Impressionism in Britain

A catalogue to the exhibition of Impressionism in Britain held at the Barbican Art Gallery in London in the spring of 1995, this work argues that in the late 19th century, Impressionism was far less homogeneous than we recognize today. It defined itself internationally in a series of schools which had all originated through contact with Paris. In Britain, Impressionism involved the English paintings of Monet, Sisley and Degas, as well as the work of such groups as the "London Impressionists" of 1889, the Newlyn and Glasgow schools, and the Impressionist colonies at Walberswick and Staithes. Impressionism was practised and exhibited by such artists as James McNeill Whistler, George Clausen, Stanhope Forbes, John Lavery, John Singer Sargent, Walter Sickert and Philip Wilson Steer. McConkey demonstrates how their persistences moved Victorian painting away from stale classicism and literary anecdote, to a modern British art of colour, light and form, many examples of which are presented in this study.