American Impressionism Teacher In-service Memorial Art Gallery

American Impressionism

Teacher In-service

Memorial Art Gallery

April 23, 2008

It must not be assumed the American Impressionism and French Impressionism are identical. The

painter accepted the spirit, not the letter of the new doctrine.

-Christian Brinton, art critic, 1916

Welcome and Introduction to the exhibition Marlene Hamann-Whitmore, Curator of Education

Exploration of American Impressionism works of art

Paintings from the Phillips Collection (Grand Gallery) American Impressionism from the Permanent Collection (Grand Gallery) In Pursuit of Light and Leisure: Impressionist Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection (Lockhart Gallery)

Seeing America: forerunners of Impressionism in the mid 19th century; 20th century inheritors of the Impressionist tradition

Making curriculum connections with activities for tours and classroom lessons Carol Yost, Assistant Curator of Education

Support for the Gallery’s 2007-08 school programs is provided by Dominion, Bank of America, the Mary W. Clark Trust, and an anonymous foundation. Additional support is provided by Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation, Hammer Packaging, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Judson Jr., the estate of Estelle B. Goldman, and an anonymous donor for the McPherson Director of Education.

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Teacher In-service

April 23, 2008

AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISM: PAINTINGS FROM THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION

In 1886 the Paris art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel brought to New York a breathtaking display

of nearly 300 paintings by the French impressionists Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and others. At this time a select group of American artists, trained in the academies of Paris and Munich, were searching for a new expressive style. Impressionism proved to be the inspiration they needed to transform American painting.

The infusion of a French Impressionist aesthetic transformed the heroic landscapes of the Hudson River school and the genre scenes of rural America into a more modern idiom. Intimate depictions of the New England countryside became popular, along with scenes of leisure activities and urban views that captured the genteel character of the city.

The influence of the American Impressionist pioneers on other artists was profound, reaching well into the second decade of the 20th century. Through a network of close friendships, classroom and outdoor summer art sessions, and the establishment of American art colonies throughout New England and in Giverny, France, American Impressionist painting became stylistically diverse in its expression. The spectacular examples in this exhibition demonstrate the curiosity and passion of one particular collector, Duncan Phillips of Washington, DC.

WHO WERE THE FIRST AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISTS?

Among the first American painters to assimilate the techniques and subject matter of French

Impressionism were William Merritt Chase (1849-1916), Childe Hassam (1859-1935), Theodore Robinson (1852-1896), John Henry Twachtman (1853-1902) and Julian Alden Weir (1852-1919). Chase attracted many Americans to his summer classes in Florence, Italy, and influenced countless others at the Art Students League in New York City. Hassam brought home an understanding of Impressionism after working in Paris in the late 1880s, where he briefly occupied a studio once used by Renoir. Robinson, an associate of Monet who lived and worked near the French painter in Giverny, France, from 1888-1892, was instrumental in transmitting the Impressionist aesthetic to his close friends Twachtman and Weir. They, in turn, exhibited their Impressionist landscapes alongside Monet at the American Art Galleries in New York in 1893.

WHAT IS IMPRESSIONISM?

When we think of Impressionism, we tend to think of French artists such as Monet, Renoir,

and Degas who broke away from the official Paris Salon in the 1870s to show and sell their paintings. Instead of recording the absolute likeness of a person or place, they tried to render the sensation that the subject produced in them. Changing effects of light and atmosphere interested them, and they often worked out of doors (en plein air) and without preliminary sketches (alla

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prima). The Impressionists applied bright, pure colors to the canvas in dabs and broken brushstrokes, allowing the viewer’s eye to mix colors placed in close proximity to each other. Finally, they borrowed compositional elements of cropping, asymmetry, and multiple viewpoints from Asian art and photography to create truly modern-looking paintings.

WHAT MAKES AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISM “AMERICAN”?

It must not be assumed the American Impressionism and French Impressionism are

identical. The American painter accepted the spirit, not the letter of the new doctrine.

—Christian Brinton, art critic, 1916

Despite the many similarities between French and American Impressionism, there were a few key differences. The Americans kept a firmer foundation in the realist tradition, especially in the way they depicted three-dimensional volume; they didn’t completely sacrifice solid form to the

fragmentation of broken color. While the French rejoiced in the effects of the bright midday sun, the Americans preferred diffused daylight, often painting in the early morning or evening. And the Americans largely avoided the working class or demi-monde subjects of the French, concentrating instead on elegantly attired people or beautiful children.

WHAT WERE THE AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISTS’ FAVORITE SUBJECTS?

