Though the Symbolist heyday in Paris was short-lived, the movement had an influence upon painting which perhaps exceeded that of Impressionism both in duration and geographical range. We find important Symbolist painters at work in places as remote from one another as Oslo (Munch), Barcelona (the young Picasso) and Vienna (Klimt). It is through Symbolism, too, that we can explain the relationship between the English painting of the later nineteenth century and what was taking place in Europe. Edward Lucie-Smith’s important study illuminates the origins of Modernism, and traces the development of painting and sculpture in the years of the fin de siècle.

ISBN 0500201250