FRENCH

impressionists

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THE POCKET LIBRARY OF GREAT ART
 •• •.'
fiVti.!:..-

. PissARRO, Saint Martin Pig- Market. t886. Pencil

Collection John Reivald, Neiv York
 FRENCH
IMPRESSIONISTS
AND THEIR CIRCLE

text by

HERMAN J. WECHSLER

published by HARRY N. ABRAMS, INC., in association

with POCKET BOOKS, INC., New Yor\

 On the cover

Edouard Manet boating at argenteuil

(see color flate g)

Copyright 19^3 by Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated. Copyright

in the United States and foreign countries under International
Copyright Convention. All rights reserved under Pan-American
Convention. No part of the contents of this book may be repro-

duced without the written permission of Harry N. Abrams,

Incorporated. Printed in U.S.A. MILTON S. FOX, Editor
 'H

—^<i
"f" ^
i
/
; i

2. Monet. Port of Touques near Honfleur. i8yo. Conte crayon

Wildenstein and Co., New York

TODAY THE TERM IMPRESSIONISM haS not Only

found its way into the language of critic and lay-

man alike, but it immediately evokes images of a

series of brilliant canvases by painters who are now
being called "traditional"— sometimes "old masters"!
Yet less than one hundred years ago, the efforts of
these same artists were considered "outlandish" and
"insults to the painter's craft."
In the year 1874, a group of French painters who
had had their offerings systematically rejected by the
jury of the official Salon, arranged their own exhibit
on the vacated premises of the photographer Nadar,
situated on one of Paris' busiest thoroughfares. Some
thirty artists showed their wares, among them being
Degas, Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, Cezanne, Sisley,

Berthe Morisot. Manet, although sympathetic to the

group's activity, did not exhibit on this occasion.
The pubHc and critics came to the humble quarters,
paid a modest entrance fee, and experienced varied
sensations. Some were honestly bewildered, others in-
furiated—the majority simply amused. Cezanne bore
the brunt of the strongest insults, but it was one of
Monet's pictures, entitled Impression— Sunrise, which
gave the movement and the group its name, for a wit
among the critics seized upon this title and labeled all

the pictures shown as "impressionistic." Thus the

word "impressionism," used first as a term of deri-
sion, was adopted by the very victims of this mockery
as a label for their group and a proud banner for their

rebellion. Their revolt was against the official art of

the Salon, the neo-classicism of the Academy, the elab-

orate set of ironclad rules which enslaved most of the

artists of the day.
But the Impressionists were not alone in their

century's rebellion. The great Ingres had thought of

himself as a "revolutionary"; Courbet, with his stark
realism, offended the official school; Delacroix had
already deeply shocked the academicians by his "ro-
mantic" pictures; and Daumier went his quiet way to
record and ennoble the everyday activity of the French
bourgeoisie, ignoring the Greeks and Romans, except
5. Renoir. Sketch for the Misses LeroUe. i8go. Conte crayon
Collection Durand-Ruel^ Paris
 ^r:^"- ',.-^-'r-^.'^yri-^:i''---

y:^'J

John Nti
4. Renoir. Drawing for L'Assomoir. 1877-78. Ink. Collection

]
 T-T" '^'wnw'vn^n

^A^f :;-.• -7^( ;

''M'

?. Bro'djn, Providence, R. I.
in such instances as he chose to satirize their glory.

Here, then, is a group of men and women of vary-

ing temperaments, dispositions, nationalities, and
talents, linked together in a common effort to fight

officialdom, to experiment with new forms and the-

ories, to express themselves freely in a manner un-
hampered by rules and traditions. The artists pre-
sented in the following pages did not all give them-
selves completely and wholeheartedly to the tenets

and practices of Impressionism. Only two or three

among them clung tenaciously to its theories in their
purest form. Such were Sisley, Pissarro, and Monet.
But the other artists who are dealt with in this book
were at some time close enough to the movement to

warrant their being linked to the group. Cezanne and

Van Gogh went through an Impressionistic phase.
Seurat's "pointillism" could not have come into being

without the prior experiment. Manet, Degas, and

Renoir produced some unforgettable canvases accord-
ing to its formulae, and later evolved their personal
styles. Gauguin, a banker and amateur painter, first

met members of the group in nocturnal cafe gather-

ings, became one of the first collectors of their can-

vases, and when he finally gave up business to paint

professionally, was, of course, influenced by their
teachings.
What, then, was the nature of this rebellion of the
Impressionists, and what made their revolt so impor-

