Reviews (1)

Eye-opening view of Impressionist experimentor
Well, I lucked onto this one. Best new ideas in months. It's worth reading this book just for the chapter on the influence the emerging craft of Photography had on the Impressionists. After I read it I longed to be able to hash out points with the author, looking at Bazille as a modernist trying to find "the point of view of painting" as he called it.

It's not a biography, though it tells his story. I guess everyone wonders what Bazille would have become if he'd lived. A major painter of his day, a patron of his wild and later famous friends, or both? This book makes a powerful case for his painting and his point of view, and advances some intriguing theories about theatricality, pure art, posing and gaze for photography and painting of the time.

This is a massive, solid scholarly work with a gorgeous cover. Enough to drool over. ... Read more