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Examines the use of cafes, opera houses, dance halls, theaters, racetracks, and the seaside in impressionist French paintings.

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Library Journal Review

Herbert's revisionist approach to Impressionism shows how the transformation of the Parisian life-style during the third quarter of the 19th century influenced the style and, more importantly, the subjects of Impressionist painters. As broad, tree-lined boulevards and large parks filled the city with air and light, leisure became a prime concern. The various forms of entertainment that developedcafes-concerts, ballet, horseracing, picnicking, boatingconsequently became the focus of Impressionist paintings. This extremely scholarly yet eminently readable text thoroughly integrates Impressionism with its time, making us view this marvelous art with fresh insight. An exciting book for all libraries. Lynell A. Morr, John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art Lib., Sarasota, Fla. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

After Baron Haussmann remodeled Paris in the 1850s and '60s, the city's clear perspectivesbroad streets and vast squares, cafes and theatersbecame the raw material for paintings by Manet, Degas, Renoir, Morisot, Monet and Caillebotte. This provocative rewarding study starts with that architectural premise, then goes on to consider individual Impressionists in the context of the social forces that shaped their art. Renoir, a working-class boy who climbed out of poverty by aspiring to a life of ease, conjured up a fleshy Arcadia that reflected city-dwellers' longing for social harmony; his sin, according to Yale art-history professor Herbert, was self-delusion. Degas infused painting with caricature, unmasking upper-class hypocrisy. Picture after picture is given a fresh, often unexpected reading, and the 320 plates (two-thirds in color) are deftly interwoven with the sprightly narrative. The study is a visual and intellectual feast. BOMC alternate. (October) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

The social context of the impressionist movement-- a topic first addressed in T. J. Clark's The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers [BKL Mr 1 85]-- here receives a broader interpretation, as Herbert studies how the urban development of Paris in the late nineteenth century affected the lives and works of the impressionist artists. This transformation of a city and of art history is revealed through documentation of the interaction between impressionism and urban social conditions. Bringing all this background data of everyday life to the aesthetic foreground, Herbert convincingly reevaluates the credo of impressionism as it influenced both individual artists and the movement as a whole-- and further set its mark on all of modern society. Well illustrated, with an extensive series of color and black-and-white reproductions. Notes, bibliography; index. JB.