Family Portraits

The impressionist artists accorded great importance to family life; this book celebrates their portrayals of their mothers, wives, and children in intimate scenes together.

The impressionist masters were known for their close relationships; peers, family, art dealers, and patrons all featured regularly in their artworks, and children were favoured subjects. All aspects of childhood and family life at the end of the nineteenth century—motherhood, nannies, education, games, pets, adolescence—were depicted in the works of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot, and others.

Drawing an intimate portrait of the everyday lives of these artists and their families, Family Portraits includes more than one hundred paintings, drawings, and sculptures alongside family photographs, juxtaposed with more contemporary photographic works that demonstrate the vibrant legacy of the impressionists.