Impressionist New York - Hardcover

Gerdts, William H.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1558593284 ISBN 13: 9781558593282

Publisher: Abbeville Pr, 1994

In this vivid chronicle of New York during the heyday of Impressionism, the city's history intersects with its art history. Organized geographically - with chapters on Fifth Avenue and Broadway, lower Manhattan, Central Park, the waterfront and bridges, the outer boroughs, and so on - Impressionist New York offers a fresh new way of looking at urban images by the masters of American Impressionism.
One hundred full-color illustrations include paintings by such popular artists as William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, Maurice Prendergast, and Ernest Lawson as well as striking but less-known work by Colin Campbell Cooper and the Canadian David Milne, plus Impressionist-influenced scenes by Ashcan School artists including Robert Henri and John Sloan. The extensive black-and-white illustrations comprise vintage photographs, etchings, and other historical glimpses of the city. In counterpoint to the text are numerous sidebars - by the artists themselves as well as observers such as Henry James and Frederick Law Olmsted - that offer pungent commentary on the pleasures and perils of metropolitan life.
This nostalgic tour around the turn-of-the-century metropolis will appeal not only to the myriad admirers of Impressionism, but also to modern-day New York visitors, city-dwellers, and exiles yearning to recapture the city's past.

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Review:

The turn of the century in America experienced both the peak of the aesthetics of impressionism and widespread growth in its greatest city--New York. Like the French impressionists in Paris, many American impressionists took to the streets, using the realities of urban life as the subject of their work. An authority on American impressionism, Dr. William H. Gerdts provides a thorough chronicle of this work and the time in which it was painted--one of public consciousness and celebration. The paintings in the book are visions of urban optimism, focusing on buildings, parks, and street scenes. Because many of the buildings in these paintings are no longer standing, this work is a documentary of a time long gone. The book balances text, image, and white space nicely. Throughout the text, sidebars of quotes by the artists and their literary contemporaries offer commentary on life in the city, putting the work in context.

About the Author:

Dr. William H. Gerdts is Professor of Art History at the Graduate School of the City University of New York.

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