Customer Reviews

Impressionist Quartet: The Intimate Genius of Manet and Morisot, Degas and Cassatt

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Think carefully before buying this book. You won't finish it. The author spends most of his time describing (but not really analyzing) numerous works of art which are not illustrated in the book. At first, I tried to look up each image online, but with the number of paintings he writes about, it quickly became impossible. It is pointless (not to mention boring) to read the descriptions without being able to see the works themeselves. A very small number of paintings are illustrated in the book, but even they are in black and white. The biographical portions of the text are interesting, but the book is perhaps 1/3 biography, 2/3 description, which makes it impossible to get through.

For you artist biography lovers:

Here's a delicious treat !

Four fascinating painters described with exceptional insight & humour

A cumbersome, intellectual analysis ; This is NOT

A flavorful sketching of complex personalities & their creative process ; This Is.

Also this gifted author provides a history lesson , that of the I9th century / Entertaining & not "castor oil"

Reading this small but juicy bio

Helped me appreciate these painters much more/ what better compliment is that ?

& for the used price / You can't lose !!

Get this and fall in love with painting again..

Who hasn't been hypnotized by this Impressionist Quartet's paintings? This book will open the doors to their intertwining lives and to their art. It describes the individual character of each artist and their personal triumphs and failures. Jeffrey Meyers has again done an interesting and fulfilling biography of these four artists.

If you love the Impressionist...you will LOVE this book.
I wish I could of been alive in this era, and all of the
books I purchase to read make me more and more in love
with the artists, their work and the times they lived in.
How GREAT that I could find a book with 4 of my favorites
in one...a stroke a genius to make this kind of art book.

I enjoyed this book and the descriptions of the various artists, their personalities, and interraction with one another as well as many of the other impressionists of their time. I especially enjoyed reading about the close relationship between Berthe Moirrisot and her brother-in-law Manet. The description of Degas and his quirky personality and Cassat and her rather blunt manner were enjoyable reading as well.

I completely share the one-star reviewer's frustration with the black and white illustrations, but I'm going to assume the publisher had the final word about that. Still, it must be said - a modern book about Impressionist painters (lovers of color, light and air) that reproduces the art in black and white? I know it costs a lot to publish art books, indeed any illustrated book, but that type of cost-cutting seems odd.

The real problem with this book is that detailed quotes from other sources, which the author provides on nearly every page of this book, are all so much more informative, sympathetic, and just plain better reading, than his 'interpretations' of these artists' personalities or their actions. The author seems to lack any grasp of, or tolerance of, artistic temperment -that indefinable something that makes a genius a genius, but may make him (or her) hell to live with. The personalities of Degas and Cassatt are particularly ill-served by the author, but each of these artists deserve a biographer who can provide something better in his ruminations on their foibles than speculative conjecture, the: "it *may* be that ...", intrusiveness, that he resorts to.

It was hard for me to 'rate' this book, because it's worth five stars for the lengthy, detailed quotes from artists and others who knew the members of this quartet, from letters and memoirs, as well as quoting autobiographical material and other writings left by Degas. There are wonderful go-to sources here.

But when the author takes over - there's a distinct decrease in the quality of the book. Ultimately I had to give it only two stars but with some reluctance. Read the book - but read it for the sources the author used and quoted extensively.

If you love their art and you would like to learn about their personal friendships, this is the book to have. Highly recommend it.