On June 11, the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) will open America’s Impressionism: Echoes of a Revolution, an exhibition that explores the development of Impressionism in the United States. While Impressionism made its public debut in Paris with a shocking exhibition in 1874, the style did not fully take hold in America until more than a decade later, after a major exhibition of French works in New York in 1886. With this belated arrival, American Impressionism might be understood merely as the adaptation of techniques and visual vocabularies honed by French masters. Through more than 70 works assembled from public and private collections, America’s Impressionism redefines our understanding of the movement to show how American artists drew upon transatlantic exchange to create an independent movement, uniquely shaped by American sensibilities and regional landscapes. (San Antonio Museum of Art, 2021)

Originally curated by Amanda C. Burdan of the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, the exhibition is also co-organized by SAMA and the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, Tennessee. At SAMA, it is curated by Yinshi Lerman-Tan, Acting Associate Curator of American and European Art. It will remain on view at SAMA through September 5, 2021, and then travel to the Brandywine. The exhibition is also accompanied by a catalogue published in conjunction with Yale University Press, which includes a full complement of color plates and new essays on the subject by the exhibition’s curators. 

Impressionism has been one of the most enduring styles of art ever produced, and its complex and often contradictory American expression has captured interest for more than a century. Yet, the development of American Impressionism remains understudied, and the artists who worked within the genre have not been given ample credit for the ways in which they made this imported style wholly their own. Featuring works by Cecilia Beaux, William Merritt Chase, Willard Metcalf, Emma Richardson Cherry, Jane Peterson, and Theodore Wendel, among numerous others, the exhibition reveals a more nuanced history of the artistic exchange between the U.S. and France in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the trajectories of Impressionism across the Atlantic. 

As Impressionism spread west, Texas, too, became an important place. To engage audiences with this history, SAMA’s presentation of America’s Impressionism will include outstanding works by Texas artists, including Onderdonk, Dawson Dawson-Watson, and José Arpa, among others. These paintings are drawn from SAMA’s permanent collection as well as from local private collections. American Impressionists were attracted to Texas’ varied landscapes, from the wildflowers of the hill country to the plains of North Texas and the arid West Texas countryside. 

The SAMA presentation is further distinguished by the incorporation of masterworks from the San Antonio-based Marie and Hugh Halff Collection, a premier collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American impressionist painting. Among the numerous works to be featured are Frederick Carl Frieseke’s striking painting The Bathers (about 1914), Childe Hassam’s The New York Bouquet (1917), and Edmund C. Tarbell’s Girl Cutting Patterns (1907-8). These works from the Marie and Hugh Halff collection deepen and broaden SAMA’s iteration of the American Impressionist story for San Antonio audiences, made possible by the dedication and vision of San Antonio collectors.

The San Antonio Museum of Art serves as a forum to explore and connect with art that spans the world’s geographies, artistic periods, genres, and cultures. Its collection contains nearly 30,000 works representing 5,000 years of history. Housed in the historic Lone Star Brewery on the Museum Reach of San Antonio’s River Walk, the San Antonio Museum of Art is committed to promoting the rich cultural heritage and life of the city. The Museum hosts hundreds of events and public programs each year, including concerts, performances, tours, lectures, symposia, and interactive experiences. As an active civic leader, the Museum is dedicated to enriching the cultural life of the city and the region, and to supporting its creative community.