Frances Fowle

Samuel John Peploe (1871-1935) was the eldest of the four artists popularly known as "The Scottish Colourists." Born in Edinburgh, he was drawn to France and returned to paint there frequently, moving in 1910 to Paris, where he moved in artistic avant-garde circles. His painting style gave way to a more contemporary and expressive approach, and he used rich colors applied with more structured brushstrokes. In 1912 Peploe returned to Edinburgh and slowly began to build a successful career as an exhibiting artist. From around 1914 until his death, he sought to paint the perfect still life. A modest selection of props, including roses or tulips, fans, books, fruits, and Chinese vases, were carefully placed in infinite varieties on patterned drapery. In 1929 he explained: "There is so much in mere objects, flowers, leaves, jugs, what not—colors, forms, relation—I can never see mystery coming to an end." This beautifully illustrated book accompanies a major exhibition devoted to the artist in his home town of Edinburgh, and throws fascinating new light on Peploe's life, on the influence of France on his work, and on his posthumous reputation.Published in association with The National Galleries of ScotlandExhibition Schedule:Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh(11/03/12-06/23/13)

The first major English-language publication dedicated to Monet’s letters, expertly selected and richly illustrated with his paintings. Claude Monet’s letters – to his friends, family, fellow artists, patrons and gallerists – offer an unmatched glimpse into the artist’s life, revealing his passions, anxieties and frank opinions, and expanding our view of his working life and practice. From his formative years to fame at the end of his life, this selection of letters is accompanied by profiles of his correspondents, expert introductions and comprehensive annotations. Illustrated with some of Monet’s best-known paintings, contemporary photographs and reproductions of some of the letters themselves, his world is revealed in words and images as never before. Published to mark the centenary of the artist’s death, this is a fresh opportunity to explore the life and letters of the ‘father of Impressionism’ in his own words.

In their day the French Impressionists were met with criticism and even disbelief, yet today their paintings are admired and collected worldwide. The leading members of the group included Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley, who dedicated themselves to working in oil paints out of doors, to capturing the transient effects of light and weather and depicting the society in which they lived. These artists challenged the traditions of the French Academy, bringing about a revolution in art during a period of enormous political and social change. Historical Dictionary of Impressionism contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography, as well as practical information on the eight Impressionist exhibitions. The dictionary section comprises cross-referenced entries on the French Impressionists, the locations they worked in (both in France and further afield), their predecessors and followers, and their models, critics and dealers. It also contains useful entries on key political events and figures, as well as the places of entertainment that sprang up all over Paris in the ‘belle époque’. This book is designed to appeal to students, researchers and the general reader.

The first collection of Monet’s paintings of the Thames exhibited in London since 1904 This beautiful volume accompanies a major exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery that reunites for the first time in 120 years an extraordinary group of Claude Monet’s Impressionist paintings of London. The exhibition realizes the artist’s unfulfilled ambition of showing the group on the banks of the Thames, just a stone’s throw from where many of them were created. Monet (1840–1926) is world renowned as the leading figure of French Impressionism, but many forget that some of Monet’s most remarkable Impressionist paintings were made not in France but in London. They depict extraordinary views of the Thames as it had never been seen before, full of mysterious light and radiant colors. Captured over three stays in the capital between 1899 and 1901, the series—depicting Charing Cross Bridge, Waterloo Bridge, and the Houses of Parliament—was unveiled at a landmark exhibition in Paris in 1904. Monet fervently wanted to show them in London the following year, but plans fell through. Until now, they have never been the subject of an exhibition in the UK. Monet and London: Views of the Thames realizes Monet’s ambition of showing this extraordinary group of paintings in London. By presenting the paintings Monet himself selected in 1904, it provides visitors with the unique experience of seeing the show Monet curated and the works he felt best represented his ambitious artistic enterprise, brought together more than a century after their inaugural exhibition. The catalogue is richly illustrated and includes twenty-one entries and four original essays that shed new light on this famous series.

“The Technical Notes by Lesley Stevenson provide extensive, thoroughly researched information on the paintings… this has brought fascinating new information to light” — Journal of the Scottish Society for Art History, Volume 29, 2024-2025, p.128 The Scottish National Gallery’s outstanding collection of French paintings is described fully in this two-volume illustrated catalogue. Underpinned by extensive scholarly research, this comprehensive work includes many of the great names, including Monet, Degas, Cézanne, Poussin, Watteau and Delacroix. Since opening its doors in 1859, the Scottish National Gallery’s collection of French paintings has grown continuously, reflecting changing tastes and priorities, thanks to inspired and enlightened purchases and many generous donations. The collection’s fascinating history is related in the introductory essay. Each artist is introduced by a concise biography, followed by a study of their individual works featuring the most up-to-date research. Illustrating and describing 189 works of art, this catalogue is the definitive authority on the French paintings in Scotland’s national collection.

A beautiful introduction to the art of the Impressionists and post-Impressionists, written by Frances Fowle, one of the foremost experts in the field.

This book offers a beautiful exploration of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's works in lithography. It explores the new artistic approach to the poster at the end of the 19th century, which bridged visual and popular culture and turned the relationship between `high' and `low' art on its head. Technical innovations in lithography pioneered by Lautrec and other artists produced larger sizes, more varied colours and new effects and launched the role of the poster as a powerful tool for communication and marketing in fin de siecle Paris. Lautrec's embrace of celebrity helped to define the famous hotspots (theatres, cabarets and cafe-concerts) of fin de siecle Paris and made their stars recognisable figures across the whole city. Works by contemporaries such as Pierre Bonnard, Theophile Alexandre Steinlen and Jules Cheret also feature, and Lautrec's influence on British, and particularly Scottish, artists of the period will be explored. These include Walter Richard Sickert, Arthur Melville, John Duncan Fergusson and William Nicholson.

Known today for his atmospheric views of the river Oise, Charles Francois Daubigny was a pioneer of modern landscape painting and an important precursor of French Impressionism. Although commercially highly successful he was often criticised for his broad, sketch-like handling and unembellished view of nature, and was dubbed the leader of 'the school of the impression'. As a result he drew the attention of the next generation of artists, among them Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh, who were inspired by Daubigny's frank naturalism, bold compositions and technical innovations. Theirs was an artistic dialogue which spanned thirty years, from the early 1860s to the end of Van Gogh's short life.

A groundbreaking collaboration between the National Galleries of Scotland, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Finnish National Gallery, this catalogue accompanies the first exhibition dedicated to landscapes by the Symbolists, the innovative movement whose artists took a more imaginative and emotional approach to painting and embraced themes such as music, nationalism, science and modernity. It covers a wide range of artists, from forerunners of symbolism, like Böcklin and Whistler, to Mondrian and Kandinsky, who provided the impulse for major 20th-century movements, such as surrealism and abstraction. Works by renowned painters, like Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Munch, are presented alongside lesser known, but equally fascinating artists from the Nordic countries and Eastern Europe.