Corot to Monet Exhibition Book

Richly illustrated, the clean, modern design, concise introductory text and short entries create a delightful and accessible book to accompany the Corot To Monet exhibition at the National Gallery.

Includes paintings and oil sketches by Thomas Jones, Richard Bonington, and the Barbizon School painters, as well as early Impressionist landscapes by Claude Monet

By the late eighteenth century, the practice of painting  outdoors (en plein air) was widespread, especially in Italy,  where picturesque views of Tivoli and the Campagna were  irresistible to French and British artists.

Fifty years later in France, the Barbizon group – including Jean-Baptiste-Camille  Corot, Theodore Rousseau and Charles-François Daubigny –  eagerly escaped the studio to paint landscapes, rivers and  beach scenes of their native land. These painters were a  crucial influence on a new generation of artists who would  eventually become known as the Impressionists.

Many of these pictures came to the National Gallery through  dedicated, if occasionally eccentric, collectors; Sarah Herring's  lively text introduces and explains the enduring appeal of  these charming small landscapes, both to their original  owners, and to the present day viewer.

Free exhibition of French nineteenth-century paintings at the  National Gallery, London (July–September 2009)