One of the great innovations of the Impressionists was their radical use of colour: their application of strokes of complementary or contrasting hues captured the shifting effects of light and foregrounded the nature of vision. Using colour as the lens through which to magnify the movement’s intricacies, this catalogue sweeps us from Manet’s rich blacks, through green and blue landscapes of Monet and Cézanne, to the sensuous pinks of Renoir. Along this journey, scientific discoveries and emerging definitions of modernity are explored, illuminating the profound innovations of the Impressionists and the shifting preconceptions of their art.
Claude Monet's Water Lilies are widely recognized as a celebration of nature and a call to visual experience. The skilled brushwork, vivid color, and immersive quality of the paintings suspend thoughts of the outside world and its concerns. And yet, when one realizes that these works were made during a period of social and political turmoil--rapid changes of government, the Dreyfus Affair, and the destruction and devastation of World War I--questions arise about the personal, cultural, and historical contexts within which they were created. In this book, James H. Rubin explores these conditions and shows how Monet's work--said to be a harbinger of abstraction--appeals not only to the eye but to something deep in modern consciousness. The myth of Impressionism is that it was reviled and misunderstood, but by the 1890s Monet was rich by anyone's standards, and his works were considered French cultural treasures. Monet was featured in a propaganda film in response to German militarism, and he was persuaded by Georges Clemenceau to donate a number of his Water Lilies to the French nation following the Treaty of Versailles. Taking this into account, Rubin uncovers how the theme of floating lily pads served political ends, exposing relationships between Monet's apparently subject-free art and its material circumstances in the modern world. Engagingly written, masterfully argued, and featuring over 150 illustrations, Why Monet Matters is a seminal study of an artist who had the will and talent to remain relevant to his time without conceding to its fashions. Scholars, students, and those who appreciate Monet and Impressionism will value and learn from this book.
In this engrossing book, Hollis Clayson provides the first description and analysis of French artistic interest in women prostitutes, examining how the subject was treated in the art of the 1870s and 1880s by such avant-garde painters as Cézanne, Degas, Manet, and Renoir, as well as by the academic and low-brow painters who were their contemporaries. Clayson not only illuminates the imagery of prostitution-with its contradictory connotations of disgust and fascination-but also tackles the issues and problems relevant to women and men in a patriarchal society. She discusses the conspicuous sexual commerce during this era and the resulting public panic about the deterioration of social life and civilized mores. She describes the system that evolved out of regulating prostitutes and the subsequent rise of clandestine prostitutes who escaped police regulation and who were condemned both for blurring social boundaries and for spreading sexual licentiousness among their moral and social superiors. Clayson argues that the subject of covert prostitution was especially attractive to vanguard painters because it exemplified the commercialization and the ambiguity of modern life.
Brimming with illustrations of some of the world's best loved Impressionist paintings, this book offers fresh and fascinating insights to explain why, initially, Impressionism was considered radical--and why it remains one of the most popular artistic movements of all time. By focusing on Impressionism's earliest stages, the book offers a thorough and satisfying exploration that paves the way for a deeper understanding of the movement's myriad hybridizations and, eventually, the birth of abstraction. This delightful overview also offers readers a thoughtful context from which to appreciate these most beautiful works of art.
USA Today–Bestselling Author: A passionate fling with a Frenchman will bring consequences for her future . . . “Marry me. This week.” After losing her mother, Imogen Holgate believes she’s living on borrowed time with the same terminal illness. So the cautious accountant blows all her savings on a once-in-a-lifetime trip around the world, where she meets sexy Parisian Thierry Girard. But after two steamy weeks there are permanent consequences to their temporary affair . . . Now with more than herself to think about, Imogen turns to Thierry to help—but the last thing she expected was for him to imprison her with a gold ring!
