1878 -1925 · Paris, New York, Boston, Giverny and artist colonies

Explore American Impressionism: Cassatt, Hassam, Chase, Metcalf and their contemporaries adapt French light to the cities, gardens, shores, interiors and aspirations of a modern America.

American impressionism was born from travel, exile and return. In the 1870s and 1880s, many American artists studied in Paris, Munich or London, discovered impressionist exhibitions and experimented with the outdoors, pastel, etching and lighter color. Mary Cassatt, based in France, exhibited directly with Degas, Monet and Pissarro; his scenes of women and children combine modern framing, intimacy and rigor of drawing. William Merritt Chase exhibits directly with Degas, Monet and Pissarro; his scenes of women and children combine modern framing, intimacy and rigor of drawing. William Merritt Chase exhibits directly with Degas, Monet and Pissarro; his scenes of women and children combine modern framing, intimacy and rigor of drawing. William Merritt Chase introduces a free touch into his portraits, still lifes and the landscapes of Shinnecock, where he teaches outdoors. Childe Hassam transforms the streets of Boston and New York, the gardens of the Isles of Shoals and the flags of Fifth Avenue in vibrant surfaces of light. John Henry Twachtman favored silent variations of snow and water, while Willard Metcalf, Theodore Robinson, Edmund Tarbell, Frank Benson, Cecilia Beaux and Maurice Prendergast developed distinct responses. In 1897, Hassam, Twachtman, J. Alden Weir and their companions founded Ten American Painters to exhibit outside academic juries. The movement never formed a single school: it crossed town, countryside, domestic life, worldly portraiture and coastal landscape. What unites it is less a fixed technique than a desire to capture contemporary light while giving to subjects americans have international elegance. The "American Impressionism" selection notably compares May Night and The Child's Bath. His reading favors movement.

American Impressionism translated without copying: the touch from France meets New York, New England, Shinnecock and domestic intimacy.