deepening awareness of a complex psychological charge. Professor of Social and Critical Histories of Art at the University of Leeds, Griselda Pollock's many books include Old Mistresses: Women, Art, and Ideology (with Roszika Parker).
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 218-219) and index.