This is a scrumptious art book which was produced for an exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria June to October 2021. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston loaned their exhibition - French Impressionism - to the gallery in Melbourne. Here is a teaching resource developed to use with this exhibition. If you have time here is a one hour virtual tour video of the whole display.
In this book you can see art by a dozen impressionist artists. There are famous names I readily recognise such as Claude Monet; Paul Cezanne; and Edgar Degas. And other names less familiar to me (a non art student) such as Eugene Louis Boudin; Gustave Caillebotte; Berthe Morisot; and Mary Stevenson Cassatt.
There are four themes in this book - subjects; composition; artists who inspire each other; and colour. The final section invites readers to experiment with creating art by attempting a still life.
My favourite page shows how an impressionist artist would paint a tomato using many different colours to show the way light falls on the side of this fruit. You see inside this book here.
This is an absolutely beautiful book (I was excited to take off the plastic shrink wrap). Clearly an enormous amount of work has gone into the design of this book. I like the colloquial style of writing and the implied dialogue with the reader when the author asks the reader direct questions.
The "look closer" pages are an excellent way to draw our attention to the important but sometimes small details in these famous painting. You can see so much skill with the way each page is designed especially through the use of different font sizes. This book is an example of Australian book publishing and book design at its best.
This is a book that should be added to every Primary school library. I wou also be happy to gift this book to a friend or young artist.
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