Students and scholars of Impressionism will welcome the focus of this new book, which profiles 92 privately owned masterworks. Until now, information about these paintings--and even images of some of them--have not been available. De Vries-Evans provides solid provenance data and also examines the impetus behind the collection of certain works, furthering this aim by appending a highly informative section that lists over 60 collectors. 92 paintings presented all of them belong to private collections, and many are rarely seen by anyone other than their owners. Among the highlights are Manet's debonair portrait of a chic, coquettish widow; a jewel-like river scene by Gustave Caillebotte; a dazzling room interior by Pierre Bonnard; and Degas's remarkable study of laundresses, which fuses devices from photography and Japanese prints. Along with works by Pissarro, Cassatt, Renoir, Monet and Morisot, the volume features paintings by Post-impressionists such as Van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat and Toulouse-Lautrec as well as by less familiar artists such as the American Frederick Frieseke and the English painters Albert Fullwood and Philip Wilson Steer. De Vries-Evans, an Australian art historian, provides entertaining commentaries on each plate as well as a colorful history of collectors and collecting.
