Americans in Paris, 1860-1900 by Kathleen Adler, Erica Hirshler, H. Barbara Weinberg, Erica E. Hirshler

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Synopsis

As the center of the art world in the late nineteenth century, Paris was a magnet for American art students and artists. They flocked to the studios of French artists like Jean-Léon Gérôme, William Bouguereau, and others, dreamed of showing their work at the annual Paris Salon, and watched intently as new styles such as Impressionism began to take hold. Hardly an American painter was unaffected by developments in Paris, and even those who chose not to study there wanted their work to be affirmed by French audiences and taste makers.
This beautifully illustrated book traces the role of American artists in Paris from the Salon des Refusés, in 1863, to the emergence of a uniquely American style of painting at the turn of the century. It includes iconic images by John Singer Sargent, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Mary Cassatt, and Winslow Homer, and by many other artists whose names and work were more widely known then than now.
Engaging essays written by notable scholars explore why artists were drawn to Paris, how they responded to what they found there, and what they retained of their experience. In addition, the significance of the Expositions Universelles, the French view of American artists in Paris, and the role these artists played in shaping the great American collections of modern French painting are discussed. Featuring more than 100 paintings, the essays are followed by artists’ biographies, an illustrated, annotated list of works, and a complete bibliography.

Biography

Kathleen Adler is Director of Education at the National Gallery, London. Erica E. Hirshler is Croll Senior Curator of Paintings, Art of the Americas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. H. Barbara Weinberg is the Alice Pratt Brown Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. David Park Curry is Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and American Painting and Sculpture at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Rodolphe Rapetti is Chief Curator of Patrimony and Deputy Director at the Direction des Musées de France, Paris. Christopher Riopelle is Curator of Nineteenth-Century Paintings at the National Gallery, London.