The Pennsylvania Impressionists is the first book to focus on the Pennsylvania School of Landscape Painting. Starting in 1898, a group of Impressionist painters began to settle on the outskirts of New Hope, Pennsylvania. Although largely forgotten by the 1950s, these artist comprised a major school of landscape painting. Today, considerable interest has been generated by this school.

The leading figure in this group, Edward Redfield, was noted for his large, broadly and vigorously painted snow scenes, which he completed at "one go" or in a single afternoon. He developed a major reputation in American art, and was awarded more honors and prizes than any other American artist, with the exception of John Singer Sargent.

The New Hope Group, which was comprised of the leading artists from this school, with the exception of Edward Redfield, was founded in 1916. Its members encountered overwhelming success when they exhibited at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915. However, after World War I, interest in Impressionism in general began to fade. Nevertheless, landscape painters continued to settle in the New Hope vicinity into the 1940s.

New and more radical developments in the art world made the art of these painters seem hopelessly old fashioned. The Pennsylvania Impressionists were considered the most American of American painters, and they recorded the unique character of old New Hope, with its canal and canal boats, fieldstone houses, and rock quarries. They left a legacy of peace and beauty.