Impressionism: 50 Paintings You Should Know by Ines Janet Engelmann.

January 9, 2010; South Amboy, NJ
Softcover, 2007; 135 pp.

We picked this book up when we visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't find out anything about the author, so she may be a well-known art historian, or just an amateur (hopefully a knowledgeable one). Also, the 50 were picked by her, or via a survey, or is common knowledge among people who "know"? The book doesn't tell us. Neither do we know if they were chosen because they were significant artistically or historically.

I thought I had a pretty broad exposure to Impressionist paintings since I, like millions others, like work from the period a lot. I learned quite a few things from reading the book:

Many artists struggled financially, although some could afford to paint because they came from a rich family.
There were quite a few painters that were not French: van Gogh, of course, was Dutch, although he lived in France for a long time; there were several Germans also.
Many paintings took a long time to complete. I knew about van Gogh's sketches when I went to the Met for a van Gogh exhibition, but I didn't know the extent to which the artists spent time creating their work.
Gaugin's work eventually evolved to be 2-dimensional.
The artists often worked together, and painted each others' portraits. Sometimes they would paint the same objects. Examples are Renoir and Monet painting La Grenouillere, van Gogh and Monet painting sunflowers.

In any case, still a good book to read since I'm sure Ms. Engelmann knows a lot about the subject than I do. If I were to pick (even from the painters I know reasonably well) I would have made a few different choices, though.