Customer Reviews

Pennsylvania Impressionism

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Compiled and edited by Brian H. Peterson (Senior Curator, James A. Michener Art Museum, Bucks County, Pennsylvania), and enhanced with informative essays by William H. Gerdts (Professor Emeritus of Art History, Graduate School of the City University of New York), and Sylvia Yount (The Margaret and Terry Stent Curator of American Art at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia), with additional contributions by Erika Jaeger Smith, Constance Kimmerle, Mary O'Brien, Birgitta H. Bond, and Tricia Fagan, Pennsylvania Impressionism is a stunningly impressive, full-color compendium of fantastic artworks, enhanced with an erudite and knowledgeable commentary about the impressionistic styles Pennsylvanian artists and how they uniquely captured the land and its people. Brief biographies of great Impressionistic artists who lived in and painted Pennsylvania, thoughts on emotional works presented for the reader's enjoyment, state history, and much, much more combine to make Pennsylvania Impressionism both a gorgeous and unforgettable coffeetable artbook, as well as an essential addition to personal or academic American Art History collections.

I'm an amateur painter and a regular subscriber to American Art Review where I've seen frequent references to Fern Coppedge's paintings. I just fell in love with her colourful work and looked on Google for a single book about her work but alas, there doesn't seem to be such a book. So, I Googled up a booklist and hit on this title, though I love the work of Edgar Payne and Birger Sandzen too. Colour is my own credo and this massive hardback gives plenty. I'd heard of Redfield, Folinsbee and Lathrop but not of Kenneth Nunamaker or Clarence Johnson. The book is bursting with snowscenes like Nunamaker's "Winter Fog" a minimalist view of a sluggish river in slate greys, olive greens and navy blues. Amongst the numerous colour plates, the oils in some of the Redpaths and Coppedges seem to ooze off the page and are visually edible. The potted biographies and wee articles on the many artists are by different experts and I shall be dipping into this beezer of a book time and again. The American impressionists started up slightly after the European school but I think their work is more realistic, darker, and maybe more realistic with reference to mankind in the works I've seen. I'm also a keen viewer of the Canadian Group of Seven, that's me - an old reactionary!

If you like this you'll like: J. Driscoll and A. Skolnick: The Artist and the American Landscape published by First Glance Books, Cobb, Cal. 1998 and

The McMichael Canadian Art Collection published by McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd., Ontario paperback 1989.

I do hope you can put this in your review pages as I so enjoy having this book: I'm in remission from bone cancer and, while I'm able to drive again, am unable to travel abroad and see these paintings at first hand.

Fiona Ross

This book has what every art lover wants most in an art book; lots of large, well reproduced color images. This book is replete with them. There is also something for every taste. If you love American impressionism buy this book.

This is one of the finest books for those who enjoy Impressionist Work and Plein Air Painting. I have so often related Impressionist with only the European Artist. But seeing this work in person rivals the European Work. I would suggest this to any painter or painting major. I return to the works again and again as a Professional Artist to learn from these great painters and be inspired.

Pennsylvania Impressionism opens with an introduction explaining the origins of painting in the area, followed by a somewhat pensive and personal mediation on art both, by Brian H Peterson; followed by two further discussions of art in Pennsylvania by Sylvia Yount and William H Gerdts respectively. Then comes the main colour plates section along with the artists' biographies. This is followed with entries for other associated artists and comprises brief descriptions accompanied by a representative thumb-nail illustration of each artist's work. The book concludes with two bibliographies and other lists.

This is a beautifully illustrated volume, the introductory chapters are illustrated, the colour plates section amounts to nearly two hundred pages, and along with the concluding section the full colour illustrations number three hundred and sixty nine. In the colour plates section they are arranged one and sometime two to a page and the standard is good, often revealing the quality and texture of the paint. However it should be noted that even the full page illustrations in fact rarely occupy more than half of the total page area, leaving the image surrounded by a lot of white space.

This is an attractively laid out and beautifully illustrated book, and the paintings themselves are absolutely superb.

This is a very thorough complilation of works by many well known or slightly known painters of mostly Eastern PA. There is ample reading and explanations of their influences, theories, and philosophies on art. It was interesting reading about how interconnected so many of them were. And ,oh yes, the pictures were very nice too.

This book provides a thorough survey of the Bucks County "Impressionist" painters. Plenty of good quality visuals, excellent as a resource. Particularly of interest to people in the Bucks Co, PA area.

Excellent history of an important period in American art. Outstanding production - paper, color plates and binding. Efficient processing from Amazon.

This book has many, good-sized, excellent color reproductions of work with an interesting history of the New Hope artists. There are also succinct biographies of each of the major artists of this regional school plus a list with images of many of the lesser known people.
The last chapter of the book discusses the framemakers in the New Hope region who were part of the arts and crafts movement which is an interesting piece of art history in itself.
Mention is made of the "Pennsylvania 10", a group of the prominent women artists in this area, and a chapter could have been created to feature them, but they are worth a book unto themselves.
For anyone interested in American art, American Impressionism, and that period during the first half of the twentieth century as art moved from representational concepts to abstract and non-objective concepts, this book is worth having.
For artists who are working in this representational manner, they will find a wealth of ideas from these painters in terms of technique, design, and concepts.