Impressionist Giverny: A Colony of Artists, 1885-1915
Edited by Katherine M. Bourguignon with essays by Nina Lubbren, Kathleen Pyne and Margaret Werth
Softcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Terra Foundation for American Art (April 7, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0-9321-7152-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-9321-7152-8
Product Size: 0.5 x 9.2 x 11.75 inches

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, artists from America and across Europe flocked to the French village of Giverny, transforming it from a sleepy hamlet to a colorful and thriving artists’ community. A lavishly illustrated scholarly catalogue, Impressionist Giverny: A Colony of Artists, 1885-1915 evokes the longevity of impressionism and highlights the role Giverny played in the movement’s ascendance, placing it in the context of other European artists’ colonies of its era.

Making use of reproductions of period postcards, paintings, photographs, and previously unpublished documents, editor Katherine M. Bourguignon traces the evolution of the impressionist style in this idyllic and international setting. Fellow contributors address the interactions of the artists of Giverny with Monet, the utopian experiment of a collective artistic enterprise, the emergence of the rural innkeeper as a new class of patron, and the American impressionists who, inspired by their experience in France, often formed artists’ colonies back in the United States and participated in the ongoing tradition of French-American cultural exchange.