"A pre-eminent scholar of nineteenth- and twentieth-century French art, Robert L. Herbert has written extensively on aspects of this subject during his long career. This book brings together some of his most important essays, works that discuss the artistic and social issues that lie behind the surfaces of notable prints and paintings by such artists as Millet, Courbet, Daubigny, Monet, Pissarro, Signac, Delaunay, Leger, and Ernst.

In a preface prepared for this volume, Herbert explains that these essays are linked by a focus on the relation of art to the urban-industrial revolution."--BOOK JACKET.