More than 100 works dating from the golden age of American Impressionism, the 1880s through the 1940s, will be exhibited, including 75 oil paintings and nearly 30 works on paper. The sheer scope of the display provides insight into the wide range of approaches to Impressionism, all of which are united by an abiding interest in capturing the effects of light and atmosphere in loosely brushed compositions.
Featured artists include Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent, expatriate artists working in Paris alongside the Impressionist greats Degas and Monet, along with American masters like William Merritt Chase and Charles Webster Hawthorne who embraced the style and helped further its development in the United States. The exhibit also includes other leading Impressionist artists such as Childe Hassam, Ernest Lawson, Julian Alden Weir, John Twachtman, Chauncey Ryder, Frank W. Benson, William Paxton, Abbott Thayer, Guy Wiggins, Colin Campbell Cooper, Daniel Garber and Edward Redfield, among others.
The collection of lyrical landscapes, sun-filled harbors, penetrating portraits and still-life paintings is organized according to the artists’ colonies that played such a critical role in the development of American Impressionism. These include Cos Cob and Old Lyme in Connecticut; Cape Cod, Cape Anne, and Rockport, in Massachusetts; New Hope and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania; Taos, New Mexico; and throughout California. Within each of these colonies, artists were able to teach, collaborate and escape the daily rigors of their city studios. Often located in scenic locations within striking distance of major cities, the colonies surrounded artists with natural beauty while also providing them comradery and ample inspiration for their work.
A selection of American Impressionist paintings from the holdings of the Springfield Museums as well as from the personal collection of Michele and Donald D’Amour will also be on view to complement the exhibit, including examples by Childe Hassam, J.J. Enneking, Emile Gruppe, John Singer Sargent and J. Alden Weir.
A companion exhibit titled Provincetown Artist Colony: Woodblock Prints is also on display in the Collins Print Gallery through January 10, with prints created by artists like Blanche Lazzell, Elizabeth Norton, and Margaret Jordan Patterson during the early 20th century.
American Impressionism: The Lure of the Artists’ Colony is sponsored by MassMutual; the media partner is Art New England Magazine. There is a special exhibit fee of $5 in addition to general admission to view American Impressionism.
Image Credit: Frank Weston Benson, (American, 1862 – 1951), On Grand River, c. 1920, oil on canvas, 42 x 50-1/2 inches, Reading Public Museum