Impressionists Side by Side: Their Friendships, Rivalries, and Artistic Exchanges

Impressionism, asserts Tufts art history professor White, was born of the synergistic friendship of Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who pooled their expertise to develop a new style that combined Monet's feeling for nature with Renoir's coloristic gifts. Friendships, tense rivalries and working relationships among the impressionists are the focus of this revelatory, gorgeously illustrated study. Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet belittled each other to third parties, yet they pushed each other to greater heights of creativity. Apolitical conservative aesthete Paul Cezanne and magnanimous anarchist outsider Camille Pissarro shared a bohemian outlook and made 10 paintings each side by side. Mary Cassatt built her style on the manner of Degas, while Berthe Morisot leaned on Manet and Renoir for emotional support; both women, argues White, were pioneers but venerated their male mentors' work to the detriment of their own egos. Juxtaposing similar canvases by friendly duos, and quoting extensively from their letters and diaries, White shows that the impressionists were more interdependent and cross-pollinating than was hitherto suspected. (Oct.)