- American Impressionism
Impressionism , a style of painting characterized by loose brushwork and vivid colors, was practiced widely among American artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.An emerging artistic style from Paris
Impressionism emerged as an artistic style in
France in the 1860s. Major exhibitions of French impressionist works in Boston and New York in the 1880s introduced the style to the American public. Some of the first American artists to paint in an impressionistic mode, such asTheodore Robinson , did so in the late 1880s after visiting France and meeting with artists such asClaude Monet . Others, such asChilde Hassam , took notice of the increasing numbers of French impressionist works at American exhibitions.Turn of the century trailblazers
From the 1890s through the 1910s, American impressionism flourished in art colonies—loosely affiliated groups of artists who lived and worked together and shared a common aesthetic vision. Art colonies tended to form in small towns that provided affordable living, abundant scenery for painting, and relatively easy access to large cities where artists could sell their work. Some of the most important American impressionist artists gathered at Cos Cob and
Old Lyme, Connecticut , both onLong Island Sound ;New Hope, Pennsylvania , on the Delaware River; andBrown County, Indiana . American impressionist artists also thrived in California at Carmel and Laguna Beach; in New York on easternLong Island at Shinnecock, largely due to the influence ofWilliam Merritt Chase ; and in Boston whereEdmund Charles Tarbell andFrank Weston Benson became important practitioners of the impressionist style.Jazz age artists' colonies fizzled
Some American art colonies remained vibrant centers of impressionist art into the 1920s. However, impressionism in America lost its cutting-edge status in 1913 when a historical exhibition of modern art took place at the 69th Regiment Armory building in New York City. The “
Armory Show ”, as it came to be called, heralded a new painting style regarded as more in touch with the increasingly fast-paced and chaotic world, especially with the outbreak ofWorld War I . TheGreat Depression andWorld War II .The rebirth of impressionism in America: The 1950s and beyond
In the 1950s, a quarter of a century after the death of Monet, major museums in America started having exhibitions of the original French Impressionists paintings, and in so doing Impressionism was reborn. The resurgence of interest in Impressionism continues to this day, and is especially evident in the continued popularity of
plein-air painting.
= NotableNorth America n Impressionists =Prominent painters, whose works today are seen regularly at auction include, in alphabetical order:
*
Lucy Bacon
*John Noble Barlow
*Frank Weston Benson
*Dennis Miller Bunker
*Mary Cassatt
*William Merritt Chase
*Alson S. Clark
*Colin Campbell Cooper
*Joseph DeCamp
*Thomas Dewing
*Paul-Henri DuBerger (Canadian)
*Frederick Carl Frieseke
*John Gamble
*Daniel Garber
*Arthur Hill Gilbert
*Edmund Greacen
*Childe Hassam
*Wilson Irvine
*Albert Henry Krehbiel
*William Langson Lathrop
*Laura Muntz Lyall (Canadian)
*Willard Metcalf
*Leonard Ochtman
*William McGregor Paxton
*Lilla Cabot Perry
*Edward Willis Redfield
* Robert Reid
*Theodore Robinson
*Guy Rose
* Edward Simmons
*Sueo Serisawa (California Impressionist)
*Jack Wilkinson Smith
*T. C. Steele
*Edmund Charles Tarbell
*John Henry Twachtman
*Edward Charles Volkert
*Marion Wachtel
*J. Alden Weir
*Anna Catherine Wiley ee also
*
Impressionism
*Pennsylvania Impressionism
*Hoosier Group References
*cite book | author=Gerdts, William H. | title=American Impressionism | edition=Second Edition | location=New York | publisher=Abbeville Press Publishers| year=2001| id=ISBN 0-7892-0737-0
*cite book | author=Moure,Nancy | title=California Art: 450 Years of Painting and Other Media | location=Los Angeles | publisher=Dustin Publications | year=1998 | id=ISBN 0-9614622-4-8
*cite book | author=Gerdts, William H. and South, Will | title=California Impressionism | location=New York | publisher=Abbeville Press | year=1998 | id=ISBN 0-7892-0176-3
*cite book | author=Landauer, Susan (Editor) | title=California Impressionists | location=Athens, Ga. | publisher=The Irvine Museum and Georgia Museum of Art | year=1996 | id=ISBN 0-915977-25-7
*cite book | author=Weinberg, Barbara H. | title=Childe Hassam: American Impressionist | location=New York | publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art | year=2004 | id=ISBN 1-58839-119-1
*cite book | author=Larkin, Susan G. | title=The Cos Cob Art Colony | location=New York | publisher=the National Academy of Design | year=2001 | id=ISBN 0-300-08852-3
*cite book | author=Westphal, Ruth Lilly (Editor) | title=Plein Air Painters of California: The North | location=Irvine, Calif. | publisher=Westphal Publishing | year=1986 | id=ISBN 0-9610520-1-5
*cite book | author=Westphal, Ruth Lilly (Editor) | title=Plein Air Painters of California: The Southland | location=Irvine, Calif. | publisher=Westphal Publishing | year=1982 | id=ISBN 0-9610520-0-7
*cite book | author=Peterson, Brian H. (Editor) | title=Pennsylvania Impressionism | location=Philadelphia | publisher=James A. Michener Art Museum and University of Pennsylvania Press | year=2002 | id=ISBN 0-8122-3700-5External links
* [http://smarthistory.org/blog/14/mary-cassatts-the-cup-of-tea/ smARThistory: Cassatt's "The Cup of Tea"]
* [http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/22weir/22weir.htm "Weir Farm:Home of an American Impressionist," a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan]
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