Impressionist London

About this book

Part art history, part social history, Impressionist London vivaciously chronicles the responses of French and other Impressionists to that irrepressibly dynamic city. Turn-of-the-century London was the largest, wealthiest, and most powerful city on earth. Its seething activity proved a heady source of inspiration to the French Impressionists, who painted more scenes of London - its grassy parks, mysterious fogs, and bustling riverscapes - than of any other city outside Paris. Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro fled from war-torn France to London in 1870 and produced some of their most appealing work in the city, during both that visit and later sojourns. Alfred Sisley created some of his finest and most lovely pictures just outside London, finding particular inspiration in the regattas that took place at Hampton Court. The young Vincent van Gogh spent probably the happiest months of his life there, discovering work by British painters and writers that would profoundly shape the course of his career. Other Impressionist-era artists who painted brilliant images of the city are the visitors Giuseppe de Nittis and Andre Derain; the expatriates James McNeill Whistler, James Tissot, and John Singer Sargent; and British painters including Spencer Gore, Walter Richard Sickert, and Philip Wilson Steer. Vividly written and elegantly designed, this book is filled with exquisite paintings and rare archival images as well as lively commentaries by artists and literary observers. It perfectly captures the flavor of Impressionist London and the lives of the painters it profoundly inspired.