The Impressionists at First Hand

A new edition of this classic collection of letters, critical reviews and reminiscences by Impressionist artists and their contemporaries.

The Impressionists—Monet, Manet, Degas, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley and others—are probably the most popular of all artistic schools. Their struggle to impose a new vision is one of the most absorbing in the whole history of art. With imagination and insight, art historian Bernard Denvir brings Impressionism into focus by showing it through the eyes of the artists themselves and their contemporaries, set against the background of the time.

Through letters, critical reviews, statements and reminiscences—whether explosive or appreciative, blinkered or perceptive—of the people who were there, the story of this ground-breaking art movement comes alive. This was the age of innovation, political liberalisation, emergent photography and modern ideas about perception. The Impressionists had new ways of painting, but they also had a new world to paint.

This revised edition of The Impressionists at First Hand now features full colour reproductions of art throughout and an updated bibliography.