WINSTON-SALEM, NC.- Reynolda House Museum of American Art will host "American Impressions: Selections from the National Academy Museum"
February 28 through June 28. The exhibition features 32 masterworks of American Impressionism from the National Academy Museum in New York complemented by four masterworks from the Reynolda House collection.
Reynolda House is the only venue outside of the National Academy Museum to host the exhibition, which is organized by the National Academy Museum, New York.
The late 19th and early 20th century paintings in "American Impressions" were created in response to the development of Impressionism in France and signaled a new cosmopolitanism in the nation's art following the end of the Civil War in 1865. From the unique effects of light and atmosphere, to brilliance and immediacy of color, to new and informal composition, these works illustrate the full range of Impressionist qualities that captivated artists and audiences both then and now. The exhibition encompasses landscapes, portraits, and still lifes by artists including George Bellows, William Merritt Chase, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Lilian Westcott Hale, Childe Hassam, John La Farge, John Singer Sargent, and Henry Ossawa Tanner. High resolution images are available upon request.
Over the course of nearly two centuries, the National Academy has assembled one of the largest and most significant collections of American art in the country. Many works have been donated by the artists themselves as their diploma presentations, a requirement of election as a National Academician.
Exhibition Events
Friday, February 27, 7–9 p.m.
Exhibition Opening – Reynolda House's spring exhibition, "American Impressions: Selections from the National Academy Museum" opens with a party for the general public featuring live music, hors d'oeuvres, cash bar, and admission to the main floor of the historic house.
Sunday, March 29, 2–4 p.m.
Community Day Festival: Americans in Paris – Reynolda House invites the public to a spring festival celebrating "American Impressions: Selections from the National Academy Museum." Tour the museum and enjoy art activities and music on the park-like grounds of the Reynolda Estate. Entertainment will include a chorus, strolling accordion players and mimes, balloons, a calliope, sketching artists, and French pastries and ices.
Tuesday Lectures
March 10, 5:30 p.m. – Painting in the Lion's Den: The Spiritual Art of Henry Ossawa Tanner
Like many African American artists during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Tanner found little support for his work in the United States and emigrated to France to continue his studies. His greatest success came as a painter of religious subjects, recreating familiar biblical scenes and figures in original ways. Guest lecturer Marcus Bruce is professor and chair of the Religious Studies Department at Bates College and the author of "Henry Ossawa Tanner: A Spiritual Biography."
April 14, 5:30 p.m. – American Impressionists and Realists: Master Multitaskers
The light-infused landscapes of the American Impressionists and incisive urban views of the Realist artists of the Ashcan School are highly prized today, but such works provided these artists with only limited income during their careers. Distinguished art historian H. Barbara Weinberg will speak about the financial frustrations of artists like William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, Theodore Robinson, and John Sloan and the professional solutions they found for supporting themselves. Weinberg is the Alice Pratt Brown Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Curator of the major 2006 exhibition "Americans in Paris: 1860–1900," she co-edited the accompanying catalogue and is author of "Childe Hassam, American Impressionist" and "The Lure of Paris: 19th Century American Painters and their French Teachers."
May 20, 5:30 p.m. – American Idyll: Yankee Artists in Giverny
As mostly wealthy young American painters set up housekeeping in the Parisian village of Giverny to be closer to French Impressionist Claude Monet, the Hotel Baudy became a colony for expatriates. Art historian John Hallmark Neff will discuss the enchantment of Giverny and the gardens that so infatuated American painters.
Music and Poetry
Sunday, March 22, 3 p.m.
French Impressionisms – Pianist Pamela Howland and translator Dick Schneider present a program of French Impressionist music and poetry. Music by Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy will alternate with poems by the early symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud and the later Belgian poet François Jacqmin, which may shadow or preview the music. Pamela Howland performs throughout the United States and is adjunct assistant professor of music at Wake Forest University. Dick Schneider is a poet and professor of law at Wake Forest School of Law.
Play
Friday, April 17, 7 p.m.; Saturday, April 18, 3 and 7 p.m.
"Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" – Artists like Childe Hassam and George Bellows were drawn to the force and vitality of rural Maine, an area introduced to generations in the classic 1903 children's novel "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm." Author Kate Douglas Wiggin also adapted her story for the stage, and this production, by the Little Theatre of Winston-Salem, introduces a poor farm girl sent to live with two strict aunts. The aunts intend to instruct their niece to be demure and proper; she teaches them the importance of spontaneity and imagination.