tant a step in art history.^

Let us consider first their choice of subject matter
 r k
•

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//...-' '
.^*ir
^^n^ ti
^
^;^~:'T
and their new attitude towards the contemporary
world. Forgotten, or at least ignored, were the gods
and goddesses of classical mythology and their fabled

adventures. Sometimes Renoir would label a nude

Diana or Venus, to win her admission to the Salon.
Actually she was a healthy, full-bodied French girl
who had consented to pose for him. Ignored, too,
were the battle scenes, the portraits of national heroes,

the historical panoramas of the more traditionally-

minded artists. These painters began to look with un-

prejudiced eyes at the bustling life around them;
they painted— as they saw them— the cafes and their
habitues, prostitutes, vagabonds, drunkards, the
middle-class business man. Influenced by the new
art of the camera, they painted what we now call

"candid" views— a moment of life seized and re-

corded—a man lifting a drink to his lips, a woman
entering a doorway. People are often depicted moving
into or out of the canvas, their bodies or faces cut off
by the limiting frame. It is as though the artist had
accidentally come upon some scene which intrigued
him and had quickly "caught it" and noted it down.
Often, of course, this was carefully "worked up" at

the studio, but the notes, written or remembered, were

made at the moment of observation. Also, the trivial

was accepted as subject matter— a single dead fish on

a platter, a few pieces of fruit, a spray of flowers.
These men, too, sought for inspiration and for ideas
everywhere— from the Japanese print, exotic native

carvings, tiles and ceramics from the Near and Far

 f%

6. Gauguin. Tahitian Girl Crouching. About 1892. Pencil

The Art Institute of Chicago
East, objects which we often see in the backgrounds
of their pictures.
But in the realm of color, the changes seemed more
extreme to the old guard, for the Impressionists, often
accused of being mere "scientists," investigated the
new laws of optics, "broke up" their colors, and juxta-
posed dashes and blobs of paint so that the mixture
was made in the eye of the observer and not blended
on the palette. The painter's paraphernalia was car-

ried out to the streets and fields, where the effect of

sunlight was studied systematically. Monet painted
the same scene over and over again, demonstrating
how different was the aspect of the same object under
changing conditions of light. He made his famous
experiments with the facade of Rouen Cathedral;
groups of haystacks in a field and the lily ponds of
his own home also served as subject matter.

These are but a few of Impressionism's contribu-

tions. In the pages which follow, mention will be
made of others. But the reader, if he has been moved
by the pictures included in this book— or made curious
by the foregoing paragraphs— is urged to seek out
other pictures by these artists and the many thought-
ful texts by the writers on Impressionism.
7- Cassatt. Little Girl with Dog. About 1904. Paste/
KnoeJier Galleries, Nezv York
 .^^T ,^^.^^

'. PisSARRO. Portrait of Paul Cezanne. iSy^. Etching

Collection John Rewaldy Neiu York

I
COLOR PLATES
 COMMENTARY FOR COVER PLATE AND DETAIL
PLATE 9

Edouard Manet (i 832-1 883)

BOATING AT ARGENTEUIL
Museum of Fi?ie Arts, Tournai, Belgium

Painted in i8j4 Oil, c^iY^ x 48^"

In the summer of 1874, Monet, Renoir, and Manet

were together at Argenteuil on the Seine near Paris
and painted several portraits of each other with their
families and friends. This picture of Claude Monet
and his wife is one of the most vivid and suggests
Manet's close ties with the Impressionists, even though
he always refused to exhibit with them. From this
date Manet's paintings become more and more marked
by the broken color and bright palette of the work of
his associates. Outdoor themes, unusual in his early
paintings, become much more common, and his atti-
tude is gayer and more carefree.

AT RIGHT: DETAIL OF COVER PLATE

 PLATE 10

Edgar Degas (i 834-1917)

CAFE-CONCERT: THE SONG OF THE DOG

Collection Horace Havemeyer, Nezu York

Painted i8j ^-yy Gouache and fastel, 2 i^x ly^"

This painting is a brilliant impression of a moment;

it is handled with freedom that could only be called
a
"impressionistic"; and yet it is not strictly an Impres-
sionist painting. Although he associated with the Im-
pressionists and exhibited in all but one of their eight
shows, Degas always remained something of a stubborn
traditionalist. He did not follow them in their loose
drawing and atmospheric coloring, and more than
once he expressed a frank distaste for "out-of-door"
landscape painting, so central to the art of Monet,
Sisley, Renoir, and Pissarro. If the term Impressionism
can include psychological elements, however, then no
one surpassed Degas in the ability to render momen-
tary impressions of candid human gestures and move-
ments. Here, under a dazzle of lights, he rapidly sets
down in flowing brush strokes one of those vivid
entertainment spectacles that so intrigued him.
 PLATE II

Pierre Auguste Renoir (i 841-19 19)

HER FIRST EVENING OUT

Tate G alter "^^ Lo7idon

Painted about 1880 Oil, 2^^ x ig^"

Except for this eager and wide-eyed girl, the canvas

is a hubbub of movement and implied sound. Renoir's
flashing brush strokes convey the dazzle of Paris life
as it impresses the girl. In the boldest and simplest
manner he weaves the picture into a unity through
such devices as the repeat of the front contours of the
girl's jacket in the curve of the partition behind her,
and in the variation of this line in her back. The color
is held down in general value and intensity, but it is

altogether Renoiresque in its rich invention.

 .

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Plate 12. PisSARRO. PATH AT PONTOISE ( cojfn?ientary folloivs color fl\\i\

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 1

PLATE 13

Claude Monet (1840- 1926)

SUNFLOWERS
The Metro folitan Museum of A rt, Nezv York

Painted in i88 Oil, ^^^ x ^2"

Monet was the most consistent member of the Im-

pressionist group and carried their practices to their
most radical conclusion. In his late canvases he dis-
solved forms completely in colored mists. Unlike other
Impressionists, he never chafed against formlessness
or tried to revive architectural elements in his com-
positions.
In this canvas Monet is primarily interested in ren-
dering the effects of light on form and impregnating
the surrounding atmosphere with color. Yet the in-
dividual forms still stand out distinctly from this
atmosphere.
 PLATE 14

Camille Pissarro (i 830-1 903)

THE APPLE PICKERS

Collectioji William B. Ja-ffe^ Nezv York

Painted in 1881 Oil, 2§^ x 21]/^"

Camille Pissarro might very well be called the

"elder statesman" of the Impressionist group. A man
of great dignity and restraint, he won the admiration
of his fellow artists who listened to his learned and
articulate exposition of art theories when they gathered
nightly at the favored Paris cafes. Mary Cassatt, a
disciple, once commented that Camille was so great
a teacher "that he could have taught stones to draw
correctly."
For Pissarro the countryside was a constant source
of inspiration. The homely, rustic scene here, bathed
in cool, blue-green light, is executed with the minute
color dots, or "pointillism," of his later technique. It

reveals the same serenity and love of nature that are

reflected in his beautiful letters to his son Lucien.
 «*'*;.

-^ ^\

4
*w.
 PLATE 15

Georges Seurat (i 859-1 891)

AN AFTERNOON AT LA GRANDE JATTE

The Metrofolitan Museum of Art, New York

Painted in 1884 Oil, 2y^ x 41"

La Grande Jatte, an island park in the Seine on the

outskirts of Paris, was a favorite place for Sunday
afternoon strolls and outdoor recreation. It is here
recorded in a sketch made for Seurat's more formal
and planned canvas owned by The Art
intricately
Institute of Chicago. The sketch combines Impres-
sionist innovations and subject matter with Seurat's
own disciplined method, and catches the atmosphere
of a summer afternoon.
Seurat continued the Impressionists' study of color
on a scientific basis and devised a new method of
painting known as "pointillism." He placed spots of
color next to each other on the canvas so that from
a distance of several feet the forms and local colors
of the composition came into focus. This method en-
abled him to create the shimmering effect— so striking
here— of colored objects seen in sunlight and shadow.

LIFTFOLDFORENTIRE PAINTING —
^ DETAIL AT RIG HT
 PLATE 15

Georges Seurat (i 859-1 891)

AN AFTERNOON AT LA GRANDE JATTE

The Metro folitan Museum of Art, New York

Painted in 1884 Oil, 27^ x 41"

La Grande Jatte, an island park in the Seine on the

outskirts of Paris, was a favorite place for Sunday
afternoon strolls and outdoor recreation. It is here
recorded in a sketch made for Seurat's more formal
and planned canvas owned by The Art
intricately
Institute of Chicago. The sketch combines Impres-
sionist innovations and subject matter with Seurat's
own disciplined method, and catches the atmosphere
of a summer afternoon.
Seurat continued the Impressionists' study of color
on a scientific basis and devised a new method of
painting known as "pointillism." He placed spots of
color next to each other on the canvas so that from
a distance of several feet the forms and local colors
of the composition came into focus. This method en-
abled him to create the shimmering effect— so striking
here— of colored objects seen in sunlight and shadow.

