Exhibitions & Series

America the Beautiful: Impressionism at the Brauer Museum of Art

2024 marks the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition in Paris. But perhaps no other country quite envisioned itself through the bright hues and bold brushstrokes of Impressionism as did the United States. Artists celebrated the country’s diverse natural beauty. Drawn solely from the Brauer’s holdings, this exhibition contains works by leading American Impressionists like Mary Cassatt, and Childe Hassam, as well as such Midwesterners as T.C. Steele, Adolph Shulz, and Louis Oscar Griffith, known for their paintings of Brown County, Indiana, and Chicagoans Pauline Palmer and Anna Lee Stacey. While Karl Anderson and Robert Reid preferred to paint the genteel life of the East Coast bourgeoisie, Edgar Payne and William Wendt roughed it, riding out on horseback into the southwestern desert and California mountain ranges. Adolph Heinze rode the rails for western railroads, painting landscapes to appeal to adventurous tourists. Frank V. Dudley stayed closer to home, making a career of painting the Indiana Dunes.

Photo credit:  Pauline Palmer (1867 0 1938), On the Beach, ca. 1918, oil on board, 36 ¼ x 47 1/8 in. Gift of Percy H. Sloan, 53.01.051.