'Beauty lies in the light, as much in the atmosphere which surrounds things as in their actual form and fashion.' These words appear in Stanhope Forbes's 'Treatment of Modern Life in Art', and they stand as the credo of an extraordinarily accomplished generation of painters - including Forbes, Lavery, Sargent and Sickert - the British Impressionists. This beautiful and comprehensive book surveys the exciting developments, debates and personalities among French, British and American painters of the period, and the ferment and challenge of their ideas and achievements to which we are grateful heirs. Artists such as Steer, Clausen, O'Conor and Laura Knight depicted an enormous number of urban and rural scenes, refining their ideas into an Impressionist style that is distinctly British.