American Impressionism

This exquisite little volume will satisfy the ever-growing passion for American Impressionism. The concise text—written by Dr. William H. Gerdts, the preeminent scholar in the field—provides a vivid summary, starting with the roots of American Impressionism and its relationship to French Impressionism. This book then recounts how American Impressionism progressed from an avant-garde aesthetic assaulted by critics to its years of triumph and its diverse manifestations throughout the country. This Tiny Folio™ edition includes all of the master works in full color, from Childe Hassam's sun-drenched gardens to John Twachtman's snow-silenced landscapes, from Edmund Tarbell's coolly elegant ladies in dim, luxurious interiors to Frederick Frieseke's light-dappled nudes. With its wealth of breathtaking illustrations, American Impressionism offers lasting pleasure to anyone beguiled by the loveliness of this incomparable style.

The essays and catalogue entries survey American, European and Japanese precedents and provide a cultural context of the treatment of the theme of work, drawing on such diverse sources as poetry, popular songs, census reports and homeeconomics books.

This volume features artists who brought a new sophistication and elegancento American art in the three decades before World War I. Wealthyndustrialists eager to acquire culture began to patronize native artists whoad achieved international recognition. John Singer Sargent, Irving Wiles andecilia Beaux created portraits of these new patrons, while John La Farge andugustus Saint-Gaudens made luxurious adornments for their homes. One groupf painters - including Louis Comfort Tiffany, Frederick Arthur Bridgman,enry Ossawa Tanner and Charles Sprague Pearce - responded especially to theascnation with exotic Middle Eastern, Egyptian or "Oriental" cultures thatharacterized this age of international imperialism. The educated and refinedspects of Gilded Age culture are expressed here in Renaissance-inspiredaintings by Abbott Thayer and Mary Cassatt. Romantic literary works byisionary Albert Pinkham Ryder symbolize the idealized strivings of thiseneration, while the rugged masculine landscapes of Winslow Homer emblemizehe struggle and conflict that marked this period of contending social and

Engaging directly with Impressionism in the late 19th century, American artists invented a new and highly diverse formulation of the movement. Mary Cassatt exhibited with the French impressionists as early as 1879, just five years after their initial group show, but most American artists came later to the movement. It was not until the mid-1880s that Americans began to confront the new ideas and techniques of the impressionist aesthetic and not until 1890 that they adapted it to distinctly American sites and subjects. This book highlights more than 60 paintings produced in Europe and America between 1880 and 1900 by 14 American artists.

Luminous works by Childe Hassam, Ernest Lawson, Maurice Prendergast, John Henry Twachtman, are among the 100 seminal works featured in this book showcasing 27 artists. As members of the first generation of American painters to absorb the technique, brighter palette, and subject matter of Impressionism from their French counterparts, these artists transformed the heroic American landscape into a modern idiom, in atmospheric park and beach scenes, urban views, and charming interiors, with particular interest in optical effects, light, and the seasons. This book provides a vivid summary of the movement, starting with its roots in earlier American art and its relationship to French Impressionism. It charts the response of many of these American artists to one of the most beloved movements in 19th century painting. All of the masterworks are here, in full color, from Hassam's sun-drenced gardens to Twachtman's snowy landscapes. It is a celebration of the Impressionist style and it's fresh interpretatiuon of America's landscapes

The Art Institute of Chicago, although renowned for its holdings of works by the French Impressionists, also houses a wealth of superb examples by American proponents of this distinctive style. The breadth of the museum's collection of American Impressionism is rich, with a substantial body of paintings and watercolors by Winslow Homer, who is seen today as a precursor to Impressionism, as well as impressive portfolios of work by Americans living in Europe, such as James McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent, and the only American who was officially part of the French group, Mary Cassatt. In addition, important paintings and watercolors by notable artists such as Cecilia Beaux, William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, George Inness, Mauric Prendergast, and John Twachtman are included, along with handsomely reproduced images by lesser-known artists who worked in the Impressionist vein. Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago

An exhibition publication featuring curatorial essays and works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York