Impressionist views of New York parks and coastlines-the first Impressionist works ever painted of American landscapes. PThis volume-which accompanies an exhibition of Chase's urban landscapes at the Brooklyn Museum of Art-is the first in-depth study of this pivotal period in Chase's career. Armed with new discoveries about the life of the man who became known as the artistic interpreter of Central Park and Prospect Park, the author shows how Chase turned to his urban scenes to heed the nationalist call of his critics. With splendid illustrations that evoke nostalgia for a now-gone era, this is an impressive work of scholarship-and a book of great appeal for art lovers. P124 photographs, 54 in full color, 9 1/2 x 11 PBARBARA DAYER GALLATI is curator of American painting and sculpture at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. She also teaches art history at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and is the author of numerous articles, essays, and books on American art. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. PEXHIBITION SCHEDULE Brooklyn Museum of Art, New YorkMay 26-Aug. 13, 2000 The Art Institute of ChicagoSept. 7-Nov. 26, 2000 The Museum of Fine Arts, HoustonDec. 13, 2000-Mar. 11, 2001  (less)

of Impressionist art, Monet's works consistently reflect the artist's profound love of nature. Many of his paintings were directly inspired by the gardens that played such an important role in his life--the garden at his house in S vres in the 1860s, those at his two homes in Argenteuil in the 1870s, followed by a garden at his estate in Vatheuil. Yet the most famous of Monet's gardens was the expansive park in Giverny, which inspired his masterful handling of light and color for more than thirty years and provided motifs for hundreds of individual paintings and series that remain immensely popular today--among them the masterpieces of his Water-Lilies series. This magnificent volume of full-page color plates is devoted to this central theme in the work of the French artist. It presents landscapes, still lifes, and portraits of people in natural settings from nearly all of Monet's creative periods--from his early Impressionist paintings of the 1870s to the Grandes Dacorations of the early 1900s. Also included are photographs of Monet's gardens, diagrammatic recreations of these spaces (based on the artist's paintings), several bills of delivery and planting instructions from horticulturalists.  (less)