Published in the occasion of the exhibition of the same title, held at the Art Institute of Chicago, May 14-Sept. 4, 2023 and at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, October 13, 2023-January 14, 2024

"From 1881 to 1890, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Emile Bernard, and Charles Angrand chose Asnières, a suburb of Paris, as a site of artistic experimentation. Located on the Seine, Asnières became a popular destination for Parisians thanks to aquatic sports and festivals starting in the 1850s, facilitated by the arrival of new train stations and bridges earlier in the century. This convenient new transportation system had beckoned Parisians to more distant destinations like Argenteuil and Bougival, resulting in the river scenes depicted by Impressionists like Monet and Renoir. At the same time, the idyllic landscape of Asnières increasingly contrasted with the factories appearing on the opposite side of the river. Homing in on the tensions between leisure and work, the avant-garde artists at Asnières sought to capture the feeling of this starkly modern landscape by developing innovative motifs, styles, and techniques that pushed their work in new directions. Offering an unprecedented in-depth look at the work produced by the artists at Asnières, this illustrated volume includes scholarly essays on each of the artists as well as a map detailing the locations where the artists painted."--

Directors' foreword / Emilie E. S. Gordenker ; James Rondeau -- Lenders to the exhibition -- Five artists along the Seine : an introduction / Jacquelyn N. Coutré ; Bregje Gerritse -- "Aggressive, industrial, and bourgeois all at the same time" : the cultural landscape of Asnières in the 1880s / Jacquelyn N. Coutré -- Postcards along the Seine / Teio Meedendorp -- Van Gogh's painting campaign at Asnières / Bregje Gerritse -- Seurat at Asnières : Chromatics and caricature, melancholy and modernity / Richard Thomson -- Signac in Asnières : the formative years / Charlotte Hellman -- Bernard and Asnières : backdrop for a stormy beginning / Joost Van Der Hoeven -- Angrand : expressive harmonies from Saint-ouen and Asnières to Courbevoie / François Lespinasse -- Chronology : a decade of artistic experimentation in the Parisian suburbs / Jena K. Carvana