"A true historical painter ... is one who paints the life he sees about
him, and so makes a record of his own epoch." This principle, voiced by
the Impressionist Childe Hassam, was heeded by the artists whose
contributions are the focus of this volume: the American Impressionists
and the Realists of the generation that succeeded them. The authors of
the book, which accompanies a major exhibition, illuminate the
continuities and differences between American Impressionism and Realism,
two movements that are traditionally viewed as merely opposed.
They
explore the roots of American Impressionism in European art, especially
in the French Impressionists' engagement with the contemporary scene.
Also elucidated are the evolving responses of both the American
Impressionists and Realists to the changing realities of life in the
United States at the turn of the century, as the nation shifted rapidly
from an agrarian to an increasingly industrialized urban society. In an
examination of paintings that represent the country, the city, and the
home - the triad of subjects that engaged the artists - these responses
are shown to reflect a tension between enthusiasm for the new and a
sense of loss of the rural past. Studying a wide range of painters,
including John Singer Sargent, William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam,
John Sloan, William Glackens, and George Bellows, the authors offer new
insights into the threads of nationalism, optimism, euphemism, and
nostalgia that link the two movements. They demonstrate that these
painters of modern life endowed their European-rooted art with a
distinctly American inflection and produced a selective register of an
energetic nation, revealing a complex commitment to Robert Henri's
assertion that "painting is the giving of evidence."
The volume
brings a new approach to this area of American art history, which has
tended to be more descriptive than interpretive: it offers detailed
historical and social contexts for the works and movements under
consideration as well as penetrating stylistic analyses. Lavish
illustrations of the paintings in the exhibition, comparative works and
period photographs, a biography of each of the twenty-six artists in the
exhibition, a selected bibliography, and an index are included.
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