"A group of young artists in 1874, in opposition to the established authority of the Salon and the Academy, decided to show their work directly to the public in an exhibition which they organized themselves. The artists forming the core of this group- Pissarro, Degas, Sisley, Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, and Morisot- came to be known as "the Impressionists". Seen to be following the independent spirit of Manet, they were immediately identified as the avant-garde...

"The first book to critically examine a neglected aspect of Gustave Courbet's oeuvre - landscapes. It challenges the traditional emphasis placed on Courbet's paintings of modern rural life and instead explores his innovative approach to materiality of painting"-- Between 1862 and 1866 Gustave Courbet embarked on a series of sensuous landscape paintings that would later inspire the likes of Monet, Pissarro, and Cezanne. This series has long been neglected...

Examines the life and work of post-impressionist master Paul Gaugin, featuring expert commentary and location footage.

United here for the first time, the paintings of women by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875) constitute a small but stunning and important body of work. Corot: Women offers a new appraisal of these intriguing figures by one of the nineteenth century's great masters of landscape. The women painted by Corot read, dream, and gaze at the viewer, conveying an independent spirit and a sense of their inner lives. Corot's handling of color and his deft,...

"In an innovative approach, Richard Thomson considers Claude Monet's paintings of buildings in their environment, offering a reappraisal of an artist more often associated with landscapes, seascapes and gardens. Buildings fulfilled various roles in Monet's canvases; some are chiefly compositional devices while others throw into sharp contrast the forms of man-made construction against the irregularity of nature, or suggest the absent presence of humans....

The Impressionists -- Monet, Manet, Degas, Pissaro, Cassatt, Renoir, Morisot, Cézanne, and others -- are probably the most popular of all artistic schools. Their struggle to impose a new vision is one of the most absorbing in the whole history of art. Art historian Bernard Denvir brings Impressionism into focus with imagination and insight, through the words of the artists themselves and their contemporaries, against the background of their time....