LIFTFOLDFORENTIRE PAINTING —
'
DETAIL AT RIG HT
\
 PLATE I 6

Berthe Morisot (i 841-1895)

IN THE DINING ROOM

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.
(Chester Dale Collection)

Painted i88i-8^ Oil, 2^y^ x igY^"

A charming and accomplished woman, Berthe Mori-

sot managed to combine successfully the roles of
painter, mother, and hostess. She was dedicated to her
art and yet raised a family with her husband, Eugene,
brother of the painter Edouard Manet. For the rebel
group of Impressionists, with whom she worked side
by side, her home provided a genteel social atmosphere
where they were always welcome. The poet Paul
Valery said of her, "She lives her painting and she
paints her life," and he compared her work to "the
diary of a woman who expresses herself by color and
drawing." Berthe Morisot contributed her own unique
artistic qualities to Impressionism— a silvery delicacy

of tone and a certain feminine charm in her choice and

handling of everyday subject matter.
 PLATE 17

Edgar Degas (i 834-1917)

TWO LAUNDRESSES
T he Louvre^ Paris

Fainted about 1 884 Oily 2gj4, ^^32}^"

Degas anticipated modern candid camera by

the
many years. Here models are caught in the midst
his
of their gestures, unposed and unaware of being ob-
served. The artist has dared to represent one figure
stretching and yawning and the other absorbed in her
ironing. Such commonplace incidents were absent
from painting until the Impressionists; and Degas
was perhaps unique in finding an almost classical form
to express so homely a scene from everyday life. For
although the painting has an air of utter 'naturalness,
it has been meticulously composed. The play of move-
ment and counter-movement and the careful pattern-
ing of color declare Degas' traditional ties and classi-

cal thoroughness.
 SiSLEY. road to louveciennes (comynentary follows colot\
Plate 1 8.
section)
 PLATE 19

Paul Cezanne (i 839-1 906)

CHESTNUT TREES AT THE JAS DE BOUFFAN

T he Minneafolis Institute of Arts

Painted 1885-87 Oil, 28}^ x 7,6)/^"

Cezanne belongs with the Impressionists, not pri-

marily because of his adherence to their theories, but
because he was one of the rebels who participated in
their first exhibitions. By the time he painted Chestnut
Trees Cezanne had turned away from Impressionist
practices. Rather than striving only for evanescent
effects of light which dissolve forms, he used vivid
color to create an "Impressionism of forms," evok-
ing, through shifting planes, sensations of solidity and
depth in space. In solitude in the south of France this
dedicated hermit-artist passed his last years painting
his new vision of nature, rarely satisfied with results.
His grandiose experiment, appreciated by few in his
lifetime, revolutionized modern art.
 PLATE 20

Pierre Auguste Renoir (i 841-19 19)

MADAME CHARPENTIER AND HER CHILDREN

The Metrofolitan Museum of Art, New York

Painted in i8y8 Oil, doy^ x y4ys"

This portrait in a sense, the result of a wonder-

is,

fully successful compromise between the requirements

of society portraiture and the personal vision of the
artist. As a charming revelation of a particular woman

and her family— Madame Charpentier was one of the

most celebrated Parisian hostesses— of her personality
and the quality of her home, this picture is an un-
qualified success, and was so regarded when it was
shown in the Salon of 1879. But it is also successful
as a Renoir: full of grace and freshness, and arranged
with a freedom rather unusual in a picture in which
the various elements are not the choice of the artist
at liberty in his own studio.

