Part 1

THE FRENCH IMPRESSIONISTS (1860-1900)

CAMILLE MAUCLAIR

Author of L'art en Silence, Les Mères Sociales, etc.

Translated from the French text of Camille Mauclair, by P. G. Konody

London: Duckworth & Co. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. Turnbull and Spears, Printers, Edinburgh

1903

AT THE PIANO]

AUGUSTE BRÉAL

TO THE ARTIST AND TO THE FRIEND

AS A MARK OF GRATEFUL AFFECTION

C.M.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

It should be stated here that, with the exception of one reproduction after the Neo-Impressionist Van Rysselberghe, the other forty-nine engravings illustrating this volume I owe to the courtesy of M. Durand-Ruel, from the first the friend of the Impressionist painters, and later the most important collector of their works, a friend who has been good enough to place at our disposal the photographs from which our illustrations have been reproduced. Chosen from a considerable collection which has been formed for thirty years past, these photographs, none of which are for sale, form a veritable and unique museum of documents on Impressionist art, which is made even more valuable through the dispersal of the principal masterpieces of this art among the private collections of Europe and America. We render our thanks to M. Durand-Ruel no less in the name of the public interested in art, than in our own.

CONTENTS

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I. THE PRECURSORS OF IMPRESSIONISM--THE BEGINNING OF THIS MOVEMENT, THE ORIGIN OF ITS NAME

II. THE THEORY OF THE IMPRESSIONISTS--THE DIVISION OF TONES, COMPLEMENTARY COLOURS, THE STUDY OF ATMOSPHERE--THE IDEAS OF THE IMPRESSIONISTS ON SUBJECT-PICTURES, ON THE BEAUTY OF CHARACTER, ON MODERNITY, AND ON STYLE

III. EDOUARD MANET: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE

IV. EDGAR DEGAS: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE

V. CLAUDE MONET: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE

VI. AUGUSTE RENOIR: HIS WORK, HIS INFLUENCE

VII. PISSARRO, SISLEY, CAILLEBOTTE, CÉZANNE, BERTHE MORISOT, MARY CASSATT; THE SECONDARY ARTISTS OF IMPRESSIONISM--JONGKIND, BOUDIN

VIII. THE MODERN ILLUSTRATORS CONNECTED WITH IMPRESSIONISM: RAFFAËLLI, TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, FORAIN, CHÉRET, ETC.

IX. NEO-IMPRESSIONISM: GAUGUIN, DENIS, THÉO VAN RYSSELBERGHE--THE THEORY OF POINTILLISM--SEURAT, SIGNAC AND THE THEORIES OF SCIENTIFIC CHROMATISM--FAULTS AND QUALITIES OF THE IMPRESSIONIST MOVEMENT, WHAT WE OWE TO IT, ITS PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH SCHOOL--SOME WORDS ON ITS INFLUENCE ABROAD

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

RENOIR. At the Piano (Frontispiece)

MANET. Rest

MANET. In the Square