Impressionists: Their Life Stories

Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Cézanne, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt – today, these names are legendary, and their paintings are amongst the most expensive in the world. But behind these dazzling canvases were lives filled with scandal, struggle and passion. They were rebels who shocked the public with their paintings of laundresses, dancers and spring gardens. They created their art at a time when Paris was undergoing a grand reconstruction under Baron Haussmann, and they themselves experienced transformations just as dramatic as their art.

Sue Roe takes us into the studios, cafés and night bars where a revolution in art and personal life was born. Friendship was mixed with rivalry, passion with tragedy, and success with utter rejection. After the Franco-Prussian War, they tried to get back on their feet, sticking together, arguing, laughing and suffering.

This fascinating, intimate story reveals the Impressionists not only as geniuses with a brush in hand, but also as lovers, renegades, visionaries – and sinners who changed the history of art.

Published in a translation by Bohumila Kučerová.