Giverny, the French village where Claude Monet settled in 1883, welcomed hundreds of artists from the late 1880s through World War I. Lured by the beauty represented in Monet's art and the promise of painting en plein air (outside), the arrival of artists from America and across Europe transformed the village from a sleepy hamlet into a colorful and thriving artists' community.
“Impressionist Giverny” traces the chronological, stylistic, and thematic evolution of art produced in the village. The exhibit features the work of American artists such as John Leslie Breck, Frederick MacMonnies, Theodore Robinson, Willard Leroy Metcalf, Lilla Cabot Perry, Frederick Carl Frieseke, Dawson-Dawson Watkins, and the Albany artist Will H. Low. A complementary exhibit on Low's work is also on display in the Jabbur Gallery.
Originally presented at the Musée d’Art Américain in Giverny, France, in April 2007, and organized by the Terra Foundation for American Art, this is the first exhibition to study the international phenomenon of this artist community within the context of European artists’ colonies. Drawn entirely from the Terra Foundation’s exceptional collection, the exhibition includes more than fifty paintings by American artists who visited and painted views in and around Giverny during this period.
