The Musee d'Orsay houses one of the largest collections of Impressionist paintings in the world. Following the same path as the visitor, this book introduces you to 100 Impressionist master-pieces and traces the history of a movement that revolutionized the history of art.

Beginning with the birth of the movement in 1863, until the term 'Impressionism' was first coined in 1874 - almost haphazardly - relation to a painting by Monet, the author traces the artistic milieu from which the movement emerged and the background to the lives of the painters involved. Then followed the glorious years until 1886, during which eight exhibitions were held to assert the ideas and aims of Impressionism. After this date, the group gradually dispersed; each artist, pursuing his own personal and often solitary research was driven, as Monet described it, by 'the obsession to carry on painting and making progress until the end'.

The works are grouped by theme and some are accompanied by a commentary giving particular insight into these artists, who, at the end of the 19th centu