The French Impressionists (1860-1900)   By: Camille Mauclair (1872-1945)

by

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

[Illustration: RENOIR

AT THE PIANO]

To

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

MANET. Young Man in Costume of Majo

MANET. The Reader

DEGAS. The Dancer at the Photographer's

DEGAS. Carriages at the Races

DEGAS. The Greek Dance Pastel

DEGAS. Waiting

CLAUDE MONET. The Pines

CLAUDE MONET. Church at Vernon

RENOIR. Portrait of Madame Maitre

MANET. The Dead Toreador

MANET. Olympia

MANET. The Woman with the Parrot

MANET. The Bar at the Folies Bergère

MANET. Déjeuner

MANET. Portrait of Madame M. L.

MANET. The Hothouse

DEGAS. The Beggar Woman

DEGAS. The Lesson in the Foyer

DEGAS. The Dancing Lesson Pastel

DEGAS. The Dancers

DEGAS. Horses in the Meadows

CLAUDE MONET. An Interior after Dinner

CLAUDE MONET. The Harbour, Honfleur

CLAUDE MONET. The Church at Varengeville

CLAUDE MONET. Poplars on the Epte in Autumn

CLAUDE MONET. The Bridge at Argenteuil

RENOIR. Déjeuner

RENOIR. In the Box

RENOIR. Young Girl Promenading

RENOIR. Woman's Bust

RENOIR. Young Woman in Empire Costume

RENOIR. On the Terrace

PISSARRO. Rue de l'Epicerie, Rouen

PISSARRO. Boulevard Montmartre

PISSARRO. The Boildieaux Bridge at Rouen

PISSARRO. The Avenue de l'Opéra

SISLEY. Snow Effect

SISLEY. Bougival, at the Water's Edge

SISLEY. Bridge at Moret

CÉZANNE. Dessert

BERTHE MORISOT. Melancholy

BERTHE MORISOT. Young Woman Seated