Above all else, the American Impressionists were devoted to the landscape, investigating it

in all sorts of weather, at different times of day, and under dramatically different lighting conditions. Although many painted abroad, there was a sense that one should paint the places he or she knew best—locations that revealed themselves intimately over years of careful observation. This love of place applied as easily to the city as to the country, depending on what the artist called home. Water—streams, rivers, ponds and fountains—was a popular subject because of the endless ways in which it could reflect light and color. Scenes of modern people at leisure—whether boating, picnicking, or strolling in the park—were also favorites of the Impressionists.

HOW DID AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISM DIFFER FROM WHAT CAME BEFORE IT?

Unlike the early 19th-century landscape painters of the Hudson River School such as Asher

B. Durand, Frederick Church, and Albert Bierstadt, the American Impressionists were more concerned with trying to convey the emotions a place aroused than with rendering an exact optical record of it. While their predecessors were often explorers, bringing back sketches of the new Western wilderness to translate into paint on canvas in their studios, the Impressionists painted directly from nature and felt deeply connected to the places they lived, worked, and knew intimately. For them, familiar locations held greater appeal than awe-inspiring views. They eschewed theatricality, seldom even placing figures in their landscapes to emphasize scale.

On the other hand, the Impressionists shared much common ground with the Tonalists, a group of painters working roughly concurrently. Both schools were masters of nuance, utilizing diffused light, soft focus, and simplified forms and patterns. But the Tonalists, including George

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Inness, James McNeil Whistler, and Thomas Dewing, did not paint outdoors and used an extremely limited range of colors.

WHERE DID THE AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISTS LIVE AND WORK?

While there were American Impressionists working all across the country, with especially

vibrant clusters in California and Indiana, this exhibition is devoted to those based in the Eastern United States. The map at the right shows the location of some of the most active impressionist colonies, including Southhampton (Shinnecock Hills), Cos Cob, Old Lyme, Cornish, New Hope, and Gloucester. Some provided artists with summer respites from city life, but others developed into year-round communities.

One of the most important colonies was at New Hope, Pensylvania. It centered around William Lathrop and his colleagues, who inspired a generation of artists who settled in this small village along the Delaware canal. The New Hope Impressionists enjoyed their greatest success and popularity in the second decade of the 20th century, when they came to the attention of Duncan Phillips.

In Connecticut, Julian Alden Weir’s farms at Branchville and Windham and John

Twachtman’s Greenwich property became enduring sources of inspiration for them and the many

artists who were invited to spend time there.

TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE . . .

In 1999, in a rare turn of events, conservators at The Phillips Collection discovered a

complete, signed painting by Gifford Beal that had been hidden behind another canvas on the same stretcher for more than 75 years. On the Hudson at Newburgh, depicting a woman and two children watching World War I troops marching toward the river, was found beneath Beal’s Parade of

Elephants during a routine cleaning. To the curators’ and conservators’ delight, the “new” painting was in excellent condition.

Evidently covered up within six years of being created, the work had been protected from light, air, dust, and grime for most of its lifetime.

We may never know why Beal covered On the Hudson at Newburgh with another painting. Gillian Cook, one of the conservators who worked on the project, wondered whether the artist became dissatisfied with it, thinking it too sentimental for his changing taste, and recycled the stretcher for a newer work. Curator Eliza Rathbone of The Phillips Collection speculated that the artist simply “borrowed” the stretcher to support a new work temporarily, and later forgot that

another painting was underneath.

WHO WAS DUNCAN PHILLIPS?

Duncan Phillips (1886-1966) was one of the early collectors of American Impressionism.

Most of the paintings in this exhibition were acquired by him during the artists’ lifetimes, giving

Phillips a chance to meet many of them. To him, Impressionism was not the final manifestation of the realist tradition, but rather a fresh start.

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Raised in Washington, DC, Phillips was the son of a retired Pittsburgh industrialist and an heiress to a steel fortune. He graduated from Yale and moved to New York in 1910 with dreams of becoming an art critic. By the end of the decade he had become a prominent collector, and by 1921 he had established a gallery in his family’s Washington home to honor the memory of his father and

brother. That same year Phillips married Marjorie Acker, herself a painter. Over the course of their long life together, they amassed a collection of about 2,000 works of art that today forms the bedrock of The Phillips Collection.

Initially, Phillips found French Impressionism too emotionally cool and scientific for his taste. The poetic vein of its American counterpart, however, satisfied his passion for modern landscape painting. Although Phillips’ enthusiasm for Impressionism waned after 1923, when he

began to devote himself to Cubism and other abstract approaches, he remained a champion of American artists whose work could be seen as links between the past and present.

