The color-drenched gardens and sun-dappled nudes by Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939) have long been loved by admirers of American Impressionism, and his paintings are treasured in museum collections across the country. This beautiful and comprehensive volume–with more than one hundred color and almost eighty black-and-white plates–is the most ambitious ever devoted to his work. It is being published in conjunction with a major retrospective of the artist’s work.

A biographical overview and a detailed chronology by the artist’s grandson, including charming vintage photographs, provide much new information and correct several misconceptions about Frieseke’s life and career. Three invaluable essays by leading scholars discuss the diverse stages of his work and place it in art historical context, detailing his experience as a student at Whistler’s atelier in Paris and as a central member of the group of American expatriates who settled in Giverny, France, near the French master Monet. The book’s groundbreaking scholarship casts new light on Frieseke, American Impressionism, and the art world at the turn of the last century.

The contributors are Nicholas Kilmer, guest curator of the exhibition and the artist’s grandson; Virginia M. Mecklenburg, senior curator of painting and sculpture at the Smithsonian American Art Museum; David Sellin, art historian and author of American Painters in Brittany and Normandy; and H. Barbara Weinberg, curator of American painting and sculpture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.