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In 2012, the year of the five hundredth anniversary of the death of Amerigo Vespucci, Florence is celebrating the strong ties between the old and the new continent with this exhibition, which illustrates the cosmopolitan circle that permanently ties the city of Florence to the "New World".
The exhibition aims to study the relationship of American impressionist painters with Italy, and in particular with Florence, from the last decades of the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. The flow of American artists to Europe significantly increased after the end of the Civil War in 1865, and continued until the early twentieth century. Hundreds of painters descended on Paris and France, others studied in Germany, while England, Holland and Spain were also popular destinations.
Italy was an undeniable magnet for most of them. Florence, Venice and Rome were at the centre of the secular tradition of the Grand Tour, and they were places mythologized by those who wanted to know and study the art of the past, as well as exercising a strong fascination because of the climate, the atmosphere of the countryside, and the people. For the first time, after the recent exhibitions held in France and England, which explored the relationship between American artists and those countries, there will be an exhibition of the works of American painters who spent time in Italy and welcomed the impressionistic style.
Part of the exhibition features the works of painters who, while not explicitly adhering to the new style of painting, were fundamental teachers to the younger generation: Winslow Homer, William Morris Hunt, John La Farge and Somas Eakins. Following them are the great forerunners such as John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, and James Abbot McNeill Whistler, who together make up a strong cosmopolitan element. At the centre of the exhibition are the works of important artists who spent time in Florence. Among these are some members of the American impressionist group, called Ten American Painters: William Merrit Chase, John Henry Twachman and Frederick Childe Hassam. There is also work by Frank Duveneck, who played an important role in the relationship between American and local artists, gathering round him a school, the so-called “Duveneck Boys”, which included his wife Elisabeth Boott and the painter Joseph Rodefer De Camp. The life and activities of the Americans in Florence is intertwined with that of American intellectuals, collectors, writers and art critics, some of whom had already had dealings with the artists in their home country: Gertrude Stein, Mabel Dodge, Bernard Berenson, the brothers Henry and William James, Egisto Fabbri and his sisters – Ernestine the painter and Cora the poet, Mabel Hooper La Farge, Bancel La Farge, Charles Loeser and Edith Wharton. These American colonies in Italy, although they lived rather isolated from the local population, took up some of the more modern aspects of contemporary Italian art – in Florence the importance of The Macchiaioli is emphasized – and had a certain impact on Italian artists and intellectuals because they introduced sophisticated, cosmopolitan lifestyles, and, in relation to women, more free and open-minded attitudes.
In the exhibition are portraits of women of great quality, in which the woman become a symbol of the modern American nation: young people, teenagers, and even children, often dressed in white, embody the purity and the hope of an entire nation. The theme of the female portraits is linked to the oversees activity of the painters who were much more liberated than their peers in France, or Europe in general. The boldest, such as Mary Cassatt, reached Europe and continued to trade between their country and the continent. In Europe, painting was considered a pastime for women. This was not true in the US, where they had been allowed to attend academies alongside their male colleagues since 1860, whereas in Paris they were forced to enrol in private schools for many more years.
Exhibition information: +39 055 2645155;www.palazzostrozzi.org
Opening hours: every day 9am-8pm; Thursday 9am-11pm
Bookings:
Sigma CSC
T. +39 055 2469600
F. +39 055 244145
prenotazioni@cscsigma.it
The exhibition aims to study the relationship of American impressionist painters with Italy, and in particular with Florence, from the last decades of the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. The flow of American artists to Europe significantly increased after the end of the Civil War in 1865, and continued until the early twentieth century. Hundreds of painters descended on Paris and France, others studied in Germany, while England, Holland and Spain were also popular destinations.
Italy was an undeniable magnet for most of them. Florence, Venice and Rome were at the centre of the secular tradition of the Grand Tour, and they were places mythologized by those who wanted to know and study the art of the past, as well as exercising a strong fascination because of the climate, the atmosphere of the countryside, and the people. For the first time, after the recent exhibitions held in France and England, which explored the relationship between American artists and those countries, there will be an exhibition of the works of American painters who spent time in Italy and welcomed the impressionistic style.
Part of the exhibition features the works of painters who, while not explicitly adhering to the new style of painting, were fundamental teachers to the younger generation: Winslow Homer, William Morris Hunt, John La Farge and Somas Eakins. Following them are the great forerunners such as John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, and James Abbot McNeill Whistler, who together make up a strong cosmopolitan element. At the centre of the exhibition are the works of important artists who spent time in Florence. Among these are some members of the American impressionist group, called Ten American Painters: William Merrit Chase, John Henry Twachman and Frederick Childe Hassam. There is also work by Frank Duveneck, who played an important role in the relationship between American and local artists, gathering round him a school, the so-called “Duveneck Boys”, which included his wife Elisabeth Boott and the painter Joseph Rodefer De Camp. The life and activities of the Americans in Florence is intertwined with that of American intellectuals, collectors, writers and art critics, some of whom had already had dealings with the artists in their home country: Gertrude Stein, Mabel Dodge, Bernard Berenson, the brothers Henry and William James, Egisto Fabbri and his sisters – Ernestine the painter and Cora the poet, Mabel Hooper La Farge, Bancel La Farge, Charles Loeser and Edith Wharton. These American colonies in Italy, although they lived rather isolated from the local population, took up some of the more modern aspects of contemporary Italian art – in Florence the importance of The Macchiaioli is emphasized – and had a certain impact on Italian artists and intellectuals because they introduced sophisticated, cosmopolitan lifestyles, and, in relation to women, more free and open-minded attitudes.
In the exhibition are portraits of women of great quality, in which the woman become a symbol of the modern American nation: young people, teenagers, and even children, often dressed in white, embody the purity and the hope of an entire nation. The theme of the female portraits is linked to the oversees activity of the painters who were much more liberated than their peers in France, or Europe in general. The boldest, such as Mary Cassatt, reached Europe and continued to trade between their country and the continent. In Europe, painting was considered a pastime for women. This was not true in the US, where they had been allowed to attend academies alongside their male colleagues since 1860, whereas in Paris they were forced to enrol in private schools for many more years.
Exhibition information: +39 055 2645155;www.palazzostrozzi.org
Opening hours: every day 9am-8pm; Thursday 9am-11pm
Bookings:
Sigma CSC
T. +39 055 2469600
F. +39 055 244145
prenotazioni@cscsigma.it
