Published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, October 2000-February 2001, and Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, April 2000-July 2001).

Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-267) and index.

"Of all the revolutionary changes brought about by the Industrial Age, perhaps the most extraordinary and far-reaching was the transformation of light. Scientists described its hidden laws to the public for the first time. Artists found radical ways of depicting it. Inventors found new ways of making it. The lives of ordinary people changed forever as streets, shops, theaters, and their own homes were brilliantly illuminated, first by gas, and then, even more dazzlingly, by electricity." "This book describes the inventions still with us, like electric light, the microscope and photography, as well as arcane reminders of a vanished world, such as the heliostat, the lithophane and the magic lantern. It portrays a revolution in the arts: Constable inventing daylight, Caspar David Friedrich discovering twilight, the impressionists conjuring up sunlight. And it debates the changing symbolism of light."--Jacket.

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