In this vivid chronicle of New York during the heyday of Impressionism, the city's history intersects with its art history. Organized geographically - with chapters on Fifth Avenue and Broadway, lower Manhattan, Central Park, the waterfront and bridges, the outer boroughs, and so on - Impressionist New York offers a fresh new way of looking at urban images by the masters of American Impressionism.

One hundred full-color illustrations include paintings by such popular artists as William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, Maurice Prendergast, and Ernest Lawson as well as striking but less-known work by Colin Campbell Cooper and the Canadian David Milne, plus Impressionist-influenced scenes by Ashcan School artists including Robert Henri and John Sloan. The extensive black-and-white illustrations comprise vintage photographs, etchings, and other historical glimpses of the city.

In counterpoint to the text are numerous sidebars - by the artists themselves as well as observers such as Henry James and Frederick Law Olmsted - that offer pungent commentary on the pleasures and perils of metropolitan life. This nostalgic tour around the turn-of-the-century metropolis will appeal not only to the myriad admirers of Impressionism, but also to modern-day New York visitors, city-dwellers, and exiles yearning to recapture the city's past.