Opening on September 28, Tacoma Art Museum will present Monet, Renoir, Degas,and Their Circle: French Impressionism and the Northwest, a new exhibition that examines how the work of French Impressionists and their immediate precursors made their way into Northwest public and private collections. It also will include selected paintings by American and Northwest artists to illustrate the spread of Impressionism across the country.
“The purpose of this exhibition is deeply connected to the same passion that drove the French Impressionists, to transform the way we see,” said David F. Setford, TAM’s Executive Director and curator of this exhibition. “It does this in two ways. First, it puts rarely seen works from TAM’s European art collection into context and allows for an expanded visitor learning opportunity. In addition, it is also the first time that these Impressionist works from museums and private collections in the Northwest have been seen together. It will provide a lasting resource about French Impressionism and its historical impact for curators and collectors in our region and beyond."
The exhibition is accompanied by a small publication including essays by Setford and TAM curator Margaret Bullock, as well as an online listing of French Impressionist works currently in Northwest public collections. On view will be approximately fifty (50) works of art from the following institutions: Frye Art Museum, Henry Art Gallery, Portland Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, and Seattle Art Museum. These works are complemented by selected loans from some of the major private collections in the Northwest.
The exhibition will provide visitors the unique opportunity to enjoy signature works by Gustave Caillebotte, Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley among others. Filling out the story, paintings from some of the most important precursors of Impressionism such as Eugène Boudin, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, and Johan Barthold Jongkind are included.
“To round off the exhibition, there will be a section of artworks which demonstrate the influence of French Impressionism on Northwestern and American painters–in other words, how East Coast and Northwest artists adapted and interpreted the brushwork and use of light and color in their own work,” notes Margaret Bullock, co-curator of the exhibition.
This section will feature artists from the Northwest such as Edward Espey, C.C. McKim, Clara Jane Stephens, and Fokko Tadama, and American artists from further afield such as Cecilia Beaux, Childe Hassam,and Theodore Robinson. “We are extremely grateful for the immense generosity of our regional sister museums incollaborating to create this exhibition,” notes Setford. “The treasures of French Impressionism that will be brought together for this exhibition demonstrate the depth and strength of the collections located in the Pacific Northwest."