The Annenberg Collection: Masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

The Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, watercolors, and drawings constitutes one of the most remarkable gifts ever made to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. A centerpiece of the Museum's world-renowned holdings of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century art, the Annenberg Collection reflects the discriminating taste, generosity, and inspired foresight of two exceptional benefactors. This revised and expanded edition of the original catalogue, published two decades ago, presents more than fifty masterworks by eighteen of the greatest artists of the period. Notable for the astonishing quality of its individual works and for its range, the collection celebrates the many facets of avant-garde art as it unfolded in paintings ranging from Corot's fresh-faced young girl of the early 1860s to Picasso's world-weary harlequin of 1905. The landscape of France is seen in alluring variety: sunlit garden scenes by the Impressionists and iconic vistas of Provence by Van Gogh and Cézanne join seaside views by Seurat and Braque in which Pointillist calculation gives way to riotous Fauve color. The scope of the artists' devotion to still life and flower painting embraces the exquisite harmonics of Fantin-Latour's fine-tuned bouquets as well as the bold grandeur of Monet's late water lilies. Other signature subjects are handsomely represented by works that showcase Degas's dancers and milliners, Renoir's rosy nudes, Gauguin's Tahitians, Lautrec's streetwalkers, Matisse's odalisques, and Vuillard's domestic interiors. Among the numerous highlights are such benchmark pictures as Cézanne's early portrait or his Uncle Dominique. Renoir's Daughters of Catulle Mendes, Monet's Camille Monet on a Garden Bench, Van Gogh's La Berceuse, and Picasso's At the Lapin Agile.

This richly illustrated and fully documented volume includes in-depth discussions of each of the works of art, written by leading experts in the field. Their insightful texts, benefiting from the latest scholarly and technical findings, are accompanied by newly updated provenance information, exhibition histories, and references. A comprehensive bibliography and index are provided at the back of the book.