Impressionists by the Sea accompanies a joyous summer exhibition of the same name at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Through some sixty popular Impressionist works, coauthor John House considers the pictorial representation of the seaside during the 19th century, when the coastline of northern France was transformed from a fishing center into a popular vacation spot. This handsomely produced book reveals how painting developed in tandem with social and economic changes. House shows how painters initially cast the coastline in a romantic role, focusing on the evocation of the sublime force of nature and the picturesque display of local fishermen, but by the early 1860s—at the moment the resorts of Deauville and Trouville were coming into vogue—painters such as Boudin, Manet, and Monet were capturing vacationers in all their relaxed glory.
