AMERICAN ARTISTS ABOUND

Several excellent paintings by American artists are part of the permanent collection at the Toledo Art Museum.

Princess Demidoff  (1895-1896) by John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent was born in Florence, Italy to American parents.  He became known for his elegant and glamorous paintings of the rich and famous in the late 19th century.

Near the beach, Shinnecock (1895) by William Merritt Chase

The Open Air Breakfast (1888) by William Merritt Chase

William Merritt Chase was one of many American-born artists who traveled to Europe to study. In addition to his painting, Chase became an esteemed art teacher. Chase was the most important teacher of American artists around the turn of the 20th century.

The Bridge, Blackwell's Island (1909) by George Bellows

I introduced you to George Bellows in my blog post about American artists at the Art Institute of Chicago.  I particularly like this painting since I just visited New York City last month and saw this bridge.

The Flying Horses (1901) by Maurice Prendergast

Maurice Prendergast often made paintings from the many sketches he drew of the colorful scenes of people enjoying themselves at the beach or park near Boston.  He had studied in Paris during the late 19th century; he embraced many of the same qualities as Manet, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Vuillard and Cézanne.

Movies (1913) by John Sloan

John Sloan was one of several New York-based artists (George Bellows was part of this group) who created an American style of painting showing gritty, urban scenes. However, Sloan and his peers found beauty in these ordinary realities of city life.

Rainy Day, Boston (1885) by Childe Hassam

Summer Sea, Isle of Shoals (1902) by Childe Hassam

Frederick Childe Hassam was an American Impressionist painter noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in introducing Impressionism to America. Hassam, along with Twachtman, studied in Paris in the 1880s, Impressionism's most important time.  Returning to America in the 1890s Hassam, Twachtman and eight other painters formed a group known as The Ten; The Ten were basically an American version of the French Impressionists: revolting against the restrictive, accepted academic style of painting.

Sunlight on the Coast (1890) by Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer was an American painter originally from Boston who moved to Maine in 1883.  He established a seaside studio and became well-known for his monumental sea scenes.

Crepuscule in Opal, Trouville (1865) by James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Though born in Massachusetts, Whistler (most famous for Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1, the official name of the portrait Whistler's Mother) spent most of his career in Europe. Finding a parallel between painting and music, Whistler titled many of his paintings arrangements, harmonies or nocturnes.

I will do one more blog post on this museum to show the last few masterpieces from my visit to this museum.

For more information visit: http://www.toledomuseum.org/.

Toledo Art Museum

2445 Monroe Street

Toledo, OH   43620

Phone: 419.255.6000

For directions: click here.

• Admission is FREE every day for all visitors.
• There may be a charge for special exhibitions.
• Closed Mondays.
• Closed January 1, July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day.
• Open 10:00-4:00 on Tuesday-Thursday.
• Open 10:00-10:00 on Friday.
• Open 10:00-6:00 on Saturday.
• Open 12:00-6:00 on Sunday.

NOTE: All photos of the paintings in this blog post were taken by me on my visit to the Toledo Art Museum in May, 2012.