American Impressionism: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Style of painting}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2024}} {{Use American English|date=April 2024}}

[[File:Eleanor Holding a Shell.jpg|thumb|right|[[Frank Weston Benson|Frank W. Benson]], ''Eleanor Holding a Shell, [[North Haven, Maine]],'' 1902, private collection]]

'''American Impressionism''' was a style of painting related to European [[Impressionism]] and practiced by American artists in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth.<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last=Taube |first=Isabel L. |title=American Impressionism |date=2003 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t002327 |work=Oxford Art Online |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t002327 |access-date=2022-05-02}}</ref> The style is characterized by loose brushwork and vivid colors with a wide array of subject matters but focusing on landscapes and upper-class domestic life.<ref>{{Cite web |title=American Impressionism Movement Overview |url=https://www.theartstory.org/movement/american-impressionism/ |access-date=2022-05-02 |website=The Art Story}}</ref>

[[File:Mary Cassatt - The Child's Bath - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|[[Mary Cassatt]], ''The Child's Bath'' (1893)]]

[[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. The first exhibit took place in 1886 in New York and was presented by the [[American Art Association]] and organized by [[Paul Durand-Ruel]] .<ref name=":02">{{Citation |last=Taube |first=Isabel L. |title=American Impressionism |date=2003 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t002327 |work=Oxford Art Online |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t002327 |access-date=2022-05-02}}</ref> Some of the first American artists to paint in an impressionistic mode, such as [[Theodore Robinson]] and [[Mary Cassatt]], did so in the late 1880s after visiting France and meeting with artists such as [[Claude Monet]]. Others, such as [[Childe Hassam]], took notice of the increasing numbers of French impressionist works at American exhibitions.

Impressionism was initially unpopular in the United States. At the first exhibit in 1886, Americans were attracted to the landscape paintings but were offended by the realist figures and nudity depicted in other paintings.<ref name=":02" /> American artists were hesitant to adopt the style of Impressionism while studying in France as it was created as a radical rejection of tradition at the Academy and American artists hoped to gain acceptance through their traditional academy studies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kane |first=Marie Louise |date=1984 |title=American Impressionist Paintings |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40716255 |journal=Bulletin (St. Louis Art Museum) |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=1–28 |jstor=40716255 |issn=0009-7691}}</ref> Over time, American patrons began to accept the abstract forms of Impressionism, especially as American artists, such as Mary Cassatt, began to adopt the styles of French Impressionism.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=American Impressionism - Concepts & Styles |url=https://www.theartstory.org/movement/american-impressionism/history-and-concepts/ |access-date=2022-05-10 |website=The Art Story}}</ref>

===Mary Cassatt===

Mary Cassatt played a large role in the adoption of Impressionism by American patrons. Mary Cassatt formed a close relationship with [[Edgar Degas]], who, impressed by her work, invited her to show with the French Impressionists in 1877.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Weinberg |first=H. Barbara |date=October 2004 |title=American Impressionism |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/aimp/hd_aimp.htm |access-date=2022-05-02 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref> She was the only American to ever exhibit her work alongside the original Impressionists in France.<ref name=":02" /> Through her connections to wealthy upperclass Americans, Cassatt convinced many of her friends of the artistic merits of Impressionism and encouraged the purchase of French works.<ref name=":02" />

==Characteristics of American Impressionism==

Unlike early Renaissance painters, American Impressionists favored asymmetrical composition, cropped figures, and plunging perspectives in their works in order to create a more "impressionist" version of the subject.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Fox Chase: American Impressionism |url=https://florencegriswoldmuseum.org/collections/online/fox-chase/fox-chase-american-impressionism/ |access-date=2022-05-10 |website=Florence Griswold Museum |language=en-US}}</ref> In addition, American impressionists used pure color straight from the tubes to make the works more vibrant, used broken brushstrokes, and practiced "impasto"- a style of painting characterized by thick raised strokes.<ref name=":1" /> European impressionists painted tranquil scenes of landscapes or the lower and middle classes. American impressionists focused on landscapes like the European impressionists, but unlike their European counterparts, American impressionists also painted scenes of quiet domesticity, in contrast to the emergence of industrialization.<ref name=":22">{{Cite web |title=American Impressionism - Concepts & Styles |url=https://www.theartstory.org/movement/american-impressionism/history-and-concepts/ |access-date=2022-05-10 |website=The Art Story}}</ref>

[[File:Childe Hassam Cliffs and Sea 1903.jpg|thumb|Childe Hassam, ''Cliffs and Sea'', 1903, private collection]]

As railroads, automobiles, and other new technology emerged, American impressionists often painted vast landscapes and small towns in an effort to return to nature.<ref name=":2" /> Before the invention of collapsible paint tubes artists were often confined to using subjects in their studios or painting from memory. With the invention of paint tubes in 1841, artists could transport their paint and easily paint in nature.<ref name=":1"/>

