The Private Lives of the Impressionists Review

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(More customer reviews)One common lack in the multitude of books on the French Impressionist painters is that most books concentrate on the individual artists, or at least on one artist at a time, and do little to connect the artists in the context of their private lives. A few concentrate on correspondence between artists, but don't draw it all together. There have been some notable exceptions (such as Rewald's almost encyclopedic "The History of Impressionism"), but I think that for a relatively short intimate and interconnected history of the Impressionists Sue Roe's "The Private lives of the Impressionists" stands out. I was literally caught up in the story from the start (even though I have read several other versions) and learned a great deal about who knew who when and how various painters influenced others in the movement. Here Manet grumbles about his confusion with a new painter- Monet. Cezanne wonders in an out of the group, always apparently angry and paranoid. Monet is chased by creditors and has difficulties with his parents over his mistress, a problem also for several other male Impressionists. Berthe Marisot is alternately wooed and rejected by Manet (despite his own commitments). Pissarro extols his socialist ideas and various important painters- Degas, Bazille, Courbet, Caillebotte, Cassatt, Renoir, Sisley, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Marisot, Cezanne and others work together, get angry with each other, fight for recognition and daily bread, and have romances (or not in the case of Bazille). Indeed we see them as real people, not geniuses, with real problems.
The Impressionists made up a varied lot, who's main bond was painting, but who ran from rich to poor, socialist to conservative, and shy to outrageous. However, they completely changed Western art during their lives and difficulties, including the numerous rejections by the established art community. In addition most had to each deal in their own way with the deadly Franco-Prussian War and resultant revolt of the Communards.
If you want to read the unvarnished overview of the artists who altered the history of art in France during the last half of the Nineteenth Century, without having it encyclopedic in size, this would be it!

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