LIFT FOLD FOR ENTIRE PAINTING —

DETAIL AT RIG HT
.^'wmM^

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 PLATE 20

Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)

MADAME CHARPENTIER AND HER CHILDREN

The Metro folitan Museum of Art, New York

Painted in iSj8 Oil, 60Y2 x y ^Y^"

This portrait in a sense, the result of a wonder-

is,

fully successful compromise between the requirements

of society portraiture and the personal vision of the
artist. As a charming revelation of a particular woman

and her family— Madame Charpentier was one of the

most celebrated Parisian hostesses— of her personality
and the quality of her home, this picture is an un-
qualified success, and was so regarded when it was
shown in the Salon of 1879. But it is also successful
as a Renoir: full of grace and freshness, and arranged
with a freedom rather unusual in a picture in which
the various elements are not the choice of the artist

at liberty in his own studio.

LIFT FOLD FOR ENTIRE PAINTING —

DETAIL AT RIGHT
1
f

J
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W 1 r^
f'

, .r
i
 PLATE 21

Paul Cezanne (i 839-1906)

SELF-PORTRAIT WITH PALETTE

Collection the Artist's Family^ Paris

Fainted 1885-8-/ Oil, 36% x 2 8}i"

Cezanne painted many self-portraits, all of them

severe, immobile. As psychological interpretations they
are most impersonal. As abstract arrangements of form
and color they have been acclaimed supreme by critics,
on a level with the greatest classical art of the past.
Here Cezanne employs the light palette and flecking
brush strokes of the Impressionists. But he uses them
to create a figure in space which has the purity of
volume and grave nobility of French architectural
sculpture of the Gothic period. At the same time, the
flatness of his design and its abstract severity suggest
the Cubists; these last qualities earned for Cezanne
the title "father of modern art."
 PLATE 22

Vincent van Gogh (i 853-1 890)

THE NIGHT CAFE

Collection Ste-phen C. Clark, 'New York

Painted in 1888 Oil, 2jy2 x 55"

After failing as a preacher and a picture dealer,

Van Gogh settled upon a career of painting. In his
brother Theo, a Paris art dealer, l\e found a lifelong
good angel who supported him financially and kept
Vincent's sagging spirits up. Theo brought him to
Paris and introduced him to the Impressionist circle
whose brilliant colors and fresh angles of vision trans-
formed his art from the somberness and conservatism
of his Dutch period. The new impact of the Impres-
sionist palette is apparent in The Night Cafe. Van
Gogh has gone beyond his contemporaries, however,
even while retaining their freedom; he has given color
a new emotional and personal impact. The artist de-
scribed the disturbing symbolism of this painting thus:
"I have tried to express the terrible passions of hu-
manity by means of red and green."
 PLATE 23

Vincent van Gogh (i 853-1 890)

WHEAT FIELD WITH CYPRESSES

Tate Gallery, London

Painted in i88g Oil, 26*3/^ x 56"

This painting was done at Saint-Remy under the

impact of the southern sunlight, which had such a
liberating effecton Van Gogh's art. To his brother
Theo he had upon his first contact
written ecstatically
with the south, "Behold the kingdom of light! How
wonderful is the golden sun!" The south inspired
countless landscapes, none more rhapsodic than this
one. Van Gogh's lyrical brush sweeps up nature in
the rhythm of his own powerful emotion until field,
trees, mountains, and clouds become almost abstract,

free-flowing forms. These coiling and fantastic

shapes suggest how far Vincent's stormy feelings car-
ried him beyond the relatively impersonal commen-
taries on nature which the Impressionists painted.
 ,A^-m^

v.-**

m
 1

PLATE 24

Edouard Manet (i 832-1 883)

A BAR AT THE FOL I ES - BERGERE

Courtauld Institute of Art, London

Painted in i88 Oil, sy^ ^50"

This painting was exhibited in the official Salon of

1882, a year before Manet's death. His work by then
no longer shocked or bewildered a public that had
become accustomed to his revolutionary treatment of
realism and Impressionistic handling. But it still did
not arouse very great enthusiasm. The brilliant vir-
tuosity of Manet's brush, his richand subtle observa-
tion of a contemporary subject, and the delicate color
harmonies of this ambitious canvas were largely over-
looked. Although he was nominated Chevalier de la
Legion d'Honneur the same year, he could write bit-
terly, "Now it is too late to compensate for twenty

years' lack of success."

