#000440
The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886
Charles S. Moffett et al.; The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
*The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886* is the catalog of a landmark 1986 exhibition that did something no show had done before: it reconstructed the eight independent Impressionist exhibitions the artists themselves mounted in Paris between 1874 and 1886, bringing together some 160 works to evoke what visitors actually saw. Organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco with the National Gallery of Art and shaped by curator Charles S. Moffett, it treats Impressionism not as a fixed style but as a series of contentious, evolving group statements. The 507-page volume pairs 160 color plates with substantial scholarly essays that changed how the movement is understood. It is a heavyweight—part exhibition record, part reference work—and remains one of the essential books on Impressionism for anyone who wants to go past the postcard image to the arguments and ambitions behind it.
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The book
Rather than a general survey, this is a work of art-historical reconstruction. The 1986 exhibition, organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco with the National Gallery of Art in Washington and led by curator Charles S. Moffett, set out to recreate the eight independent exhibitions the Impressionists staged in Paris from 1874 to 1886—the shows through which the movement defined and quarreled with itself. About 160 paintings and drawings were hung in chronological sections to evoke each original display.
How it reads
The catalogue is both a record of that ambitious show and a serious scholarly volume: 507 pages, 160 color plates, and essays by leading historians examining how "the new painting" actually developed. Its central insight—that Impressionism was a shifting coalition, not a single tidy style—reframed the movement, and the book has become a standard reference. It rewards the committed reader more than the casual browser.
For more context
It sits alongside John Rewald's History of Impressionism and the catalogs of the major Monet, Degas, and Pissarro retrospectives.
Sources - National Gallery of Art - Internet Archive
- Type
- Exhibition catalog
- Author / Maker
- Charles S. Moffett et al.; The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Publisher
- The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco / University of Washington Press
- Place of publication
- San Francisco
- Year
- 1986
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Art
- Location
- Colorado
Places