Straddling the Atlantic: European Influences on the American Art of the Weir Family

This post comes to us from Sara Cotter, Curatorial Intern.

Taking the Veil, 1863, Robert Walter Weir (1803-1889). Oil on canvas, 49 1/2 x 39 3/4 in. Yale University Art Gallery.

The works included in the exhibition, The Weir Family, 1820-1920: Expanding the Traditions of American Art, which will be on view in the McKernan Gallery from June 30^th until September 30^th, illustrates the influence that travel and study in Europe had on the developing art of America in the 19th century. This phenomenon is exemplified by the work of the three Weirs represented: Robert Walter Weir and his sons, John Ferguson Weir and Julian Alden Weir. All three men studied in Europe as part of their artistic training and subsequently had long and successful careers back home in America, as artists and art instructors. The Weir dynasty represents almost a century of artistic production, during which major changes were occurring in the nature of American art and its relationship to the art centers of Europe – changes in which the Weirs figured prominently.

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Tradition and Emotion: The paintings of Nelson H. White

This post comes to us from Gina Ciralli, Curatorial Intern.

Self-Portrait, 2011. Nelson H. White (b.1932) Oil on canvas, 12” x 16”. Collection of the artist.

Nelson Holbrook White, contemporary realist and Connecticut native, has built his career on painting majestic landscapes.  Inspired by a life of travel, White is best known for his beach and shore oil paintings.  His survey exhibition, Scenic Spirit, is on view in the Davis gallery.

Born in New London, Connecticut in 1932 to a family of successful American artists, Nelson first studied art with his father, Nelson Cooke White (1900-1989), and grandfather, Henry Cooke White (1861-1952).  Carefully coached on aesthetics, young Nelson learned the significance of half-tones, which characterize the work his grandfather’s mentor, Dwight W. Tryon (1849-1925).  He was additionally introduced to an array of classical realists including R. H. Ives Gammell (1893-1981) and Richard Lack (1928-2009) through his family connections.  In 1954, a visit to Florence, Italy prompted a friendship and mentorship that would forever impact White’s emerging style.

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Art and Identity in a Creative Environment

Charles W. Hawthorne sketching with his class, Provincetown, MA

One week from today, the NBMAA will open its newest exhibition The Tides of Provincetown: Pivotal Years in America’s Oldest Continuous Art Colony (1899-2011). With the installation well under way, we have stopped to consider one seemingly elemental, though crucial  question that quietly lurks behind the very title of the show. That question of course being, “Well, what exactly is an art colony?” The short answer is simply that an art colony is a community where artists of all kinds congregate to live, learn, and practice. A  kind of getaway destination for “long-term professional development.” Today, art colonies are vigorously sought after and provide an opportunity for artists to share and evolve their ideas, away from general distractions of the everyday.

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A Life-Sized Testament to Love

Poster for the Exposition Universelle de 1889, Paris

Just a few days ago, the NBMAA purcahsed a full-scale, life-sized portrait of Emeline Arnold Souther (Mrs. Edmund Charles Tarbell.) Edmund Charles Tarbell painted this masterpiece early on in their relationship, in fact it was painted in the year they were married (1888) right before he became a teacher for several decades at the Boston Museum School. Mrs. T’s elegance and poise are a pristine example of Tarbell’s early career, transitioning from magazine illustrations to portraits. This painting was featured in the notable Exposition Universelle “World’s Fair” of 1889 in Paris.

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Frieseke: Under the French Influence

The Green Parasol, 1915. Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939). Oil on Canvas, 31 3/4 x 32 in. The Jack Warner Collection.

One of the main artists featured in the upcoming exhibition An American Odyssey: The Warner Collection of American Art is Frederick Carl Frieseke. Born in Michigan, he studied at The Art Institute of Chicago beginning in 1893. Afterwards he went to the Art Students League in New York City in 1897, until he finally traveled to Paris in 1898. Abroad, he developed and refined his style. In Paris Frieseke studied at the Académie Julien and at the Académie Carmen under James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) for a brief period.

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A Reluctant Impressionist?

The Bird Cage, 1910. Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939). Oil on canvas, 32 x 32 in. New Britain Museum of American Art.

Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939) was an American Impressionist Painter who was part of the Giverny group, but until recently was not very well-known. Frieseke was born in Owosso, Michigan, in 1874 and, from a young age, he was interested in many forms of art. He first began studying art at the Art Institute of Chicago, but he also studied in New York and in France. While Frieseke studied only briefly under James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), he was perhaps more influenced by Whistler than any of his previous instructors. He was most inspired by Whistler’s use of gradation of color. Other influences on his work included the flat and decorative features of the Art Nouveau style. Frieseke himself also stated that “no artist in [the Impressionist] school has influenced me except, perhaps, Renoir.”

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American Reflections: The Collection of Dr. Timothy McLaughlin

Millstone Point. William Chadwick (1879-1962). Oil on canvas, 24 x 30 in. Collection of Dr. Timothy McLaughlin.

The NBMAA is currently showing American Reflections: The Collection of Dr. Timothy McLaughlin in the Davis Gallery. This private collection is composed of a wide variety of local and regional subject matter. The exhibition is a focused view of Dr. McLaughlin’s collection of landscape paintings from the mid 19th to early 20th century. Following are several highlights of the exhibition.

The artistic heritage of Connecticut is rich and deep. Portraitists and limners earned a living here in colonial times. The nineteenth century saw the advent of history painting and landscape painting. A number of Hudson River School artists came from the state, lived here, or worked here. American Impressionism was embraced very early by painters in the artists’ colonies of Cos Cob and Old Lyme.

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Gallery Tours: American Impressionism

Today, we’ll have a look at the artworks in the American Impressionism Gallery situated on the first floor of the New Britian Museum of American Art.

The Bird Cage, ca. 1910. Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874–1939). Oil on canvas, 32 x 32 in. New Britain Museum of American Art, John Butler Talcott Fund, 1917.02

Beginning with Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), American artists responded with enthusiasm to the paintings of the French Impressionists Claude Monet (1840-1926), Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), and Edgar Degas (1834-1917). Their loose brushwork and informal subjects, coupled with bright primary colors, appealed to Theodore Robinson (1852-1896), Childe Hassam (1859-1935), John Twatchman (1853–1902), Willard Metcalf (1858-1925), and others, whose canvases capture the impression of light and atmosphere. The more sophisticated among them were aware of optical effects and the relationships between complementary colors. While some Americans chose to remain in France, others, like Hassam, returned to New York, and soon, by their example and through their teaching, inspired generations to come.

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Collection Highlights: Childe Hassam

The Dragon Cloud, Old Lyme, 1903. Frederick Childe Hassam (1859-1935). Oil on canvas on board, 15 1/4 x 19 1/4 in. New Britain Museum of American Art, Charles and Elizabeth Buchanan Collection, 1989.26.

Frederick Childe Hassam was born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts, but dropped out of high school in his third year. He started to study art seriously in 1877 at the age of 18, and in 1886 moved to Paris to attend the Académie Julian. However, it was not in this academic environment that Hassam first encountered Impressionism. This American Impressionist master was first exposed to Impressionism at various exhibitions in Parisian art galleries. He was deeply influenced by the French Impressionists and quickly began to incorporate their use of broken brushwork, intense colors, and overall light—techniques that he combined with a preference for American subject matter. Soon after his return in 1889, he settled in New York, where he and fellow artists John Twachtman (1853-1902) and J. Alden Weir (1852-1919) organized The Ten.

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