Isolated multichromophoric dendrimers containing four perylenemonoimide chromophores were investigated in a confocal microscope which allowed imaging of the same set of dendrimers over a wide temperature range. Emission spectra at low temperature (2 K) reveal narrow zero-phonon lines although the electron-phonon coupling is not negligible. By using fluorescence excitation spectroscopy, the sharp purely electronic zero-phonon lines of single chromophores within a single multichromophoric unit could be isolated in the frequency domain. Selective excitation into a higher energy chromophoric site is followed by rapid directional energy transfer into the lowest energy site from which emission then occurs. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.