Studio companion of Monet and Renoir, protege of Courbet, and friend of Manet, Frederic Bazille (1841-1870) is more often remembered for the financial assistance he provided to future Impressionists than for his own vivid and often unsettling work. In this first complete book in English devoted to Bazille, Dianne Pitman seeks to situate this often overlooked artist within the complex and contradictory art world of the 1860s. In the process, she greatly refines our understanding of the modernist tradition.

Pitman examines a series of major paintings and critical essays by...