"Through an innovative manner of handling paint, a group of American artists around 1900 created deceptively simple canvases that convey images of shimmering transience, visions suggested rather than delineated. Focusing on this singular aesthetic characteristic - softness - Like Breath on Glass explores this painterly phenomenon through works by fifteen important artists, including Whistler, George Inness, John Singer Sargent, William Merritt Chase, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, John Henry Twachtman, and Eduard Steichen."--BOOK JACKET.