American Impressionism and Realism The Painting of Modern Life, 1885-1915 [Hardcover]

H. Barbara Weinberg (Author), David Park Curry (Author), Doreen Bolger (Author)

Book Description

Series: Metropolitan Museum of Art Series | Publication Date: 1994

An examination of the continuities and differences between American Impressionism and Realism.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

These painting styles have received oodles of attention from art historians of late, and one might wonder what more there is to be said on the subject. Happily, this volume offers novel approaches and outstandingly handsome illustrations, nearly half in color. Insightful commentary is arranged thematically and begins with the American twist given to Impressionism, a style essentially born and developed in France. Through essays on country, city, and home, the authors examine how the subject matter reflected the nature of American life and culture during that era. The catalog is to accompany a nationwide traveling exhibition. Appendixes include lists of works contained in and lenders to the exhibition, as well as biographies of the painters. Highly recommended for general as well as scholarly readers.
Kathleen Eagen Johnson, Historic Hudson Valley, Tarrytown, N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Book News

Published in conjunction with an exhibition that originated at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and is scheduled to travel to several locations during 1994 and 1995. Serving as both a catalog and an exposition, this abundantly illustrated volume explores the continuities and differences between American Impressionism and Realism, two movements that are traditionally viewed as merely opposed. The thrust of the exhibition (and this volume) is to forge a new approach to an area of American art history that has heretofore tended more towards description than interpretation, offering historical and social contexts for the works and movements under consideration as well as stylistic analyses, and a biography of each of the 26 artists in the exhibition. Distributed by Abrams. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art (1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300085699
• ISBN-13: 978-0300085693
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,195,528 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An American mind, December 19, 2001

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This review is from: American Impressionism and Realism The Painting of Modern Life, 1885-1915 (Hardcover)

American Impressionists and Realists were farther apart in time than they were in what they painted. In fact, with both groups their art grew out of training in Paris; liking for modern French painting; and building an American art that would support American nationalism by faith in the future, the present, and the good old days. They both went outdoors, to the growing system of parks and places for holiday outings, as in Impressionist William Merritt Chase's brightly colored "Prospect Park, Brooklyn," with its Gustave Caillebotte-type compressed backgrounds, exaggeratedly converging spaces, and splayed foregrounds; and in the rugged "Central Park in winter," where Realist William Glackens painted sharply contrasting light and dark side by side and wavily-formed lively children into vigorously brushworked snowy chill. Both groups chose personally meaningful, over nationally significant, places to paint, as in Impressionist Childe Hassam's "Late afternoon, New York: winter" brilliantly light-touched and delicately paint-stitched in one overall tone and Realist Robert Henri's energetically darker-toned "Street scene with snow." Or historical landscapes, such as "Gloucester harbor" through Impressionist Willard Metcalf's dazzlingly wide-banded high-key color for bright summer sun-lighted skies and under Realist John Sloan's late afternoon powerful glow, low sun-cast strong shadows, and storm clouds over Fauvist-type intensely colored and heavily pigmented industrial cranes and wharves. In fact, they both tended to be city painters, as in Childe Hassam's "Rainy day, Boston," with its "Church of St-Philippe-du-Roule" plunging perspective, empty central foreground, masterly controlled narrow tonal palette, and two streets panoramically joined; and in "Bleeker and Carmine Streets" by Impressionist George Luks, as the intersection for overcrowded immigrant slums, ramshackled cold-water flats, and boardinghouses in heavy impastos and somber palette. Both were also aware of how nature was part of doing business in the city, as in the hothouse flower sales of Childe Hassam's lightly brushed "At the florist" and John Sloan's gritty, realistically colored, and vigorously brushed "Easter eve." Both groups were concerned, too, over how industrialization was changing American life, but with Impressionist J Alden Weir's Willimantic Linen Company's "Factory village" naturally fitting as a picturesque river valley industry in the middle of lushly fresh fields while George Luks hunched his driver over the reins to a horse-drawn "Butcher cart" on a slushily dark Manhattan street. Both cared about how people fit into the changing American life so they likewise went in for portraits, as in William Merritt Chase's "James McNeill Whistler," with the sitter's style of broadly applied paint, low-key palette, and thin washes; and in Robert Henri's "George Luks," with the sitter's coarsely provocative painting style of crudely bold slashing strokes and richly dark colors. Both groups had similar concerns about how people were interacting with each other, as in the children playing at Childe Hassam's privileged "Lake for miniature yachts" under the gaze of near-by adults and at John Sloan's "Backyards, Greenwich Village" around the beckoning responsibilities of hanging laundry. Or as in adult time out, with the music of the James Whistler-type sobre paletted "At the piano" by Impressionist Theodore Robinson and of the Honore Daumier- and Francisco Goya-type exaggeratedly expressive "Spielers" shown frenetically dancing by George Luks. Or with a French-styled drawing viewers into the woman in black's box as a figure leaves the upper left corner box in Impressionist Mary Cassatt's "At the opera" and up along with craning spectators at the acrobat inching along the tightrope in "Hammerstein's roof garden" by William Glackens. Or with a surprising sympathy for the performer passed down from Jean-Antoine Watteau's "Gilles" to William Merritt Chase's hunchbacked jester pouring a bracing drink and John Sloan's harshly lit clown making up. So authors H Barbara Weinberg et al's book, with its gorgeously illustrated and nicely organized text, trailblazes looking at the similarities in the art by the 26 artists participating in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art's traveling exhibition on AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISM AND REALISM.