Impressionism is often considered the final nineteenth-century precursor to the radical experimentation of modernism. But every style has a precursor—so what movements paved the way for the atmospheric light, color, and composition characteristic of the impressionist works themselves? The Musée des Beaux Arts, Reims, offers a choice selection of nineteenth-century French paintings that trace the history of French art from the Romantics, to the School of Barbizon and the circle of Honfleur, up to Impressionism. This beautifully illustrated volume follows the artistic forebears that led up to the works of Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, by way of pastel palettes, loose brushwork, ordinary figures, and natural landscapes.