Support for the Gallery’s 2007-08 school programs is provided by Dominion, Bank of America, the Mary W. Clark Trust, and an anonymous foundation. Additional support is provided by Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation, Hammer Packaging, Mr. and Mrs.

Thomas F. Judson Jr., the estate of Estelle B. Goldman, and an anonymous donor for the McPherson Director of Education.


Teacher In-service

April 23, 2008

Art Works

What are the major themes, vocabulary or concepts you teach each year? What works of art might be the focus or help you “illustrate” those ideas for your students?

Directions: Identify a concept or idea for each letter of the alphabet and find works of art that you can pair with the ideas.

Theme/Concept/Idea Artwork Comments

Ex.

Japanese print Windswept (Snow Picture, Leyden), Augustus Vincent Tack

Flat, cropping, asymmetrical composition

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

Support for the Gallery’s 2007-08 school programs is provided by Dominion, Bank of America, the Mary W. Clark Trust, and an anonymous foundation. Additional support is provided by Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation, Hammer Packaging, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Judson

Jr., the estate of Estelle B. Goldman, and an anonymous donor for the McPherson Director of Education.


Teacher In-service

April 23, 2008

Art Works

Choose the three works you feel are most closely aligned to your curriculum and style of teaching. How would you use them? Would you use them as individual works or as a group? In what ways can

an individual work be used for multiple connections to your curriculum?

What questions about the artwork would you use to engage your students and to “guide” them through

the observation, inference and conclusion process? How can these works supplement materials you already use – textbook pictures, primary sources,

works of literature, other lessons and activities you have created?

Support for the Gallery’s 2007-08 school programs is provided by Dominion, Bank of America, the Mary W. Clark Trust, and an anonymous foundation. Additional support is provided by Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation, Hammer Packaging, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Judson

Jr., the estate of Estelle B. Goldman, and an anonymous donor for the McPherson Director of Education.


Teacher In-service


April 23, 2008

Winter, 1891 John Henry Twachtman (1853–1902) Oil on canvas 21 5/8 x 26 5/8 in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D. C.

Winter was painted on John Twachtman’s farm near Greenwich, Connecticut. Throughout the 1890s, he found a seemingly inexhaustible source of inspiration on this property, painting many of his best-known scenes of brooks and pools on the grounds of his farm. It was at this time that his adaptation of French impressionist theory evolved into a mature, personal style, emphasizing atmospheric effects. In depicting both familiar terrain in his own backyard and more exotic locales such as Yellowstone, Twachtman tended to focus on a single feature within a small area such as a pool or falls, and to paint it again when the seasons changed. In his numerous paintings of these familiar landmarks, Twachtman captured the changing effects of seasons and weather; most, like Winter, have titles referring to the time of year. Influenced by Whistler's soft, subdued tones, Twachtman painted many winter scenes, keying his palette to the saturated white of snow, ice, and atmosphere. Winter, painted in the early 1890s, has a mood of hushed stillness, typical of softly falling snow and conveyed through even, muted tonalities and vaporous, mist-shrouded forms, seen through a veil of snow.

http://www.phillipscollection.org/research/american_art/artwork/Twachtman-Winter.htm Art: Capturing an Impression

John Twachtman’s paintings of snow allowed him to experiment with the subtleties of color and form to achieve lyrical atmospheric effect. Describe the range of colors he used. What would the painting have looked like if the artist

made the snow all white? What words would you use to describe this painting?

http://www.phillipscollection.org/american_art/artwork/Twachtman-Winter.htm

http://www.phillipscollection.org/research/american_art/artwork/Twachtman-Winter.htm

What characteristics of impressionism can you find in this painting? Compare the painting with the photograph of the same area. What features has the artist

retained and what has he changed? Compare the painting with another of Twachtman’s paintings in the exhibition, Summer.

Art, ELA and Social Studies

Many words have been written about beauty:

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty. That is all ye know on Earth, and all ye need to know." (John Keats) “Beauty is a glorious gift of nature.” (Homer) “Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.” (Socrates) “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” (Margaret Hungerford, attrib.) “Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.” (Kahil Gibran) “Beauty is a form of genius.” (Oscar Wilde) “Beauty is the promise of happiness.” (Stendahl)

What did the impressionists think about beauty as a subject for art? What are your thoughts? Identify specific works of art that capture your conception of beauty? Explain your reasons.

What understandings of beauty do you find in different eras and cultures?

ELA: American Impressionism in Literature

American Impressionism is characterized by an emphasis on personal emotions and sensations, the selection of a few details to convey a transitory and subjective impression, and its portrayal of the beauty in life. Such choices can also be seen in the writings of Stephen Crane, Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost. Compare the artistic choices made by John Twachtman in painting Winter with those of the

poet Robert Frost in his poem “Dust of Snow. “ Dust of Snow

Robert Frost (1923) The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I had rued.

Social Studies: Landscape Architecture Movement

In the late 19th century, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead was designing public parks to bring the beauty of unspoiled nature into urban areas like Boston. As Twachtman was creating his idyllic environment on his Connecticut farm, these landscape architects were copying and “improving upon” nature in their green parks. Referring to Olmsted in March, 1893, friend and architect Daniel Burnham said, "An artist, he paints with lakes and wooded slopes; with lawns and banks and forest covered hills; with mountain sides and ocean views." (quoted from Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed

America) What similarities do you see between these urban scenes and the impressionist paintings?

How do the objectives of 19th urban planners and park designers compare with those of the

21st century? Riverway, 1881

In Boston Frederick Law Olmsted suggested a parkway along the river rather than a grand boulevard as the link between the Fens and Leverett Park in keeping with his concern for preserving the natural scenery of the landscape whenever possible.

Arnold Arboretum, 1872

The Arboretum is part of Harvard University and was designed by Charles Sargent Sprague, with Olmsted’s advice, as a

museum of different species of trees and plants. The plan is scientifically formal, but meant to resemble a typical New England rural landscape.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/landscape/olmsted.html.


http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/landscape/olmsted.html


Teacher In-service


April 23, 2008

On the Hudson at Newburgh, 1918 Gifford Beal (1879-1956) Oil on canvas 36 x 58 ½ in. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D. C.

Gifford Beal’s early work was extremely popular in both subject matter—leisure activities in charming settings—and in method: sparkling color and light carried by quick impressionist brushstrokes. Gradually, he moved away from the impressionist style learned from William Merritt Chase and adopted a broadly realistic style that he used to depict the rugged life that he observed on the New England coast during many summers spent by the sea. Muted tones, strong, thick brushstrokes, and simplified compositions characterize his works of mid career. By 1940 Beal turned his attention to theater and circus scenes, subjects that had attracted him periodically over the years. For these works, he again used the radiant color and light effects that had distinguished his early works.

http://www.phillipscollection.org/american_art/bios/beal-bio.htm Art

Compare On the Hudson at Newburgh with the other American Impressionist works in this

exhibition. In what ways does Beal use the techniques of the impressionists? How does his work differ?

Compare Beal’s painting with Gassed by John Singer Sargent; painted in 1918, it is now in London’s Imperial War Museum. http://jssgallery.org/Paintings/Gassed/Gassed.htm

Gassed, 1918 John Singer Sargent Oil on canvas 231 x 611.1 cm (91 x 240 1/2 in.) Imperial War Museum

http://www.phillipscollection.org/american_art/bios/beal-bio.htm

http://jssgallery.org/Paintings/Gassed/Gassed.htm

ELA

On the Hudson at Newburgh was painted in 1918, the last year of World War I. Compare the images, point of view and mood evoked by Gifford Beal with that of Carl Sandburg’s 1918 poem ―Grass.‖ This poem appeared in the January, 1919 anthology, Modern American

Poetry: an Introduction. Sandburg fought for eight months in Puerto Rico with the Sixth Regiment of the Illinois Volunteers during the 1898 Spanish-American War.

Grass

Carl Sandburg, 1918 Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me work – I am the grass; I cover all. And pile them high at Gettysburg And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun. Shovel them under and let me work. Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor: What place is this? Where are we now? I am the grass. Let me work.

Social Studies

Gifford Beal painted On the Hudson at Newburgh in 1918. What event do you think he is portraying? What evidence do you find? What details suggest the artist’s point of view about

this event? Compare the painting with ―Over There,‖ the popular song composed by George C. Cohan

within days of the United States April 4, 1917 entry into World War I. You can hear 1917 recordings of the song at: http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/overthere.htm.

Over There

Johnnie, get your gun, Get your gun, get your gun,

Take it on the run, On the run, on the run.

Hear them calling, you and me, Every son of liberty.

Hurry right away, No delay, go today,

Make your daddy glad To have had such a lad.

http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/overthere.htm

Tell your sweetheart not to pine, To be proud her boy's in line.

Johnnie, get your gun, Get your gun, get your gun,

Johnnie show the Hun Who's a son of a gun.

