"This book explores the history of Impressionism from a wide range of perspectives, viewing it in terms of subject matter, painting technique, exhibiting and marketing strategy and within its wider political and ideological contexts. Recent accounts of Impressionism have focused on single issues; this is the first book to bring together the fresh approaches to the field that have been proposed in the past twenty years." "In a series of chapters, ranging from the late 1860s to the early 1880s, House analyses the paintings and career strategies of the leading Impressionist artists, stressing the ways in which they countered the dominant conventions of the contemporary art world and evolved their distinctive and immediately recognisable manner of painting."--BOOK JACKET.