This book vividly illustrates the breadth and versatility of the movement that ushered in American twentieth-century art, and is a work to be treasured by those familiar with the style as well as by art students meeting these works for the first time.

In the late nineteenth century, American painters, many of them expatriates, became aware of the Impressionist revolution in France. The works of such artists as Mary Cassatt, the only American invited to join the French Impressionists,and Theodore Robinson, who worked with Claude Monet at Giverny, reflect the French school most closely. The controversial James Abbott McNeill Whistler experimented with color and tone in his landscapes, some of which depict the tranquillity of twilight. John Singer Sargent,best known for his dazzling portraits,also delighted in painting from nature.

As American painters returned to the United States from study in Europe, they brought with them the new techniques and sensibilities they had learned abroad. Unlike their French counterparts, the American Impressionists did not dissolve forms purely into color and light, but maintained a close attachment to the subject matter. In the midst of increasing industrialism, the American Impressionist landscapes portrayed a beautiful, picturesque, and believable world.

In 1898, a number of American artists who adhered closely to the conventions of Impressionism held their first joint exhibition, as the Ten American Painters. The group included Edmund Tarbell,Frank Benson, and Joseph De Camp who concentrated on portraits; Willard Metcalf, Robert Reid, John Twachtman,and J. Alden Weir, who specialized in landscapes; Childe Hassam, who painted urban scenes as well as sun-dappled gardens; Thomas Dewing, whose muted figure paintings reveal subtle variations of muted colors; Edward Simmons, who was best known for his murals; and following Twachtman's early death in 1902,William Merritt Chase, the flamboyant and adroit painter of both landscapes and portraits.

American Impressionists vividly illustrates the breadth and versatility of the movement that ushered in American twentieth-century art, and is a work to be treasured by those familiar with the style as well as by art students meeting these works for the first time.

INTRODUCTION

AMERICANS ABROAD

LANDSCAPES

BUILDINGSS AND BRIDGES

PORTRAITS AND CHARACTER STUDIES

GARDENS

LIST oF COLOR PLATES