IMPRESSIONISTS SIDE BY SIDE

All art movements are somewhat hermetic, their members dependent on one another for praise, criticism, financial and emotional support. This was especially true of the Impressionists, as White (Art History/Tufts Univ.) makes clear in Impressionists Side by Side ($65.00; Oct. 29, 1996; 304 pages; ISBN 0-679-44317-7; 284 illustrations, 186 in color), an admirably researched, precise record of the important, if difficult, friendships and equally essential rivalries within the group, tracing the fluctuating affections among Degas, Manet, Pissaro, CÇzanne, Renoir, Monet, Morisot, and Cassatt. It's evident from the letters and diary entries that she draws from that each member of this often contentious group of intense individualists deeply needed the support of the others, and that they shared an unflagging belief in the importance of what they were creating.