Impressionist France [Texte imprimé] : visions of nation from Le Gray to Monet / Simon Kelly and April M. Watson ; with Maura Coughlin and Neil McWilliam

"Between 1850 and 1880, Impressionist landscape painting and early forms of photography flourished within the arts in France. In the context of massive social and political change that also marked this era, painters and photographers composed competing visions of France as modern and industrialized or as rural and anti-modern. Impressionist France explores the resonances between landscape art and national identity as reflected in the paintings and photographs made during this period, examining and illustrating in particular the works of key artists such as Édouard Baldus, Gustave Le Gray, the Bisson Freres, Édouard Manet, Jean-François Millet, Claude Monet, Charles Negre, and Camille Pissarro. This ambitious premise focuses on the whole of France, exploring the relationship between landscape art and the notion of French nationhood across the country's varied and spectacular landscapes in seven geographical sections and four scholarly essays, which provide new information regarding the production and impact of French Impressionism. "-- Provided by publisher

Bibliogr. p. 305-306

Landscape as "National Art": Visions of France, 1851-1878 / Simon Kelly -- Between Past and Progress, Empire and Enchantment : Photography, Landscape, and National Identity in Mid-Nineteenth-Century France / April M. Watson -- A Sense of Place : Representing the Region in Nineteenth-Century France / Neil McWilliam -- Place Myths of the Breton Landscape / Maura Coughlin -- Catalogue / Simon Kelly and April M. Watson -- Paris and the modern cityscape -- Monuments -- Forests and rivers -- Rural and agricultural life -- Railroads and factories -- Mountains -- Marine views : ports and tourism -- Chronology, 1850-1880 / Sydney Norton

Financial assistance has been provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency