The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887–1920
June 3 through
September 18, 2016
The Florence Griswold Museum was proud to be the only New England venue for the exhibition, The Artist’s Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887–1920. Organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Artist’s Garden told the story of American Impressionists and the growing popularity of gardening as a leisure pursuit at the turn of the 20th century. Paintings and stained glass from the Pennsylvania Academy blended with paintings, sculpture, prints, books, and photographs from the Florence Griswold Museum’s permanent collection, as well as selected private loans. Drawing on fresh scholarship, The Artist’s Garden considered the role of artists and designers in defining a cultivated landscape in an era of new attitudes toward leisure, labor, and a burgeoning environmentalism.
The Artist’s Garden was the first exhibition to situate discussions of the growth of the Garden Movement within the politics of the Progressive era, with which it overlapped at the turn of the twentieth century. The Progressive era was marked by intense political and social change. Along with the surge of nationalism and patriotic optimism came growing concerns over mass immigration, women’s suffrage, and urbanization. The Garden Movement proposed that the creation of public parks and the hobby of gardening could provide beauty and balance within this fast-changing world. The American Impressionist works in this exhibition demonstrated the profound impact of the Garden Movement on the American culture. “Not only is the Florence Griswold Museum an ideal venue for this exhibition because of its history as a boardinghouse for artists and its restored gardens, but also because Connecticut women like Old Lyme’s Katharine Ludington played an important part in Progressive-era causes such as women’s suffrage while also tending a much loved garden,” said Curator Amy Kurtz Lansing.
The exhibition lives on in film: filmed on location at the Florence Griswold Museum, the Exhibitions on Screen production of The Artist’s Garden features curators Amy Kurtz Lansing and Jenny Parsons. Directed by Phil Grabsky and narrated by Gillian Anderson.
An exhibition catalogue is also available for purchase.
Daniel Garber, Sun in Summer, 1919. Oil on canvas, 52 1/4 X 56 in. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
Philip Leslie Hale (1865-1931), The Crimson Rambler, c. 1908. Oil on canvas, 25 1/4 X 30 3/16 in. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Joseph E. Temple Fund, 1909.12
Maurice B. Prendergast (1859-1924), Promenade, c. 1915-18. Oil on canvas, 24 X 31 in. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, The Vivian O. and Meyer P. Potamkin Collection, Bequest of Vivian O. Potamkin, 2003.1.9
William Chadick (1879–1962), On the Piazza, 1908. Oil on canvas. Gift of Mrs. Elizabeth Chadwick O’Connell, 1975.7.1
The exhibition was organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, with leading support from the Mr. & Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts, Inc. and the Richard C. von Hess Foundation. The major exhibition sponsors were Bill and Laura Buck, and Christie’s. Additional support provided by Bowman Properties, Ltd.; the Burpee Foundation; Edward and Wendy Harvey; Mr. and Mrs. Washburn S. Oberwager; Pennsylvania Trust; Alan P. Slack; Martin Stogniew, in memory of Judy Stogniew, a lover of art and gardening; the Victory Foundation; Ken Woodcock; and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art.
Support for the Florence Griswold Museum’s presentation was generously provided by Connecticut Humanities and the Rudolph and John Dirks Fund of the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut.
