A Way of Seeing

The Lives of the Women Impressionists

Catherine Hewitt

A masterful narrative that reveals the never-before-told story of the women Impressionists, who were vanguards of the revolutionary artistic movement.

On 15 April 1874, a sensational exhibition sparked outrage in Paris. Thirty artists branded the Indépendantes had allied against the Paris Salon, the capital’s official art show. With their loosely painted ‘impressions’ of modern life, their canvases flouted the conservative standards enforced by the Académie. To crown it all, among the rebels was a woman. The exhibition divided the Paris art world—and changed history.

Nearly 150 years later, the Impressionists still hold audiences enthralled. But while the men have become house-hold names, the women have been side-lined. Yet their tale is even more thrilling. In espousing Impressionism, they didn’t just subvert artistic conventions; they contested social norms. They were the spearheads within the group, financing exhibitions, mediating rifts, and pioneering new techniques. All the while, in private, each woman wrestled with her own doubts and fears.

A Way of Seeing is an unprecedented portrait of the four most prominent female Impressionists: Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzalès and Marie Bracquemond. Chronicling the creativity and passions of this revolutionary quartet, A Way of Seeing traces the women’s journey along the perilous path of the male-dominated 19th-century Paris art world. From the prejudice encountered, to the cost of pursuing a career at a time when ‘nice girls’ were expected solely to reproduce and keep house – A Way of Seeing offers a revelatory perspective on the movement that changed the course of art history.

Filled with rigorous research and vivid prose, A Way of Seeing interweaves these, interconnecting stories into a dramatic tale constellated by famous artistic faces, including Monet, Manet, Renoir, and Degas, as well as fresh perspectives. Morisot, Cassatt, Gonzalès and Bracquemond were far more than just women painters; together, they emerge as powerful feminine icons and a dynamic force behind the Impressionist movement.

Catherine Hewitt studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art. She lectures and runs workshops on 19th-century French art, literature, and social history and has worked as a translator, including the translation of a permanent exhibition of the work of the radical French female painter Suzanne Valadon.  She is the author of The Mistress of Paris and Renoir's Dancer. She lives in Surrey, United Kingdom. 

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Endorsements & Reviews

Praise for Catherine Hewitt

“Valadon provides Hewitt with a glorious cast, including Renoir, van Gogh, Toulouse-Laurtrec, and Degas . . . Hewitt’s straight-ahead telling of Valadon’s dramatic, many-faceted story captures this artist of ‘honesty and passion,’ this ‘matriarch of creative rebellion,’ with precision, narrative drive, and low-key awe.” Booklist (starred review)

“An absorbing, thoroughly researched book. A must for art lovers and scholars, it will also appeal to readers of serious historical biographies.”
Library Journal (starred review)

“The cast of world-class artists and the stories of their romantic entanglements combine to produce a book that reads like an opera libretto revolving around a pioneering spirit who bristled at the limiting label of ‘woman artist." Publishers Weekly

“Suzanne Valadon may not be a name most people mention when they discuss great artists. This biography should change that. . . . A self-taught artist, she started as a nude model. But when Edgar Degas saw her secret drawings, he said, ‘you are one of us,’ and helped her become the first woman painter to have works accepted into the Salon de la Société Nationale desBeaux-Arts. . . .” Kirkus (starred review)