An Aside on Bertrand Russell's The Problems of Philosophy

In the opening pages of The Problems of Philosophy, when Bertrand Russell outlines the basic philosophical problem of appearance and reality, he writes that artists “have to learn the habit of seeing things as they appear.”* His point has to do with perspective, that we see every object from a personal viewpoint or perspective. I have to wonder whether even in 1912, when The Problems of Philosophy was first published, if artists were still trying to see things as they appear. The impressionist movement, with Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, was already in full swing, perhaps even by 1912 already cresting its wave, and being muscled out by Post-Impressionism, though I suspect this is a category only bandied about by art experts. The point, simple enough, by 1912, the forefront of art had already lost interest, not only in appearance, but reality, since they were painting impressions, or interpretations, or experiences, a move that was mirrored across the Atlantic in pragmatism, which its most vocal proponent, William James, was wont to call a method, and which Russell vehemently denied could call itself a philosophy.  

* My copy of The Problems of Philosophy is a reprint, without pagination, or indeed margins wide enough for me to make notes in. Not being able to write notes in the margins drives me crazy.