Beyond Impressionism: The Naturalist Impulse

Eclipsed by the Impressionists, Naturalist painters are restored to their rightful place in the history of art in this remarkable, lavishly illustrated study. Influenced by Emile Zola's writings, French Naturalist artists documented personalities and locales in a detached, impersonal style. With photography as their chief tool and ally, the Naturalists aimed for the look of unposed, spontaneous nature, which put them on a collision course with the Impressionists. Naturalists were castigated as ``photo-realists'' as early as the 1890s. Some Naturalists produced socially aware canvases of coal miners or strikers; others depicted nudes, rustic scenes, life's trials. The movement became international, encompassing artists from Britain, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Scandinavia, Hungary and the U.S. The best of these pictures are uncompromisingly honest and strikingly beautiful, eschewing anecdote and sentiment. Weisberg is an art history professor at the University of Minnesota. (Nov.)