Whistler to Cassatt: American Painters in France


Children in a Garden (The Nurse) (detail; 1878), Mary Cassatt.

At the heart of this display the Denver Art Museum (14 November–13 March 2022) are two galleries dedicated to James Abbot McNeill Whistler and Mary Cassatt, who each travelled to Paris from the United States in the mid 19th century. Other artists who made the journey across the Atlantic, from John Singer Sargent to Henry Ossawa Tanner, are also represented in this wide-ranging survey of more than 100 works, which looks variously at the influence on American artists of academic painting at the Salon, avant-garde artist colonies in Normandy and Brittany, and the Impressionist coterie in the French capital. Find out more from the DAM’s website.

Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here  

The Beach at Marseille (1901), James Abbot McNeill Whistler. Photo: © Terr a Foundation for American Art, Chicago

The Beach at Marseille (1901), James Abbot McNeill Whistler.

Fishing for Oysters at Cancale (1878), John Singer Sargent. Photo: © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Fishing for Oysters at Cancale (1878), John Singer Sargent.

The Resurrection of Lazarus (1896), Henry Ossawa Tanner. Photo: Herve Lewandoswki. © RMN – Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY

The Resurrection of Lazarus (1896), Henry Ossawa Tanner.

Le Retour (The Return of the Prodigal Son) (1879), Henry Mosler. Photo: © Breton Departmental Museum/SergeGoarin

Le Retour (The Return of the Prodigal Son) (1879), Henry Mosler.

Children in a Garden (The Nurse) (1878), Mary Cassatt. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Children in a Garden (The Nurse) (1878), Mary Cassatt.