Just before his death, Claude Monet wrote: “I’m still sorry to have been the cause of the name given to this group, most of whom were not in the least bit impressionistic”. Starting with this paradox – an ensemble that saw itself as a coherent group, while affirming artistic individuality as the ultimate goal – the author, Nathalia Brodskaïa, explores the contradictions of late nineteenth–century art. Was it not Manet who evoked the definitive formula: “I paint what I see and