Co-organized by the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Musée des impressionnismes Giverny, the exhibition American Impressionism: A New Vision examined the dissemination of Impressionism in the United States. With nearly eighty paintings from museums in Europe and the United States, including thirty from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the exhibition explored the discovery of Impressionism by American artists in the 1880s and 1890s and the movement’s subsequent development around 1900. +
Expatriates Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent worked alongside their French colleagues and helped shape the avant-garde trends of their time, while younger American artists learned of Impressionism through the paintings they saw in Paris as well as at home in Boston and New York. They appropriated certain aspects of impressionist art and invented others, adapting their individual styles for an American audience. The exhibition included important works by Cassatt, Sargent, and James McNeill Whistler, but also by other American artists whose names were less familiar to European audiences, such as William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, Edmund Tarbell, and John Henry Twachtman. These American artists were highly trained, widely travelled, cosmopolitan painters who sought inspiration and praise both at home and abroad. The exhibition served as an introduction to American Impressionism, raising questions about style and nationality at the turn of the last century.
In collaboration with the National Galleries of Scotland and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, the exhibition reached large audiences in France, Scotland, and Spain.
Dates & Venues
March 28–June 29, 2014
Musée des impressionnismes Giverny, Giverny, France
as L’Impressionnisme et les Américains
July 19–October 19, 2014
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland
November 4, 2014– February 1, 2015
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain
as Impresionismo Americano
Works of Art from the Terra Foundation Collection
- Frank Benson, The Sisters, 1899
- John Leslie Breck, Studies of an Autumn Day, 1891
- John Leslie Breck, Studies of an Autumn Day, 1891
- John Leslie Breck, Studies of an Autumn Day, 1891
- John Leslie Breck, Studies of an Autumn Day, 1891
- John Leslie Breck, Studies of an Autumn Day, 1891
- John Leslie Breck, Studies of an Autumn Day, 1891
- John Leslie Breck, Studies of an Autumn Day, 1891
- John Leslie Breck, Studies of an Autumn Day, 1891
- John Leslie Breck, Studies of an Autumn Day, 1891
- John Leslie Breck, Studies of an Autumn Day, 1891
- John Leslie Breck, Studies of an Autumn Day, 1891
- John Leslie Breck, Studies of an Autumn Day, 1891
- John Leslie Breck, Morning Fog and Sun, 1892
- Mary Cassatt, Jenny and Her Sleepy Child, between 1891 and 1892
- Mary Cassatt, Summertime, 1894
- William Merritt Chase, Morning at Breakwater, Shinnecock, c. 1897
- Childe Hassam, Une Averse—rue Bonaparte, 1887
- Childe Hassam, Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, c. 1892
- Childe Hassam, Horticulture Building, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893
- Theodore Robinson, Winter Landscape, 1889
- Theodore Robinson, From the Hill, Giverny, between 1889 and 1892
- Theodore Robinson, Blossoms at Giverny, 1891-92
- Theodore Robinson, Study for ‘Vallée de la Seine vue des hauteurs de Giverny’, 1892
- Theodore Robinson, The Wedding March, 1892
- Theodore Robinson, Canal Scene, 1893
- John Singer Sargent, Breton Girl with a Basket, Sketch for ‘Oyster Gatherers of Cancale’, 1877
- John Singer Sargent, Young Boy on the Beach, Sketch for ‘Oyster Gatherers of Cancale’, 1877
- John Singer Sargent, A Parisian Beggar Girl, c. 1880
- John Singer Sargent, Dennis Miller Bunker Painting at Calcot, 1888
- Edmund Tarbell, In the Orchard, 1891
- John H. Twachtman, Winter Landscape, 1890-1900
- James McNeill Whistler, A Freshening Breeze, c. 1883
- James McNeill Whistler, Note in Red: The Siesta, by 1884
- James McNeill Whistler, A Red Note: Fête on the Sands, Ostend, 1887
- James McNeill Whistler, The Sea, Pourville, 1899
Publications
Bourguignon, Katherine M., ed. American impressionism: A New Vision, 1880–1910. Paris: Éditions Hazan with Musée des impressionnismes Giverny; Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland; Madrid: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2014.
Bourguignon, Katherine M., ed., Impresionismo Americano. Paris: Éditions Hazan with Musée des impressionnismes Giverny; Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland; Madrid: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2014.
Bourguignon, Katherine M., ed., L’impressionnisme et les Américains. Paris: Éditions Hazan with Musée des impressionnismes Giverny; Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland; Madrid: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2014.
Related Videos
The following are videos from the Impresionismo Americano symposium, which accompanied the exhibition at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, Spain, on December 12, 2014:
