In the last quarter of the 19th century, American art students were deeply influenced by their study abroad in Paris. They learned from the work of the founding French impressionists, including Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Pissarro. Many returned to the United States to exhibit and teach the tenets of Impression, focusing on a bright palette and broken brushwork. Their preferred subjects were country landscapes and pleasant genre scenes. A group of American impressionists exhibited together for 20 years as “The Ten American Painters” or “The Ten.”
By the time of their last exhibition in 1918, the world had changed due to such events as World War I, the formation of the Ashcan School of Painters, and the Armory Show. Modern European art became much more abstract, and the style of the American impressionist was now viewed as passé.
Art historian Bonita Billman examines the defining style, subjects, and masterpieces of American impressionists whose work to this day is considered by many to be a high point in our art history. Billman is retired from the department of history and art history at Georgetown University.
March 2 American Beginnings: The Colony at Giverny
Young artists, many of them Americans, gathered in Giverny, forming an informal art colony near Monet. Though Monet held himself aloof from most of the neophytes, painters Theodore Robinson and Lilla Cabot Perry broke through to him. Both artists served as conduits in America, “explaining” Impressionism through their own art and teaching. A second generation of American Impressionists would live at Giverny well into the 20th century.
March 9 Sunshine and Shadow: William Merritt Chase in New York
William Merritt Chase, having gained years of European experience, returned to the U.S. in 1878, making him one of the earliest Americans to practice the loose brushwork and plein air painting of the impressionists. His long subsequent career was as both a painter and an influential art educator.
March 16 “The Ten”
A group of American Impressionists gathered to exhibit in New York from 1898 to 1918. They emulated their French counterparts both in their painterly style and seeking to exhibit without juries, honors, or awards. Among “The Ten” were J. Alden Weir, John Henry Twachtman, and Childe Hassam.
March 23 Childe Hassam: A Father of American Impressionism
By dint of his long career and influential painting, Childe Hassam, one of “The Ten,” was an important painter of the Impressionist style who specialized in sunlit landscapes and genre scenes. While he lived and worked until 1935, Hassam’s paintings had long been passed by due to modern trends in art, such as Cubism and Expressionism, which he abhorred.
4 sessions
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