LIFT FOLD FOR ENTIRE PAINTING —

DETAIL AT RIGHT
 m:

^'^t

mm
 1

PLATE 24

Edouard Manet (i 832-1 883)

A BAR AT THE F O L I E S B ERGE RE

-

Courtauld Institute of Art, London

Painted in i88 Oil, siYa ^5^"

This painting was exhibited in the official Salon of

1882, a year before Manet's death. His work by then
no longer shocked or bewildered a public that had
become accustomed to his revolutionary treatment of
realism and Impressionistic handling. But it still did
not arouse very great enthusiasm. The brilliant vir-
tuosity of Manet's brush, his richand subtle observa-
tion of a contemporary subject, and the delicate color
harmonies of this ambitious canvas were largely over-
looked. Although he was nominated Chevalier de la
Legion d'Honneur the same year, he could write bit-
terly, "Now it is too late to compensate for twenty

years' lack of success."

LIFT FOLD FOR ENTIRE PAINTING —

DETAIL AT RIGHT
 PLATE 25

Claude Monet (i 840-1 926)

CANAL AT ZAANDAM
Wild ens tein and Co., New York

Painted in i8y i Oily 16^ x 28^'

At the end of the Franco-Prussian war Monet went

briefly to Holland and painted there for several
months. He was attracted by the openness of the land-
scape, the immensity of sky, and the picturesque wind-
mills that seemed to grow out of the water. The re-
flections of light on water, a recurrent theme in early
Impressionist paintings, also no doubt intrigued him.
The mobile water surfaces broke up light into vari-
colored hues, and the dancing effects may even have
suggested to the Impressionists those vibrant little

brush strokes so characteristic of their work.

y
 PLATE 25

Claude Monet (i 840-1 926)

CANAL AT ZAANDAM
Wildenstein and Co., Nezv York

Painted in i8yi Oily i65/g x 28^/4'

At the end of the Franco-Prussian war Monet went

briefly to Holland and painted there for several
months. He was attracted by the openness of the land-
scape, the immensity of sky, and the picturesque wind-
mills that seemed to grow out of the water. The re-
flections of light on water, a recurrent theme in early
Impressionist paintings, also no doubt intrigued him.
The mobile water surfaces broke up light into vari-
colored hues, and the dancing effects may even have
suggested to the Impressionists those vibrant little

brush strokes so characteristic of their work.

r'Mai^^l^"

-m
y

Ux*Ot JV V^>%'^^ ?!?W!i^

m
 PLATE 26

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (i 864-1 901)

PORTRAIT OF A LADY IN RED

Collection Mrs. Albert D. Lasker^ Nezv York

Painted in i8go Oil, 28^ x 16"

This picture was painted in the period when Lautrec

was on the threshold of his mature style, but still under
the spell of the Impressionists. Although he never
exhibited with the group, he was affected by their
technique and aims. Here the freedom of handling
and the interest in rendering light and the atmosphere
surrounding his figure suggest his debt to Impression-
ist methods. His emphasis on the human and psycho-

logical aspects of the subject, however, place him in

another generation and prefigure later developments
in his art.
 PLATE 27

. Paul Gauguin (1848- 1 903)

I A OR AN A MARIA
(We Greet Thee, Mary)

The Metro folitan Museum of Art, New York

{Bequest of Samuel A. Lezvisohn)

Painted in i8gi Oil, 44}^ x ^4y2"

Gauguin was a prosperous stockbroker, a married

man, and a Sunday painter when in 1883 he dramati-
cally abandoned career and family to dedicate himself
wholly to painting. His restless spirit drove him to
Brittany where he established a colony of artists, to
Aries where he painted with Van Gogh, and finally
to the South Seas. In the primitive Eden of Tahiti he
found his spiritual home.
After exhibiting with the Impressionists in the early
eighties and assimilating their innovations, Gauguin
developed a radically new emphasized strong
style that
outlines and brilliant, ornamental color. la Orana
Maria is one of his few religious paintings. It is
Christian in feeling even while it exploits the exotic
elements that had drawn Gauguin to Tahiti the beauty :

of its women, the lush, colorful vegetation, and the

mysticism of the natives.
 PLATE 25

Mary Cassatt (1855-1926)

MOTHER AND CHILD

The Metrofolitan Museum of Arty New York

Paiuied about igo^ Oil, s^Y~ -"^^ ^9"

Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot were the only two

women to exhibit with the Impressionists; and Miss
Cassatt was the only American member of the group.
Although never actually a pupil of Degas, she was one
of the few artists welcome in his studio and learned
much from him. She shared with Degas his need to
intellectualize emotions in clear, objective forms and
his emphasis on draftsmanship. To this she added a
sentiment of her own, concentrating on more intimate
and tender themes like this one of motherhood. Her
directness and boldly simplified color arrangements
gave a fresh American flavor to Impressionist work.
/
 COMMENTARY FOR
COLOR PLATE 12

