Belinda Thomson – författare

Belinda Thomson illuminates Impressionist art through the thinking and personal lives of the artists themselves, examining the factors that allowed Impressionism to develop when it did. In her discussion of the style and subject matter of the paintings themselves, she draws on a wide range of sources and comparative material. She investigates the family background of the Impressionists, the importance of the art market and collecting, and the influence of the critical reception to their exhibitions.

Paul Gauguin achieved a high public profile during his lifetime, and was one of the first artists of his generation to achieve international recognition. But his prominence has always had as much to do with the dramatic events of his life – his self-imposed exile on a remote South Sea island, his turbulent relationships with his peers – as with the appeal of his art. Belinda Thomson gives a comprehensive and accessible account of the life and work of one of the most original artists of the late nineteenth century. Gauguin’s work – painting, sculpture, prints and ceramics – is discussed in the light of his public persona, his relations with his contemporaries, his exhibitions and their critical reception. His private world, beliefs and aspirations are revealed through his extensive cache of journals, letters and other writings. Fully updated throughout, drawing on the insights of thirty years of scholarship since its first edition, Thomson’s text remains the best introduction to this controversial and often contradictory artist.

A new edition of Belinda Thomson's highly accessible survey, which brings together the latest research on this perennially popular art movement. The enduring popularity of Impressionism belies what the group of painters dubbed the Impressionists stood for. In the 1870s and 1880s, French artists, including Pissarro, Monet, Degas, Morisot and Renoir, adopted a revolutionary style of technique and subject matter that defied the traditions of the French Academy and the Salons. Rooted in anarchism, political radicalism, and a belief in science and individualism, their paintings captured modern life in ways never seen before. Belinda Thomson’s insightful study sheds light on the personal lives and creative thinking of the Impressionists, exploring the factors that shaped their masterpieces. From family backgrounds to the importance of the art market and the critical reception that challenged yet ultimately defined their work, this introduction offers a nuanced exploration of one of the most transformative movements in art history.

This volume is dedicated to 100 of the artist’s most beautiful and unforgettable canvases, as well as a rich selection of lesserknown works. It explores the paintings in the context of Van Gogh’s short but brilliant career, allying the works to his correspondence, which provides the narrative thread around which this study develops.

‘If you were to find a speculator … he would find [in me] an excellent deal, as would I.’ (Paul Gauguin to his then dealer, Theo Van Gogh, May 1890).This book explores the remarkable commercial and personal relationship between Paul Gauguin and Gustave Fayet, the collector and entrepreneur whose championing of Gauguin’s work helped secure the artist’s legacy.By the time they began corresponding around 1900, Gauguin had rejected Western materialism and was living in self-imposed exile in French Polynesia, far from the Paris art world. Although he had used his experience as a collector to help market his own work, he struggled with third-party dealers and had yet to establish himself as a leading figure of the modern art movement. Fayet, meanwhile, was a collector and wine grower. What, then, drew the artist to a man so rooted in the South of France? Belinda Thomson presents a comparative biographical narrative that reveals the unique dynamic between the two, exploring the psychological motivations behind their relationship against the backdrop of emerging modernism at the end of the 19th century.Drawing on unprecedented access to the Fayet family archive, Thomson examines unpublished sources and presents case studies of key works Gauguin created specifically for Fayet. She explores the parallels between the two men: their positions within (and responses to) the art market, their artistic visions, and how these shaped their personal lives. The book offers valuable insight into Gauguin’s final years and the formation of his legacy, while also highlighting the vital role Fayet played in the history of modern art and the rich artistic ecosystem that flourished in the South of France at the turn of the century.

‘If you were to find a speculator … he would find [in me] an excellent deal, as would I.’ (Paul Gauguin to his then dealer, Theo Van Gogh, May 1890).This book explores the remarkable commercial and personal relationship between Paul Gauguin and Gustave Fayet, the collector and entrepreneur whose championing of Gauguin’s work helped secure the artist’s legacy.By the time they began corresponding around 1900, Gauguin had rejected Western materialism and was living in self-imposed exile in French Polynesia, far from the Paris art world. Although he had used his experience as a collector to help market his own work, he struggled with third-party dealers and had yet to establish himself as a leading figure of the modern art movement. Fayet, meanwhile, was a collector and wine grower. What, then, drew the artist to a man so rooted in the South of France? Belinda Thomson presents a comparative biographical narrative that reveals the unique dynamic between the two, exploring the psychological motivations behind their relationship against the backdrop of emerging modernism at the end of the 19th century.Drawing on unprecedented access to the Fayet family archive, Thomson examines unpublished sources and presents case studies of key works Gauguin created specifically for Fayet. She explores the parallels between the two men: their positions within (and responses to) the art market, their artistic visions, and how these shaped their personal lives. The book offers valuable insight into Gauguin’s final years and the formation of his legacy, while also highlighting the vital role Fayet played in the history of modern art and the rich artistic ecosystem that flourished in the South of France at the turn of the century.

The Mediterranean coast of France witnessed the rise and development of modern art over a century, from Cézanne in the 1860s to Matisse, Picasso and Klein in the 1950s and 1960s. These artists and the many more featured here discovered an inexhaustible source of inspiration in this storied region, whose glittering, languid sea stretches out towards the far horizon beneath brilliant azure skies. Indelibly associated with the classical past, this magical land of eternal spring and spiritual renewal came to signify a state of mind, and avant-garde artists sought to convey the vitality and élan it inspired in them through new paradigms of modernist invention.

The rise of democratic ideals and the burgeoning middle class of the late 19th and early 20th centuries precipitated an important surge in the prevalence of music in everyday life.  Café concerts, dances, and operas all flourished in major cities across Europe as more people wanted access to performances and musical education.  The approximately 150 artworks included in this handsomely illustrated volume, by major artists including Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, James McNeill Whistler, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Pierre Bonnard, trace the growing presence of music in painting, and include depictions of public performances—brass bands, circuses, cabarets, orchestras, operas, festivals–-as well as more intimate scenes featuring parlor music and music lessons. Distributed for Editions Hazan, ParisExhibition Schedule:Musée des impressionnismes Giverny(03/24/17-07/02/17)