Kenneth McConkey

Through seven chapters Head of the Department of Historical and Critical Studies, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Polytechnic, Kenneth McConkey in very readable prose considers various aspects of British Impressionism including the difficulties of defining it and whether Impressionism is British or French. The book includes notes to the text, a select bibliography, a biographical index of artists which offers a paragraph for each artist, and an index.

The book is illustrated throughout in colour and black and white, 132 illustrations in all of which 70 are in colour. The colour images are half to full-page in size, the black and white vary from the quite small to full-page. A quick flick through the book gives the impression that this book is profusely illustrated, with the majority of the images quite large; they run with the text and appear if possible on the same page as their mention in the text, and they are well captioned.

Artists discussed here include: Bastien-Lepage, Blanche, Brabazon, Bramley, J A Brown, F Brown, Clausen, Conder, Dewhurst, East, Forbes, de Glehn, Guthrie, Harrison, Henry, Hornel, Jamieson, Kennedy, H Knight, L Knight, La Thangue, Lavery, Legros, Ludovici jun, Lhermitte, Mac Coll, Maitland, Moore, O'Meara, Osborne, Pissaro, Rothenstein, Roussel, Sargent, Sickert, Starr, Steer, Stevenson, E Stott, W Stott of Oldham, Tonks, Tuke, Walton, and Whistler.

While this book is very well illustrated it is let down rather by the quality of reproduction, some of the colour plates are dull and lifeless, and some along with some of the black and white images lack detail in the dark areas.… (more)