Camille Pissarro ( 1 8 30- 1 903 )

PATH AT PONTOISE
Collection Mr. and Mrs. Hugo Dixon Memfhis, Tenn.
^

Painted i86g-yo Oil, 20^2 x 7,2"

Though Pissarro, with Monet and Sisley, found

refuge in England during the Franco-Prussian war, he
did not escape its tragedy. His studio at Louveciennes
was ransacked by the Germans and only forty of the
fifteen hundred canvases he left behind were recov-
ered. This is one of the few that survived.
Although there are Impressionist effects in the
colored shadows, this painting is still early in style
and suggests the work of Corot, the master Pissarro
revered. Only after his trip to England did Pissarro
become a full-fledged Impressionist, pursuing fugitive
eff^ects of light with bright, broken colors. It may have

been the impact of the English landscape painting of

Constable, Turner, and Gainsborough, which the Im-
pressionists came to appreciate while in England, that
encouraged them to proceed with their radical new
vision.
 COMMENTARY FOR
COLOR PLATE I

Alfred Sisley (i 839-1 899)

ROAD TO LOUVECIENNES
Wildenstein and Co., 'N ew York

Painted in i8y^ Oil, i^ x 2 i^"

Alfred Sisley, a veteran of the original Impressionist

group and its only English member, did not receive
recognition or honor during his lifetime and died in
poverty, tortured by cancer of the throat. But the bit-
terness which he came to feel for life and humanity
never found expression in his tender and poetic land-
scapes of the countryside around Paris. A fellow-
student of Renoir and Monet at the studio of Gleyre,
he, too, rebelled against academic subjects and turned
to "open-air" painting. Forests, riverbanks, bridges,
avenues of trees, distant views of towns, observed in
summer and winter, all served as subjects for Sisley,
whose art remained lyrical despite personal suffering.
 .s

^o. Manet. Lola de Valence. 1861-62. Ink^ fencil, and gouache

Fogg Art Museum^ Cambridge^ Mass.
 ;i

3/. Seurat. The Artist's Mother. About 188^. Conte crayon

Museum of Modern Art, Neiv York (Lillie P. Bliss Collection)
 •^2.-

5 2. Seurat. Heads of Men. About 1885- Ink

W ildenstetn and Co., Neiv York
 ^

55. Degas. Lady with a Fan. i8y2. Pencil and colored crayon
Private collection, Ne<w York
S4- Degas. Study for Young Spartans Exercising, i860. Pencil
Courtesy Durand-Ruel^ Paris
 4 "i * ••

^'
J

55- Van Gogh. Fishing Boats at Saintes-Maries. i888. Ink. Collection

 i ;
'.••;:3

'••
te:-"i'-a'
•

^- 1^' ^'H.
Mrs. Josefh Pulitzer ^ Jr., St. Louis
36. Van Gogh. Zouave. 1888. Ink
Collection Mr. and Mrs. J. K. Thannhauser, Neiv York
 'W.
^
©

57. Toulouse-Lautrec. Rejane and Galipaux. Ltthografh

i8g^. Collection Ludivig Charell, Ne^w York
 >V.^^^'
3<?. Cezanne. Woodland Scene, i8g^-igoo. Water color
Private collection,- New York
 1
/

39. Cezanne. Putto. 1885-90. Pencil

Collection Mr. and Mrs. Harry N. Abrams, Nenv York
CHRONOLOGY OF IMPRESSIONISM

1862 Monet, Renoir, and Sisley meet at Gleyre's

studio, Ecole des Beaux- Arts, Paris.

1874 First group exhibition of the Societe anonyme

des artistes, peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs,
etc. at Nadar's studio. The thirty artists ex-

hibiting are dubbed "Impressionists" by hos-

tile press.

1875 Group auction sale at Hotel Drouot; police

are summoned to quell violent demonstrations.

1876-82 Further group exhibitions; number of partici-

pants declines.

1886 Eighth and final group exhibition of seven-

teen painters. Monet and Renoir withdraw,
probably in protest against the admittance of
Seurat.

