On the floral covered streets of Giverny, home to Claude Monet’s famous gardens, sits the Museum of Impressionism. Currently on view is the special exhibition called “American Impressionists: A New Vision.” Featured are works of American artists who travelled and resided temporarily in Giverny. This exhibit testifies to the fact that the Impressionist movement had impact not only in France, but worldwide.
The exhibition begins with two leading figures of American Impressionism: Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent. Under the influence of Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt began to paint in the Impressionist style, and exhibited four times with the group. John Singer Sargent developed a close association with Claude Monet, whom he painted several times. The first striking image in this section of the exhibit was Sargent’s Parisian Beggar Girl, 1880. The young girl appears almost angelic in white against a muddled background of cream and purplish pink hues. Unlike most of Sargent’s works in which forms are more realized, this painting is more gestural, and in my opinion, more representative of the Impressionist style.
The next section of the exhibit “Impressionism inspired by Europe” discusses more artists who followed in Cassatt and Sargent’s paths by sojourning to Europe and bringing Impressionism back to America. John Leslie Breck lived for a time in Giverny and became part of Monet’s inner circle. Breck is credited as one of the first artists to bring Impressionism back to America when he exhibited in Boston in 1890. Featured is his series “Studies of an autumn day,” in which he painted a haystack reminiscent of the work of Monet at progressing hours of the day.
Following this section, the exhibition progresses into a series about the American Impressionist’s search for new modern subjects in their home country. A popular theme that arose were images of women and children outdoors. One particular painting, Eleanor by Frank Benson, captures the ideal female youth in turn of the century America. He paints his daughter shielding her eyes from the bright summer day, her hair blowing in the wind. The fractals of light can be seen reflecting off her skin with just the slightest brushstrokes. This painting encapsulates the style of Impressionism that Americans created, keeping figures in detail while allowing more fluidity for the background.
Breck along with nine other painters soon created the group called the Ten American Painters. This group of Impressionist painters were fed up with the Society of American Artists, who they believed devalued Impressionism. One of the group’s most inventive artists was Childe Hassam. Hassam mostly painted images of American city scenes, separating himself from his contemporaries who spent most of their time in the countryside. The painting that was on display entitled Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, reflects Hassam’s similarity between the French Impressionists.
Mimi in paris 