American Impressionism and Realism
American Impressionism and Realism: Virtual tour
Childe Hassam 1859–1935 | Avenue of the Allies, Great Britain, 1918 1918 | Oil on canvas | 91.4 x 72.1cm (36 x 28?in.) | Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot(1876–1967), 1967 | 67.187.127 | Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Childe Hassam 1859–1935 | Peach blossoms – Villiers-le-Bel c. | Oil on canvas | 54.6 x 46cm (21? x18?in.) | Gift of Mrs J Augustus Barnard,1979 | 1979.490.9 | Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
J Alden Weir 1852–1919 | The factory village 1897 Oil on canvas | 73.7 x 96.6cm (29 x 38in.) | Gift of Cora Weir Burlingham, 1979, and Purchase, Marguerite and Frank Cosgrove Jr Fund, 1998 | 1979.487 | Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
George Bellows 1882–1925 | Tennis at Newport 1919 | Oil on canvas | 101.6 x 109.9cm (40 x43?in.) | Bequest of Miss Adelaide Miltonde Groot (1876–1967), 1967 | 67.187.121 | Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
John Singer Sargent 1856–1925 | Mr and Mrs IN Phelps Stokes 1897 | Oil on canvas | 214 x 101cm (84? x 39?in.) | Bequest of Edith Minturn Phelps Stokes (Mrs IN), 1938 | 38.104 | Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Winslow Homer 1836–1910 | Northeaster 1895 | Oil on canvas | 87.6 x 127cm (34? x 50in.) | Gift of George A Hearn, 1910 | 10.64.5 | Collection: The Metropolitan Museum ofArt, New York
Cecilia Beaux 1855–1942 | Ernesta (Child with nurse) 1894 | Oil on canvas | 128.3 x 96.8cm (50? x38?in.) | Maria DeWitt Jesup Fund, 1965 |65.49 | Collection: The MetropolitanMuseum of Art, New York
Mary Cassatt 1844–1926 | The cup of tea c.1880–81 | Oil on canvas | 92.4 x 65.4cm (36? x25?in.) | From the Collection of JamesStillman, Gift of Dr Ernest G Stillman, 1922 | 22.16.17 | Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Between the end of the Civil War (1861–65) and World War One, the United States was transformed from an agrarian to an urban, industrialised nation. Newly wealthy American collectors developed a keen appreciation of contemporary European art. To compete with their foreign rivals, aspiring American artists went abroad to study, most often pursuing academic lessons.
Beginning in the 1870s, Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent began to experiment in Paris with French Impressionism. By the mid 1880s, as French dealers introduced Impressionist painting to viewers in Boston, New York and other cities, American collectors’ and critics’ enthusiasm for the style grew. By the 1890s, Impressionism had been adopted by many painters in the United States, even by those who had returned home with academic inclinations.
Around 1900, a group of Realists set themselves apart from the more genteel American Impressionists, concentrating on recording New York’s vitality and seamier side. Stylistically, they rejected inspiration from the high-keyed canvases of Claude Monet and his associates in favour of the darker palette and gestural brushwork of Edouard Manet and Diego Velázquez, among others.
Despite the differences between the American Impressionists and Realists, the two groups shared a commitment to portraying modern life. This exhibition explores their simultaneous embrace and avoidance of their era’s perplexing novelties. It presents their responses to burgeoning cities and the countryside abroad and at home in the United States. It also includes their depictions of people enjoying leisure, artfully set-up studios and portraits, and vignettes of women’s and children’s lives. A final section features paintings by James McNeill Whistler, Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins, who also flourished around 1900 and influenced the American Impressionists and Realists.
In addition, the exhibition places in dialogue with their American counterparts 30 fine Australian paintings that embody similar cultural and stylistic influences.
The exhibition represents a landmark, gathering in depth for the first time key American and Australian paintings from an exciting and challenging period; marking the first collaboration of the Queensland Art Gallery, Art Exhibitions Australia and The Metropolitan Museum of Art; and featuring from the Metropolitan 71 canvases by 34 artists which are not likely to be lent again as an ensemble.