Hoist the flag and let her fly, Yankee Doodle do or die.

Pack your little kit, Show your grit, do your bit.

Yankee to the ranks, From the towns and the tanks.

Make your mother proud of you, And the old Red, White and Blue.

Chorus

Over there, over there, Send the word, send the word over there –

That the Yanks are coming, The Yanks are coming,

The drums rum-tumming Ev'rywhere.

So prepare, say a pray'r, Send the word, send the word to beware.

We'll be over, we're coming over, And we won't come back till it's over

Over there. Compare Gifford Beal’s 1918 painting On the Hudson at Newburg, with the war effort

posters from the time. Twenty-two posters from the MAG exhibition: CALLING EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD!: AMERICAN WORLD WAR I POSTERS can be found at:

http://magart.rochester.edu/Prt1114*1.html What similarities can you find in content, details, composition, color and view point? What differences? What are the many reasons artists create their works of art?


http://magart.rochester.edu/Prt1114*1.html


Teacher In-service


April 23, 2008

Classroom Resources Available in the Teacher Resource Center of the Memorial Art Gallery

Find a portfolio of the American art images you’ve seen today at

http://magart.rochester.edu/PRT1393*1.html.

Books:

Bingham, Jane. Landscape and the Environment. Chicago, Il: Raintree, 2006. Juvenile

literature. Curry, David Park. Capturing Beauty: American Impressionist & Realist Paintings from the

McGlothlin Collection. Richmond: VMFA, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Charlottesville: Distributed by University of Virginia Press, 2005.

Glubok, Shirley. Art of America in the Gilded Age. New York, Macmillan, 1974. Hiesinger, Ulrich W. Impressionism in America: Ten American Painters. Munich: Prestel-

Verlag, 1991. Meyer, Susan. Mary Cassatt. New York: Abrams, 1990. Prelinger, Elizabeth. American Impressionism: Treasures from the Smithsonian Art Museum.

New York: Watson-Guptill Publications in association with the Smithsonian Art Museum, 2000

Solon, Deborah Epstein. Colonies of American Impressionism: Cos Cob, Old Lyme, Shinnecock

and Laguna Beach. Laguna Beach, CA: Laguna Art Museum, 1999. Websites:

Metropolitan Museum of Art: American Impressionism http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/aimp/hd_aimp.htm

Metropolitan Museum Explore and learn: Childe Hassam

http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/childe_hassam/timeline.html

http://magart.rochester.edu/PRT1393*1.html

http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/childe_hassam/timeline.html

National Gallery of Art: Exploring themes in American Art – Landscape http://www.nga.gov/education/american/landscape.shtm National Gallery classroom for teachers and students includes extensive interactive

lessons on a wide variety of curriculum topics.

Phillips Collection

http://www.phillipscollection.org/ Timeline of American art, artists’ biographies, collection of images and lessons

based on work including Washington Arch, Spring by Childe Hassam, Winter by

John Twachtman, Giverny by Theodore Robinson, Bathers at Bellport by William

Glackens and Augustus Vincent Tack’s Windswept (Snow Picture, Leyden).

Kits and Videocassettes:

The Figure in the Impressionist Era. Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1996. 6

posters and 1 resource book. Hughes, Robert. American Visions. Alexandria, VA: PBS Home Video, distributed by Warner

Home Video, 1997. 8 videocassettes, 60 minutes each, a chronological survey of art

and American history. Volume 4: “The Gilded Age.”

The Inquiring Eye: American Paintings. Washington: The National Gallery of Art, 1992. 20

slides, 14 reproductions, text and classroom activities. Intersections: Japanese Art and the West: A Teachers Guide. Smithsonian Freer Gallery of Art

and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2006. Teacher guide and 12 reproductions.

Land & Landscape: Views of America’s History and Culture. Washington, DC: National

Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Glenview, IL: Crystal Productions, 1996. 1 videocassette, 15 reproductions, a study guide and student workbook

Witmer, Susan. Art & Origin Myths; Heroes & Heroines; Ecology; 19th

-Century America.

Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, Dept. of Teacher, School, and Family Programs, Division of Education, 2002. 20 art prints and teacher’s guide to lessons

and activities.

Support for the Gallery’s 2007-08 school programs is provided by Dominion, Bank of America, the Mary W. Clark Trust, and an anonymous

foundation. Additional support is provided by Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation, Hammer Packaging, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Judson Jr., the estate of Estelle B. Goldman, and an anonymous donor for the McPherson Director of Education.

Documents

American Impressionism Teacher In-service Memorial Art Gallery