Whistler to Cassatt

Whistler to Cassatt: American Painters in France, set to premiere November 14, 2021, will feature more than 100 paintings made between 1855 and 1913 in the first comprehensive examination of France’s stylistic impact on American painting of the period.

From academic training in Paris to exploration of the countryside landscape, Whistler to Cassatt reveals both the visual and conceptual influences of France on American painters in the 19th and early 20th century. Organized by the DAM and curated by Timothy Standring, curator emeritus at the DAM, Whistler to Cassatt will be presented in the Anschutz and Martin and McCormick galleries on Level 2 of the Hamilton Building through February 13, 2022. The exhibition will then travel to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts from April 16, 2022, to July 31, 2022.

Thematically organized, the exhibition will feature seven sections, opening with a dramatic gallery reminiscent of the Paris Salon, an annual showcase of artworks that determined the success of an artist’s career. Subsequent galleries will highlight a wide spectrum of artistic styles championed by American artists, including classicism, realism, tonalism, impressionism and hybrids of each— that were honed from lessons by Paris’ private ateliers, official enrollment in École des BeauxArts and summer months spent at artist colonies throughout Normandy and Brittany.

The exhibition also focuses on the instruction American painters received in the official and private academies. This labor-intensive academic approach involved hours of preparation prior to the final execution of a painting. The end result was to present a clear visual composition based on a literary narrative. By the mid-19th century, many of the works accepted for the Salon focused on popular domestic themes and historical subject matter, as visitors will see throughout this exhibition. Demonstrative examples include The Resurrection of Lazarus (1896) and The Young Sabot Maker (1895) by Henry Ossawa Tanner, a Black American artist who trained at the Académie Julian. Other works in this gallery will include works by Walter Gay, Henry Mosler, and Frank Biggs, the first three American artists whose works were acquired by the French state after being shown at the annual Salon. Works painted by Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper in France will be on display as well.

The significant artistic contributions of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassatt then take the stage of this exhibition narrative. These artists were known to be part of the first wave of Americans to cross the Atlantic Ocean to Europe, and to Paris—then considered the center of the art world. Each contributed to the rich complexity of American painting, which was in close dialogue with their French contemporaries during this period.

“Whistler to Cassatt will bring to the fore the richly braided story of American and French creative discourse—and how it shaped the past and present of painting in America,” Standring said. “The exhibition weaves a combination of themes—philosophical, stylistic and economic—to underscore the allure of Paris for American artists of the time and the intersections of global influences that continue to reverberate in today’s American culture.”

A more than 200-page catalog will accompany the Whistler to Cassatt exhibition. It will feature about 200 illustrations and essays by scholars including Randall Griffin, Southern Methodist University, on the question of American art; Suzanne Singletary, Thomas Jefferson University, on Whistler and France; Susan Rawles, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, on the careers of American women artists from this period; Benjamin W. Colman, Detroit Institute of Arts, on American painters and the French Salon; Emmanuelle Brugerolles, École Nationale Supérieur des Beaux-Arts, on Americans at the École; and Standring, on American artists’ responses to the question of "finish" prevalent during the 1860s and 1870s. This catalog, published by Yale University Press, will be available in the DAM's Shop and via its online store.