Impressionism: The First Collectors

With 200 illustrations, 150 in color.

Among the first private collectors to champion the Impressionist painters were Eugene Murer, a pastry chef; Henri Rouart, an engineer; baritone Jean-Baptiste Faure; and fabric wholesaler Enrest Hoschede, who went bankrupt from overzealous collecting and whose widow married Monet. Other pioneer collectors included Ambroise Vollard, dealer for artists ranging from Renoir to Picasso, and composer Emmanuel Chabrier, who bought Manet's famous picture A Bar at the Folies-Berg ere and hung it above his piano. Farsightedness and good taste are the common traits uniting the motley collectors in this dry group portrait by Distel, a curator at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. What gives the book life are the 150 color reproductions of paintings, combined with black-and-white plates of photos and memorabilia.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Few movements in art history receive as much popular attention as Impressionism, due partly to the astronomical prices paid for these paintings. Distel here chronicles its "first" collectors, including the dealers Paul Durand-Ruel and Ambrose Vollard, the famous artist and patron Caillebotte, and the collectors Victor Chocquet and the Havemeyers of America, whose relationships with the artists created a market for their works in Paris and abroad. She tells the behind-the-scenes story of how they got started, how they lived, which artists they supported, the prices paid (in francs) at auction, etc. This ambitious undertaking whets the appetite; for those who want more, there is a source list and bibliography. Interested general readers and students will find this book worthwhile. Recommended for large art book collections.
- Ellen Bates, New York
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.