Impressionists By the Sea

Impressionists by the Sea accompanies a joyous summer exhibition of the same name at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Through some sixty popular Impressionist works, coauthor John House considers the pictorial representation of the seaside during the 19th century, when the coastline of northern France was transformed from a fishing center into a popular vacation spot.

This handsomely produced book reveals how painting developed in tandem with social and economic changes. House shows how painters initially cast the coastline in a romantic role, focusing on the evocation of the sublime force of nature and the picturesque display of local fishermen, but by the early 1860s—at the moment the resorts of Deauville and Trouville were coming into vogue—painters such as Boudin, Manet, and Monet were capturing vacationers in all their relaxed glory.

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE:

Royal Academy of Arts, London, July 7-September 30, 2007
Phillips Collection, Washington DC, October 20-July 13, 2008
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, February 9-May 11, 2008

Ellen Bates - Library Journal

This exhibition catalog for a traveling show (London; Washington, DC; and Hartford, CT, through May 2008) spotlights the social and economic changes in mid-19th-century France that transformed the country's northern coast from a poor fishing center into a popular summer tourist destination, as painted in some 60 impressionist works. In the first essay, House (Courtauld Inst. of Art, London; Impressionism Reviewed) focuses on the impact of new rail connections from Paris travel habits as well as on people's growing tendency toward "organized leisure" away from home. He further explores and contrasts 1840s depictions (e.g., by Charles Mozin) with 1870s depictions (e.g., by Claude Monet) of fashionable coastal scenes. In the richly illustrated second essay, Hopkins (English literature, Oxford Univ.; After Modern Art, 1945-2000) discusses the society of the fishing villages before, during, and after the aforementioned shift. The catalog's four sections-"Before Impressionism," "Early Impressionism," "Beach Scenes at the Salon After 1870," and "Impressionism in the 1880s"-are followed by detailed notes on each painting and a chronology covering 1847-86. With liberal color reproductions and sound scholarship, this is a unique contribution to the literature and should not be missed by public, academic, or museum libraries; highly recommended.

John House is Professor of History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. He is the author of numerous books including, Impressionism Reviewed (Yale University Press).

David Hopkins is the author of After Modern Art, 1945-2000.