I've long been a fan of Impressionism, and I've heard good things about Ohio's Dayton Art Institute (DAI), which will celebrate its centennial year in 2019.
So, it didn't take much for us to start planning a visit to the DAI when I learned of the museum's plan to stage an exhibition featuring the works of American Impressionist masters through a Twitter conversation with Eric Brockman, the museum's Marketing & Communications Manager.
Names of French artists working in the late-nineteenth century like Monet, Renoir, Morisot, Degas and Caillebotte are often the first names to pop into the minds of art lovers when they think of their favorite Impressionists' works, but the DAI's American Impressionism: The Lure of the Artists' Colony exhibition showcases the work of American Impressionists and encompasses a longer time period running roughly from the 1880s through the 1930s.
Study in Paris became a must for late-nineteenth century artists who wanted to practice and master the then-new Impressionist style. American expatriate artists like John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassatt spent a number of years painting in France as the age of Impressionism dawned during the 1870s, but by the early 1880s, Americans began experimenting with the techniques on their own and establishing art schools and art colonies in the States.
This exhibition draws liberally from work produced at the summer art colonies where American artists learned from respected American Impressionists, perfected their own techniques, collaborated with other artists and simply spent time in nature to create more Impressionist masterpieces.
The DAI's exhibition arranges more than 100 paintings and prints produced by the artists by the location of the colonies like Cos Cob and Old Lyme in Connecticut; Cape Code, Cape Anne and Rockport in Massachusetts; New Hope, and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, Taos in New Mexico and communities in California playing major roles in developing Impressionism in America.
Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, the DAI's Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, joined us on our tour of the exhibition to offer insights about the exhibition, the artists and the distinctive features of American Impressionism in general.
DeGalan pointed out that the French Impressionists generally had a looser style, while the American artists produced work that was often more linear and focused on pastoral scenes.
The American Impressionist colonies were usually near major cities, but still far enough into the surrounding countryside to provide the pastoral scenes favored by en plein air painters.
DeGalan also told us that innovations like the invention of portable (and re-sealable) paint tubes by 1840 made it easier to paint outdoors, and the development of square- or chisel-shaped brushes during the late 1800s allowed artists to produce more precise color edges in their works.
Impressionist paintings usually depict a moment in time, and the use of color theory concepts like placing complementary colors next to each other gave the paintings a unique "vibration" or sense of movement. Broad, visible brush strokes, the use of a lighter color palette and outdoor subjects also distinguished the work of Impressionists from earlier artists.
DeGalan also talked about the importance of exploring the effects of light and atmospheric conditions in the Impressionist movement as she pointed out how the portrayal of light differed in paintings produced in the eastern half of the United States from works created in western locales like California.
The DAI American Impressionism exhibition comes to the museum from Pennsylvania's Reading Public Museum. The Reading Museum's location just 55 miles northeast of Philadelphia and ready access to the annual shows and exhibitions of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts there enabled the museum to build an especially fine collection of art from the American Impressionists who studied and taught in that region.
Artists who taught at Philadelphia included William Merritt Chase, one of the first American artists to fully embrace Impressionism and draw students to the area.
Chase looms large in this exhibition as items related to him in it include a couple of his own paintings, one of his paint palettes and a painting from artist and student of Chase, Charles Webster Hawthorne, and prominently inscribed "To My Master Wm. Merritt Chase".
The exhibition also features artists like John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam, John Twachtman, John Fulton Folinsbee and more.
The American Impressionism exhibition kicked off 2015 as the DAI's Year of American Art and runs through May 31. The other exhibitions focusing on American Art this year at the DAI include Call to Duty: World War Posters (July 4 through October 4, 2015) and American Sampler: Grandma Moses and the Handicraft Tradition (November 21-February 21, 2016).
Check the DAI web site for more information about the exhibitions, museum hours and admission.
Want to learn more about American Impressionism? Check out American Impressionism by William H. Gerdts, American Impressionism: A New Vision, 1880-1900 by Katherine M. Bourguignon, Frances Fowle and Richard R. Brettell or Pennsylvania Impressionism by Brian H. Peterson.
I'll do another story focusing on the Dayton Art Institute and its history later this year.
Thanks to the Dayton Art Institute for hosting our tour and lunch at the museum.
© Dominique King 2015 All rights reserved
Photos © Dominique King and Tim Marks All rights reserved
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