Impressionism: Art, Leisure, and Parisian Society
By Robert L. Herbert
$35.00 (Softcover)
Softcover: 324 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press (September 10, 1988)
ISBN-10: 0-3000-5083-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-3000-5083-7
Product Size: 0.9 x 10 x 11.25 inches

$90.00(Hardcover)
Hardcover: 324 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press (September 10, 1988)
ISBN-10: 0-3000-4262-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-3000-4262-7
Product Size: 1.1 x 10.5 x 11.5 inches

The culmination of 20 years of research by a preeminent scholar in the field, this book fundamentally revises the conventional view of the Impressionist movement and shows for the first time how it was fully integrated into the social and cultural life of the times. Robert L. Herbert explores the themes of leisure and entertainment that dominated the great years of Impressionist painting between 1865 and 1885. Cafes, opera houses, dance halls, theatres, racetracks, and vacations by the sea were the central subjects of these paintings, and Herbert relates these pursuits to the transformation of Paris under the Second Empire.

Sumptuously illustrated with many of the most beautiful Impressionist images, both familiar and unfamiliar, this book presents provocative new interpretations of a wide range of famous masterpieces. Along with many profound insights into the social and cultural upheaval of the times, artists are seen to be active participants in contemporary life.