Impressionism in the South

The impressionist art movement greatly influenced Southern artists well into the 1920s. The artistic style originated in Paris, France, during the 1860s and 1870s. Though most impressionist painters agreed with realist painters that an artist’s emotional condition should be secondary to depicting the naturalism of a subject, impressionists favored depicting an immediate sense of a subject. They focused on light, air, and color as one might experience it out of doors, using dabs of paint to stress a single instant in everyday life. As a result, many impressionists painted their canvases directly outside. The movement made its way to the United States late in the nineteenth century often by way of American artists who had studied abroad. Through the exchange of ideas among various artists, impressionism gained popularity in the South.

Highlights (Click on an image for object details)
Afternoon at the Beach, Chesapeake Bay By Gladys Nelson Smith 1930s	Avenue of Oaks at Litchfield Plantation By Elizabeth O'Neill Verner c. 1940	The Brahms Waltz By Robert McGill Mackall 1923
By the Arbor By Anna Catherine Wiley 1923	Charleston Doorway By Anthony Thieme 1946–47	Chehaw Combahee Plantation By Wilson Henry Irvine undated
Orchard Scene and Young Girl By Cornelia Field Maury undated	Path in a Southern Garden By Alfred Heber Hutty undated	Pauline—A Little Friend of Mine By Helen Maria Turner 1912
Portrait of Tony By Ellsworth Woodward c. 1888	Savannah Harbor By Eliot Candee Clark c. 1925	The Yellow Parasol By Louis L. Betts c. 1925