Author(s): Katherine Bourguignon

Art

Engaging directly with Impressionism in the late 19th century, American artists invented a new and highly diverse formulation of the movement. Mary Cassatt exhibited with the French impressionists as early as 1879, just five years after their initial group show, but most American artists came later to the movement. It was not until the mid-1880s that Americans began to confront the new ideas and techniques of the impressionist aesthetic and not until 1890 that they adapted it to distinctly American sites and subjects. This beautiful book, accompanying a major international exhibition, highlights more than 60 paintings produced in Europe and America between 1880 and 1900 by 14 American artists. Significant pictures by expatriates such as Cassatt, John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler demonstrate their role in the exploration of brilliant colour harmonies and original compositions developed from contact with French impressionists such Monet and Degas. The book also includes numerous paintings produced in the United States by artists like William Merritt Chase, Edmund Tarbell, John Twachtman and Frank Benson who adapted Impressionist ideas for an American market.