Romantic views of Paris and summertime scenes of the surrounding French countryside during the late-nineteenth century remain hallmarks of many important Impressionist paintings. But visit the Dayton Art Institute (DAI) in May for a fresh look at Impressionism as the movement grew in America with the increasingly innovative artists of the twentieth century.
Beloved painters like John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassatt followed the traditional route of studying the then-new Impressionist art style in France, but many expatriate artists returned home to the States to develop their own Impressionist traditions, techniques and a network of art colonies continuing well into the 1930s.
The show at Dayton includes the work of artists like Sargent and Cassatt, as well William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, John Fulton Folinsbee and Robert Lewis Reid (his painting Summer Breezes graces DAI banners and brochures for this exhibition).
The exhibition arranges the artwork in groupings representing artists working at art colonies in places like Cos Cob and Old Lyme in Connecticut; Cape Code, Cape Anne and Rockport in Massachusetts; New Hope, and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, Taos in New Mexico and several locations in California. These summer art colonies were close to larger cities, but far enough out into the country where the artists could enjoy painting outdoors in nature.
Aimee Marcereau De Galan, DAI Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, joined us during our visit to the exhibition, pointing out how the direction and quality of light in work created in the East Coast art colonies differed from work created in sunnier climates like California.
Exhibition visitors should visit the DAI's companion exhibition for the Impressionism show (In the Garden), which showcases works on paper from the permanent collection showing how artists throughout many eras and countries portrayed the outdoor spaces that so dominated Impressionism.
I also picked up a gallery guide to Impressionism brochure at the museum, which lists a number of works by French Impressionists within the DAI's permanent collection that includes one of Monet's famous Water Lilies paintings.
The museum's permanent collection also includes important Oceanic, Asian, European and American fine art and decorative work spanning 5,000 years of art history.
The museum originally opened in a downtown Dayton mansion in 1919 with the support of community leaders like aviators Wilber and Orville Wright and the Patterson family, founders of the National Cash Register Company in Dayton.
The museum outgrew its original quarters, moving to its present site on a hill alongside the Great Miami River flowing through town. The building, designed to resemble sixteen century Italian Renaissance-style villas, opened in 1930.
The museum's American Impressionism:The Lure of the Artists' Colony, featuring more than 100 paintings, prints and other American Impressionist works of art, runs now through May 31 and kicks off a trio of shows celebrating 2015 as the Year of American Art at the DAI.
Upcoming shows in the series are Call to Duty: World War Posters (July 4, 2015 through October 4, 2015) and American Sampler: Grandma Moses and the Handicraft Tradition (November 21, 2015 through February 21, 2016).
Photos by Tim Marks, used with permission.
Thanks to the Dayton Art Institute for hosting our tour and lunch at the museum's Leo Bistro.
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