The Annenberg Collection: Masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

Stein, Susan Alyson, and Asher Ethan Miller, eds., with texts by Colin B. Bailey, Joseph J. Rishel, Mark Rosenthal, and Susan Alyson Stein (2009)

This title is in print.

Preview online Buy the book

Watsonline WorldCat

Publication Details

Description

The Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, watercolors, and drawings constitutes one of the most remarkable gifts ever made to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. A centerpiece of the Museum's world-renowned holdings of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century art, the Annenberg Collection reflects the discriminating taste, generosity, and inspired foresight of two exceptional benefactors. This revised and expanded edition of the original catalogue, published two decades ago, presents more than fifty masterworks by eighteen of the greatest artists of the period. Notable for the astonishing quality of its individual works and for its range, the collection celebrates the many facets of avant-garde art as it unfolded in paintings ranging from Corot's fresh-faced young girl of the early 1860s to Picasso's world-weary harlequin of 1905. The landscape of France is seen in alluring variety: sunlit garden scenes by the Impressionists and iconic vistas of Provence by Van Gogh and Cézanne join seaside views by Seurat and Braque in which Pointillist calculation gives way to riotous Fauve color. The scope of the artists' devotion to still life and flower painting embraces the exquisite harmonics of Fantin-Latour's fine-tuned bouquets as well as the bold grandeur of Monet's late water lilies. Other signature subjects are handsomely represented by works that showcase Degas's dancers and milliners, Renoir's rosy nudes, Gauguin's Tahitians, Lautrec's streetwalkers, Matisse's odalisques, and Vuillard's domestic interiors. Among the numerous highlights are such benchmark pictures as Cézanne's early portrait or his Uncle Dominique. Renoir's Daughters of Catulle Mendes, Monet's Camille Monet on a Garden Bench, Van Gogh's La Berceuse, and Picasso's At the Lapin Agile.

This richly illustrated and fully documented volume includes in-depth discussions of each of the works of art, written by leading experts in the field. Their insightful texts, benefiting from the latest scholarly and technical findings, are accompanied by newly updated provenance information, exhibition histories, and references. A comprehensive bibliography and index are provided at the back of the book.

Table of contents

Director's Foreword

Preface and Acknowledgments

Contributors and Notes to the Reader

Masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection

Bibliography

Index and Photograph Credits

About the authors

Colin B. Bailey is Associate Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, The Frick Collection, New York.

Asher Ethan Miller is Research Associate; Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Joseph I. Rishel is Cisela and Dennis Alter Senior Curator of European Painting before 1900, and Senior Curator of the John G. Johnson Collection and the Rodin Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Mark Rosenthal is an independent curator, New York.

Susan Alyson Stein is Curator; Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Press reviews

The Art Book

"There are few collections of art, let alone of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, which rival the Annenberg Collection of New Yorks Metropolitan Museum of Art. ... marvelous celebratory catalogue. The care and attention by the authors and publishers is very evident throughout. The catalogue is both academic and highly enjoyable to look through at random. It certainly brings the Annenberg Collection to the notice of a new generation of art goers, collectors and connoisseurs. It is a very handsome and timely new edition."

Choice Reviews Online

"... a welcome addition to the literature on some of the most important artists and artworks of the 19th and early 20th centuries. ... Highly recommended."

Related Titles

Titles by thematic category (415)

European Art in the 19th Century

European Art in the 20th Century

Titles by author (29)

Colin B. Bailey

Asher Ethan Miller

Joseph J. Rishel

Mark L. Rosenthal

Susan Alyson Stein

Related Content

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (24)

Essays (21)

Édouard Manet (1832–1883)

The Aesthetic of the Sketch in Nineteenth-Century France

Americans in Paris, 1860–1900

Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)

The Barbizon School: French Painters of Nature

Claude Monet (1840–1926)

Cubism

Edgar Degas (1843–1917): Painting and Drawing

Georges Seurat (1859–1891) and Neo-Impressionism

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901)

Impressionism: Art and Modernity

Japonisme

The Nabis and Decorative Painting

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)

Paul Cézanne (1839–1906)

Paul Gauguin (1848–1903)

Post-Impressionism

The Salon and The Royal Academy

School of Paris

The Transformation of Landscape Painting in France

Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)

Timelines (3)

Central Europe and Low Countries, 1800–1900 A.D.

France, 1800–1900 A.D.

France, 1900 A.D.–present

Exhibition

The Annenberg Collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces

In an annual event, the fifty-three paintings, drawings, and watercolors that compose the Annenberg Collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterworks are once again on view. The collection, acknowledged as one of the most distinguished private collections of its kind, includes the work of eighteen of the greatest artists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, among them Manet, Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, van Gogh, Gauguin, and Picasso. Assembled by the Honorable Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, the collection is loaned generously by them to the Metropolitan for six months of every year.

Plan Ahead

MetPublications