Impressionism: Paint and Politics

While every Art History 101 student knows that Impressionism challenged the prevailing aesthetic of its day, Professor House seeks to show that this challenge was also at least obliquely political: Impressionist paintings, he argues, undermined a clearly understood social hierarchy through their fixation on the fleeting, mysterious sensations of modern life. House presents this idea with too many caveats and qualifications for it to carry much force, and, more critically, he provides virtually no historical context for his claim. Without elaboration, he calls the climate of 1870s France""repressive,"" yet he also details how the Impressionists, with apparent impunity, mounted their first group shows at this time. House--who looks a bit like Sting and teaches at London's renowned Courtauld Institute of Art--too often seems to conflate the aesthetic authority of the Salon (the annual exhibit of the French cultural establishment) with the political authority of the French government. But what makes this book rewarding despite its attenuated conclusions is House's commentary on the paintings themselves, which are generously reproduced here. Taking to task colleagues who focus solely on a single aspect of art history--gender, authority, technique, etc.--House analyzes the paintings from many angles, illuminating everything from the quality of individual brush strokes to the choice of subject matter. In the process, House rescues the Impressionists from both the modernist narrative that grants them only a bit part in the development of 20th-century""pure painting,"" and the purveyors of museum gift shop calendars who see no more than a superficial prettiness. Though they may not be bomb-tossing dissidents, the Impressionists, as presented by House, are prickly, complex individuals richly deserving of this fresh look.