#000079
American Impressionism
Richard J. Boyle
Richard J. Boyle's American Impressionism (1974) was the first comprehensive survey of its subject, and it still reads as a clear, well-illustrated introduction to the American painters who adapted French Impressionism to their own light and landscape. Boyle, a curator and museum director who knew the field intimately, traces the movement from its European roots and American antecedents through the mature work of Childe Hassam, John Twachtman, Theodore Robinson, Willard Metcalf, and their peers, across the decades between roughly 1860 and 1915. With 46 color plates and some 175 black-and-white illustrations, it balances readable narrative with genuine coverage. It's a period overview rather than the last word—scholarship has expanded greatly since—but as a first map of American Impressionism it remains dependable and handsome. For readers drawn to American painting or the Impressionist moment, it's an excellent starting point.
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The author
Richard J. Boyle was an American art historian, curator at the Cincinnati Art Museum, and director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. A specialist in American painting, he wrote the first broad survey of the American Impressionists.
The book
Published by the New York Graphic Society in 1974, American Impressionism organizes the movement chronologically—European and American backgrounds, the pre-Impressionists, and successive waves of Impressionists from the 1870s to 1915—with 46 color plates and around 175 black-and-white illustrations.
How it has aged
It was groundbreaking as the first comprehensive account and remains a solid introduction, though decades of later exhibitions and monographs have deepened the picture. Read it for the overview, then follow the artists individually.
For more context
Read alongside more recent studies of Childe Hassam and the American Impressionist colonies at Cos Cob and Old Lyme.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Richard J. Boyle
- Publisher
- New York Graphic Society
- Year
- 1974
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Art
- Location
- Maine