From the 1890s through the 1910s, American impressionism flourished in [[Art colony|art colonies]]—loosely affiliated groups of artists who lived and worked together and shared a common aesthetic vision.<ref name=":23">{{Cite web |title=American Impressionism - Concepts & Styles |url=https://www.theartstory.org/movement/american-impressionism/history-and-concepts/ |access-date=2022-05-10 |website=The Art Story}}</ref> 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 Art Colony|Cos Cob]] and [[Old Lyme, Connecticut]], both on [[Long Island Sound]]; [[New Hope, Pennsylvania]], on the Delaware River; and [[Brown County, Indiana]].<ref name=":23" /> American impressionist artists also thrived in California at [[Carmel-by-the-Sea, California|Carmel]] and [[Laguna Beach, California|Laguna Beach]]; in New York on eastern [[Long Island]] at Shinnecock, largely due to the influence of [[William Merritt Chase]]; and in Boston where [[Edmund Charles Tarbell]] and [[Frank Weston Benson]] became important practitioners of the impressionist style.<ref name=":03">{{Citation |last=Taube |first=Isabel L. |title=American Impressionism |date=2003 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t002327 |work=Oxford Art Online |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t002327 |access-date=2022-05-02}}</ref>

Some American art colonies remained vibrant centers of impressionist art into the 1920s.<ref name=":24">{{Cite web |title=American Impressionism - Concepts & Styles |url=https://www.theartstory.org/movement/american-impressionism/history-and-concepts/ |access-date=2022-05-10 |website=The Art Story}}</ref> But with the advent of the [[Ashcan School]] in 1910, the tides of the American art world started change.<ref name=":32">{{Cite web |last=Weinberg |first=H. Barbara |date=October 2004 |title=American Impressionism |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/aimp/hd_aimp.htm |access-date=2022-05-02 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref> Impressionism in America further lost its cutting-edge status in 1913 when a historic 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 of [[World War I]], The [[Great Depression]] and [[World War II]].<ref name=":24" />

==Notable American impressionists==

{{Div col}}

* [[John White Alexander]] (1856–1915)

* [[J. Ottis Adams]] (1851–1927)

* [[Lucy Bacon]] (1857–1932)

* [[George Herbert Baker]] (1878–1943)

* [[John Noble Barlow]] (1861–1917)

* [[Thomas P. Barnett]] (1870–1929)

* [[Reynolds Beal]] (1867–1951)

* [[Marilyn Bendell]] (1921-2003)

* [[Frank Weston Benson]] (1862–1951)

* [[Johann Berthelsen]] (1883–1972)

* [[Warren Eugene Brandon]] (1916–1977)

* [[John Leslie Breck]] (1860–1899)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/horo_004.shtm |title=American Impressionism: Portrait of John Leslie Breck |first=Nicolai Jr. |last=Cikovsky |work=[[National Gallery of Art]] |year=2013 |access-date=4 August 2013 |archive-date=27 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131227131612/http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/horo_004.shtm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.adelsongalleries.com/artists/john-leslie-breck/biography/ |title=John Leslie Breck – Biography |work=Adelson Galleries |year=2013 |access-date=4 August 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120830235517/http://www.adelsongalleries.com/artists/john-leslie-breck/biography/ |archive-date=30 August 2012 }}</ref>

* [[Matilda Browne]] (1869–1947)

* [[John Elwood Bundy]] (1853–1933)

* [[Dennis Miller Bunker]] (1861–1890)

* [[Theodore Earl Butler]] (1861–1936)

* [[Mary Cassatt]] (1844–1926)

* [[William Merritt Chase]] (1849–1916)

* [[Alson S. Clark]] (1876–1949)

* [[Colin Campbell Cooper]] (1856–1937)

* [[Paul Cornoyer]] (1864–1923)

* [[Joseph DeCamp]] (1858–1923)

* [[Thomas Dewing]] (1851–1938)

* [[George Dinckel]] (1890–1976)

* [[Frank DuMond]] (1865–1951)

* [[John Joseph Enneking]] (1841–1916)

* [[Carl Eytel]] (1862–1925)

* [[Pedro Figari]] (1861–1938)

* [[Frederick Carl Frieseke]] (1874–1939)

* [[Daniel Garber]] (1880–1958)

* [[Robert F. Gault]] (1898–1977) AWS

* [[Arthur Hill Gilbert]] (1893–1970)

* [[Edmund Greacen]] (1877–1949)

* [[Richard Gruelle]] (1851–1914)

* [[Childe Hassam]] (1859–1935)

* [[William Samuel Horton]] (1865–1936)

* [[Wilson Irvine]] (1869–1936)

* [[Charles S. Kaelin]] (1858–1929)

* [[Joseph Kleitsch]] (1882–1931) (California Impressionist)

* [[Albert Henry Krehbiel]] (1873–1945)

* [[William Langson Lathrop]] (1859–1938)

* [[Hayley Lever]] (1876–1958)

* [[Laura Muntz Lyall]] (1860–1930)

* [[Theodore Lukits]] (1897–1992)

* [[Victor Matson]] (1895–1972)

* [[Willard Metcalf]] (1858–1925)

