Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent unused condition. Images are beautiful bright and vivid. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> Until now the received wisdom amongst art lovers has been that the Impressionists triumphed over the moribund Academic style. This challenging new study disputes the accepted version of history going beyond Impressionism to show how at the same time as the Impressionists were planning their first exhibition another group of artists was forming with an alternative view of reality and the role of art. This group the Naturalists believed that they were revolutionizing French painting by their focus on themes taken from the streets of Paris or from life in the provinces. Their ideological mentor was the same Emile Zola who in his writings had championed the work of Manet and his Impressionist colleagues and indeed some Impressionists notably Gustave Caillebotte and Edgar Degas had a foot in both camps. In 1866 Zola began to advocate the examination of reality through an objective scientific study of man. To achieve this in painting the Naturalists sometimes relied on the infant medium of photography which could capture a spontaneity and documentary precision that the brush and the pencil could not always attain. Sketches made from life were ‘corrected’ with the help of photographic images a process often involving montage. Some Naturalists even projected negatives onto the canvas itself in anticipation of today’s photo-realists. Their subject matter also went beyond Impressionism including coal mines and starving peasants as well as the high-spirited abandon of young swimmers or the beauty of devout Breton women all treated with a bravura authenticity that transcended the often grim material. Their influence was widespread and Naturalist enclaves appeared across Europe and in the United States. (OS)