FA: $10.00 The New Painting: Impressionism 1874--1886
Remove extra _
For sale by auction Ending at:
Jan-16-01 19:56:07 PDT
To bid go to
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1403371195
The New Painting: Impressionism 1874--1886
Edited by Charles S. Moffet
Soft Cover, Fine Arts Museums of SF, 1986, 509 Pages, 2nd Ed. 2nd Printing
Very good condition
The New Painting: Impressionism 1874--1886 celebrates the extraordinary contribution to the
history of modern art made by the eight group shows known as the
Impressionist exhibitions. One hundred years ago the final exhibition of that historic series
was held on the sec ond floor of I rue Laffitte, a building at the corner of the
boulevard des Italiens, then famous as the site of the res taurant La Maison Doree. Shortly
before the show opened, the Compagnie Jablochkoff proposed the instal lation
of electric lights in the exhibition space, evidence of the rapid changes that were taking place
in Parisian life midway through the second decade of the Third Republic.
By 1886 much of the art considered scandalous at the time of the first Impressionist group show
(1874) had gained the respect of influential critics, and the role of
commercial galleries had begun to assume an importance rivaling that of the officially
sanctioned exhibitions known as the Salons; but the shows independently orga nized
by the avant-garde remained significant and con troversial statements about contemporary art.
Although Monet, the artist whose paintings were synonymous with the term
Impressionism, as well as Renoir and Cail lebotte, chose not to exhibit in the eighth
exhibition, the work of the leading Neo-Impressionists Seurat and Signac was well
represented. Impressionism, the new painting of the 1870s and early 1880s was in the midst of
the final phase of the transition to Post-Impressionism and Symbolism, the
new painting of the later 1880s and 1890s. Moreover, the experimental styles of the early
eighties had begun to mature, and the work of younger artists had begun to
emerge with an integrity of its own. The heyday of classic Impressionism was over, but it had
given rise to an equally vibrant and exciting new movement.
The New Painting: Impressionism 1874--1886 is the first exhibition to concentrate on a selection
of works actually included in the eight landmark group shows held during
the critical twelve-year period that is the cru cible of Modernism. It presents the new art of
the 1870s and the 1880s as a rich melange of styles and differing approaches to
subjects from modern life. Its diversity
will undoubtedly surprise viewers accustomed to think ing of Impressionism as an art concerned
almost exclu sively with plein-air painting and feathery brushwork. The
New Painting: Impressionism 1874—1886 illus trates the movement as a wide-ranging
phenomenon, with both major and minor participants. We have included
famous works as well as many that are often ignored and overlooked, but above all we have tried
to provide a view of avant-garde art of 1874--1886 that approximates the
experience of the visitors to the origi nal eight exhibitions.
In 1874 the term Impressionism was used primarily to refer to the small group of artists
interested in effects of color and light. Their loose brushwork and bright palette
were sufficiently similar to suggest the presence of a new school, which a contemporary critic
sarcastically labeled Impressionism, but the renegade exhibitions also served
the needs of such artists as Degas who thought of them selves as Realists. For this reason, the
subject of our exhi bition is avant-garde art of the 1870s and 1880s. Our title,
The New Painting, borrows the term advanced in 1876 by the critic Edmond Duranty in order to
draw attention to the full spectrum of the modern movement without
subjecting it to the descriptive limitations of one or another ism.
Among those who saw the final exhibition was Vin cent van Gogh. He had arrived in Paris only a
few weeks before the opening and during the next two years was exposed
to the work of virtually every important con temporary artist in Paris. Later, in letters
written from Arles in 1888 and 1889, he used Impressionism as a syn onym for the
art of the avant-garde. Clearly the word had become a generic term for the Modernism of the
1870s and 1880s. Like van Gogh, we use Impressionism to refer to the
movement in its broadest sense, but espe cially to refer to the new styles, attitudes, and
percep tions that signal a break with the past. Impressionism was, more than
anything else, the art of the new, and it is the goal of this exhibition to come to terms with
that newness in the form in which it was first encountered.
CONTENTS
Note to the Reader
Sponsor's Statement
Acknowledgments
Lenders to the Exhibition
Directors' Preface
Ian McKibbin White, J. Carter Brown
Introduction
Charles S. Moffett
The Impressionists and Edouard Manet Stephane Mallarme'
The New Painting
Louis Emile Edmond Duranty
The Intransigent Artist
or How the Impressionists Got Their Name Stephen F. Eisenman
The End of Impressionism
Richard Shiff
The First Exhibition 1874
The First Impressionist Exhibition in Context Paul Tucker
The Second Exhibition 1876
A Failed Attempt
Hollis CIa yson
The Third Exhibition 1877
The "First" Exhibition of Impressionist Painters Richard R. Brettell
The Fourth Exhibition 1879
Contemporary Popularity and Posthumous Neglect Ronald Pickvance
The Fifth Exhibition 1880
Disarray and Disappointment
Charles S. Moffett
The Sixth Exhibition 1881
Realists among the Impressionists
Fronia E. Wissman
The Seventh Exhibition 1882
The Painters Called Impressionists
Joel Isaacson
The Eighth Exhibition 1886
The Rhetoric of Independence and Innovation Martha Ward
Appendix
La nouvelle peinture
Louis Emile Edmond Duranty
Abbreviated References
Contemporary Reviews
Bibliography
Index of Artists