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French Impressionism and Boston
Masterworks from the Museum of Fine Arts
at Norton Museum of Art
November 19 2005 - March 5, 2006
Title: Grand Canal, Venice, 1881.
Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919)
Medium: Oil on Canvas,
Dimensions: 21 1/4 by 25 5/8 inches (54 by 65.1 cm).
Permanent Collection: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Bequest of Alexander Cochrane 19.173
Image Courtesy: Norton Museum of Art
Fifty-three masterworks are on display as part of this international exhibit that has already been
seen in Nagoya, Japan and London, England and now has its only US venue in Florida. It's a who's who
of impressionist artists starting with Monet, Manet and Pissarro supplemented with works by American
artists John Singer Sargent, Child Hassam, William Morris Hunt and Edmund Charles Tarbell.
Dr. Christina Orr-Cahall, Director of the Norton Museum of Art, said,
"We are delighted to have been selected as the only U.S. venue for this magnificent exhibition.
It will be the first time that visitors to the Museum will be able to see the juxtaposition of
masterpieces by Monet, Degas, Manet, and others with major works by American Impressionists
such as Hassam and Sargent. The importance of these artists cannot be underestimated and the
relationship between Impressionism in France and its imprint on the Boston artists and collectors
is highly visible."
This is the story of Boston collectors looking to the French art scene to purchase art. It was the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) of
Boston that was the first American venue to organize a retrospective of Claude Monet, in 1911. The MFA purchased the first museum owned
Degas Race Horses at Longchamps, 1871 which is in the exhibit.
Title: Race Horses at Longchamp, 1871
Artist: Edgar Degas (French, 1834–1917)
possibly reworked in 1874.
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 13 3/8 by 16 1/2 inches (34 by 41.9 cm)
Permanent Collection: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston S. A. Denio Collection 03.1034
Image Courtesy: Norton Museum of Art
Horse racing was a popular English sport that spread to France at the beginning of the 19th Century. By the birth of Degas, 1834, the sport was
extremely popular in his homeland. In 1857 a race track was built at Longchamp on the outskirts of Paris and this was the subject of his painting
Racehorses at Longchamp
The French Influence
Of the fifty-three works forming French Impressionism and Boston twelve
were created by Claude Monet. The French artist had a significant influence on
many Bostonians who visited him at his Giverny home to learn his techniques knowing Impressionism was popular among collectors back home.
Title: Camille Monet and a Child in the Artist's Garden in Argenteuil, 1875.
Artist: Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 21 3/4 by 25 1/2 inches (55.3 by 64.7 cm).
Permanent Collection: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Anonymous gift in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin S. Webster 1976.833
Image Courtesy: Norton Museum of Art
Boston, at this time, was the locale of important and progressive art collectors. Remember that the Impressionists were heavily criticized early
in their careers. The Bostonian art buying patrons embraced the French style and were avid collectors. The popularity began in the 1850s with
the development of William Morris Hunt's style which was heavily influenced by the French Barbizon School and
through his friendship with Jean Francois Millet. Equally
popular was Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot for his poetic landscapes that echoed the naturalist literature of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry
David Thoreau. Corot was popular among US art aficionados but in Boston a misty and gray day was known as a "Corot Day"
demonstrating his influence.
Local artists began to adopt the French style in their work. John Singer Sargent, Theodore Wendel, Lilla Cabot Perry and Philip Leslie Hale were among
the American artists that worked at Giverny.
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Helen Sears a John Singer Sargent portrait is in the exhibit. Helen Sears was the daughter of Sarah Sears
and Joshua Montgomery Sears, who was one of Boston's wealthiest men.
Sarah was an artist herself who often used her own daughter as a model as did
other artists such as John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassatt.. The latter's work, Portrait of Helen Sears, 1907, is in the permanent collection
of the Norton Museum of Art where one may view French Impressionism and Boston: Masterworks from the Museum of Fine Arts.
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Title: Helen Sears, 1895
Artist: John Singer Sargent (American 1856-1925)
Medium: Oil on Canvas,
Dimensions: 65 7/8 by 36 inches (167.3 by 91.4 cm).
Permanent Collection: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Gift of Mrs. J. D. Cameron Bradley 55.1116
Image Courtesy: Norton Museum of Art
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French Impressionism and Boston
Masterworks from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston at:
Norton Museum of Art:
November 19 2005 - March 5, 2006
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