Click image to enlarge…
As the post-1850 component to the inaugural The American Scene: Part I on view in the fall of 2007, The American Scene: Part II explores the development of modern American identity and aesthetic vision through the Museum's impressive holdings of American art. As the pair of still-life paintings at the start of the exhibition demonstrates, Americans at the turn of the twentieth century were both reflecting upon their artistic heritage for inspiration, and looking to the future. Increasingly breaking with academic tradition, the artists represented in this show expanded their field of possibilities, both in terms of technique and subject matter. This exhibition highlights the multiplicity and variability of their artistic responses, while still arguing for continuities. With their attentiveness to the world in which they live, both natural and constructed, and their close study of the human figure, artists provide the lens through which a society may view itself. The American Scene: Part II features works by Cecilia Beaux, Alexander Calder, Thomas Eakins, John Singer Sargent, William and Marguerite Zorach, and many others.
Pictured above:
Cecelia Beaux, American, 1855-1942, Portrait of Anna Scott Fisher, ca. 1896-1898, oil on canvas, Gift of George Harrison Hart and Josephine Frazier Hart and Family, 2006.21