* [[Richard Edward Miller]] (1875–1943)<ref>1875–1943. Member of Giverny painters</ref>

* [[Abram Molarsky]] (1879–1955)

* [[Robertson Kirtland Mygatt]] (1861–1919)

* [[George Loftus Noyes]] (1864–1954)

* [[Frank Nuderscher]] (1880–1959)

* [[Leonard Ochtman]] (1854–1935)

* [[Julian Onderdonk]] (1882–1922)

* [[William McGregor Paxton]] (1869–1941)

* [[Edgar Alwin Payne]] (1883–1947)

* [[Clara Elsene Peck]] (1883–1968)

* [[Van Dearing Perrine]] (1869–1955)<ref>1869–1955. Member, National Academy. http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/4aa/4aa26.htm</ref>

* [[Lilla Cabot Perry]] (1848–1933)

* [[Fritz Poock]] (1877–1945)

* [[Edward Henry Potthast]] (1857–1927)

* [[Edward Willis Redfield]] (1869–1925)

* [[Robert Reid (painter)|Robert Reid]] (1862–1929)

* [[Theodore Robinson]] (1852–1896)

* [[Edward Francis Rook]] (1870–1960)

* [[Guy Rose]] (1867–1925)

* [[Porfirio Salinas]] (1910–1973)

* [[John Singer Sargent]] (1856–1925)

* [[Paul Sawyier]] (1865–1917)

* [[Christian von Schneidau]] (1893–1976)

* [[Edward Simmons (painter)|Edward Simmons]] (1852–1931)

* [[Sueo Serisawa]] (1910-2004) (California Impressionist)

* [[Tim Solliday]] (born 1952)

* [[George Sotter]] (1879–1953)

* [[Anna Huntington Stanley]] (1864–1907)

* [[Otto Stark]] (1859–1926)

* [[T. C. Steele]] (1847–1926)

* [[Edmund Charles Tarbell]] (1862–1938)

* [[John Henry Twachtman]] (1853–1902)

* [[Edward Charles Volkert]] (1871–1935)

* [[Robert Vonnoh]] (1858–1933)

* [[Clark Voorhees]] (1871–1933)

* [[Marion Wachtel]] (1875–1954)

* [[Fred Wagner]] (1860–1940)

* [[Martha Walter]] (1895–1976)

* [[J. Alden Weir]] (1852–1919)

* [[Catherine Wiley]] (1879–1958)

* [[Robert William Wood]] (1889–1979)

* [[Mary Agnes Yerkes]] (1886–1989)

File:Edmund Charles Tarbell - Au verger.jpg|[[Edmund C. Tarbell]], ''In the Orchard'', 1891, [[Smithsonian American Art Museum]], [[Washington, D.C.]]

File:Brooklyn Museum - On the Beach - Edward Henry Potthast - overall.jpg|[[Edward Henry Potthast]], ''On the Beach'', {{Circa|1913}}, [[Brooklyn Museum]]

File:John H. Twachtman 001.jpg|[[John Henry Twachtman]], ''The White Bridge'', {{Circa|1895}}, [[Minneapolis Institute of Arts]]

File:Julian Alden Weir Ravine near Branchville.jpg|[[J. Alden Weir]], ''Ravine near Branchville,'' {{Circa}} 1905–1915, [[Dallas Museum of Art]]

* [[Boston School (painting)|Boston School]]

* [[California Impressionism]]

* [[Pennsylvania Impressionism]]

* {{cite book | editor=Landauer, Susan | title=California Impressionists | location=Athens, Ga. | publisher=The Irvine Museum and Georgia Museum of Art | year=1996 | 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 | isbn=1-58839-119-1 | url=https://archive.org/details/childehassamamer0000wein | url-access=registration }}

* {{cite book | author=Westphal, Ruth Lilly | title=Plein Air Painters of California: The North | location=Irvine, Calif. | publisher=Westphal Publishing | year=1986 | isbn=0-9610520-1-5}}

* {{cite book | editor=Westphal, Ruth Lilly | title=Plein Air Painters of California: The Southland | location=Irvine, Calif. | publisher=Westphal Publishing | year=1982 | isbn=0-9610520-0-7}}

* {{cite book | editor=Peterson, Brian H. | title=Pennsylvania Impressionism | location=Philadelphia | publisher=James A. Michener Art Museum and University of Pennsylvania Press | year=2002 | isbn=0-8122-3700-5}}

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20170318090006/http://www.exhibitiononscreen.com/en-uk/our-films/season-4/the-artists-garden-american-impressionism "The Artist's Garden: American Impressionism", Exhibition on Screen]

* [https://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/features/slideshows/american-impressionists-of-the-late-1800s-and-early-1900s.html "American Impressionism of the Late 1800s and early 1900s", National Gallery of Art]

* [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/aimp/hd_aimp.htm "American Impressionism", The Met Museum]

* [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/nyregion/american-impressionists-finding-beauty-in-land-review.html "Finding Beauty in Land", ''The New York Times'']