The Impressionists

First edition (1970) copy of The Impressionists by William Gaunt.

The purpose of this book is to describe the aims and achievements of the Impressionist movement and to illustrate them in a magnificent series of color plates. It shows how, within the framework of the movement, each artist applies his own interpretation of these aims to landscape, portraiture and still-life, employing new technical methods as he discovered them. 

In his text, Mr Gaunt first isolate certain elements which were already present in French and English nineteenth-century painting and shows how they were adopted by a group of artists in France who were drawn together by a common approach to the treatment of color and light in a painting.  He outlines the social and political atmosphere of the times, and the artistic climate of Paris (and London) in which the group struggled to wn acceptance for their aims. mr Gaunt brings the personalities of the principal artists involved and around Paris and London, on the Normandy coast and on the Riviera. 

The main part of the book is devoted to the plates. These begin with a group of paintings which herald Impressionism, together with those controversial key works of the movement which brought down a storm of criticism on their creators' heads , this drawing together the artists who shared their views and giving them a unity of purpose almost unique in the history of art. The plates which follow are arranged in chronological order according to genre, thereby forming a visual history of Impressionism. 

Each plate is accompanies by a full analytical commentary, which places the painting within the context of the movement. The book concludes with biographies of the artists, and bibliographies.

Hardcover

Author: William Gaunt

Edition/Year: first edition, 1970, Weathervane Books

Condition: good vintage condition

Dimensions: 12.5" x 10.5"