SOME OPINIONS
IN NEWSPAPERS OF THE TIME
Louis Leroy, in Charivari, Paris, 1874: "Oh, it was in-

deed a strenuous day when I ventured into the first

exhibition on the boulevard des Capucines in the com-
pany of M. Joseph Vincent, landscape painter, pupil of
Bertin, recipient of medals and decorations under several
governments! The rash man had come there without
suspecting anything; he thought he would see the kind
of painting one sees everywhere, good and bad, rather
bad than good, but not hostile to good artistic manners,
to devotion to form and respect for the masters. Oh,
form Oh, the masters We don't want them any more,
! !

my poor fellow! We've changed all that."

Albert Wolff, in Le Figaro, Paris, 1876: "At Durand-
Ruel's there has just opened an exhibition of so-called
painting. The inoffensive passer-by, attracted by the flags
that decorate the facade, goes in, and a ruthless spectacle
is offered to his dismayed eyes: five or six lunatics—
among them a woman— a
group of unfortunate creatures
stricken with the mania of ambition have met there to
exhibit their works. ... It is a frightening spectacle of
human vanity gone astray to the point of madness. Try
to make M. Pissarro understand that trees are not violet,
that the sky is not the color of fresh butter, that in no
country do we see the things he paints and that no in-

telligence can accept such aberrations! Try indeed to

make M. Degas see reason; tell him that in art there are
certain qualities called drawing, color, execution, control,
and he will laugh in your face and treat you as a reac-
tionary. Or try to explain to M. Renoir that a woman's
torso is not a mass of flesh in the process of decomposi-
tion with green arid violet spots which denote the state
of complete putrefaction of a corpse."

Le Pays, Paris, 1877: "It appertains to madness; it is a

deliberate excursion into the realm of the horrible and
the execrable. One might surmise that all these pictures
were painted with closed eyes by the insane, who on tin
palettes mixed, haphazard, the most violent colors."
 SOME OTHER BOOKS ABOUT
THE FRENCH IMPRESSIONISTS
Theodore Duret. Manet and the French Impressionists.
Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1910
(Recollections by an intimate friend of many of
the artists)
Camille Pissarro. Letters to his Son Lucien, edited by John
Rewald. New York, Pantheon, 1943
John Rewald. The History of Impressionism. New York,
The Museum of Modern Art, 1946
(Authoritative history of the movement)
Lionello Venturi. Les Archives de Vimpressionisme. Paris
and New York, Durand-Ruel, 1939
(Valuable collection of letters, memoirs, reviews,

and other documents concerning the Impressionists)

R. H. Wilenski. Modern French Painters. New York,
Harcourt Brace, 1949

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In a book of art, it seems particularly fitting to ac-
knowledge the work of craftsmen who contribute to its
making. The color plates were made by Litho-Art,
Inc.,New York. The lithography is from the presses
of The Meehan-Tooker Co., Inc., New York and the
binding has been done by F. M. Charlton Co., New
York. The paper was made by P. H. Glatfelter Co.,
Spring Grove, Pa. Our deepest indebtedness is to the
museums, galleries, and private collectors who gra-
ciously permitted the reproduction of their paintings,
drawings, and sculpture.
 FRENCH
IMPRESSIONISTS
TEXT BY HERMAN J. WECHSLER

THE CHARMS of the French landscape, the hoHday mood of

Paris boulevards, cafes, and parks, and above all, the
poetry of light— these are the subjects immortalized by the Im-
pressionists in one of the most exciting art movements of the
nineteenth century. Yet, when Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, and
their associates first exhibited in 1874, their novel subjects and
technique were greeted with jeers, and the name Impressionist
was applied in ridicule. Now, the name has become honorable,
just as their brilliant canvases have become perhaps the most
widely loved in history.

More than fifty pages of reproductions, with thirty in full

color, provide a comprehensive view of the Impressionists, rep-

resented in examples by Manet, Renoir, Pissarro, Monet, Sisley,
Degas, Seurat, Gauguin, Lautrec, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Morisot,
and Cassatt. Six of the color plates are double-page size, each
accompanied by a color detail. A special feature of the book is
a generous selection of the drawings of the Impressionist group
reproduced in duo-tone.

TITLES NOW READY

Degas • El Greco • Toulouse-Lautrec • Renoir
Matisse • Cezanne • Botticelli • French Impressionists
Dufy • Van Gogh • Utrillo • Rembrandt

READY SOON
Goya • Michelangelo • Raphael • Gauguin
Pissarro • Picasso • Rubens • Manet • Seurat

Daumier • Rouault • Chagall