Simultaneously published in Great Britain by Belitha Press.

Includes index.

"Impressionism" captures all the fervor of the revolutionary painters as they tumbled the bastion of academicisim. The Text explores the social, cultural, and political background of France, and examines the importance of the scientific and engineering achievements of the time. It illustrates with a unique assemblage of photographs the protagonists -- and not only the artists but also political and other figures -- of the events described. Most significantly, it details the devices of the painters that so confounded their critics: their method of dividing color and applying pigment; their strange way of seeing, in which forms were dissolved in light; their asymmetrical compositions; and the eccentric points of view from which they chose to depict their subjects. References to the pictures themselves clearly demonstrate these and the other characteristics of the new school.