American Artists in France and Italy Postcard Book

Some of the most memorable American artwork has been produced under the spell of France and Italy. This postcard book contains 20 images of Florence, Venice, Siena, Paris, and the French countryside and coast from the collection of The Corcoran Gallery of Art by Mary Cassatt, James McNeill Whistler, Childe Hassam, John Singer Sargent, Walter Gay, Thomas Moran, Eugene Vail, John Taylor Arms, Ernest D. Roth, Theodore Robinson, William Lamb Picknell, and Jack Boul.

Eric Denker, Curator of Prints and Drawings, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., writes:

Beginning in the second half of the nineteenth century, American painters regularly traveled to Europe to broaden their artistic experience. The best academic training was available abroad, as was the opportunity to study Old Master painting firsthand on a scale then unknown in the United States. After their studies concluded, some artists, including James McNeill Whistler and Mary Cassatt, chose to live and work in Europe as expatriates. Cassatt captured the rich life of her milieu in Bell Époque Paris, while Whistler depicted the familiar tourist destination of Venice from an innovative perspective, portraying the everyday life of the city as seen not by visitors but by Venetians themselves. Other artists, such as William Lamb Picknell, studied or worked overseas only briefly before returning home to continue their careers in America. Exceptionally, John Singer Sargent was born abroad in Florence to expatriate parents, studied in Paris, and lived most of his life in London. Travel, whether to Spain, France, or most importantly, Italy, inspired much of Sargent’s oeuvre. Throughout the twentieth century, as travel became increasingly fast, secure, and economical, American artists visited Italy and France in search of the charms of Old World architecture and picturesque landscape. Ernest Roth and John Taylor Arms faithfully recorded the allure of the medieval and Renaissance structures of Paris, Chartres, Florence, and Venice, as Jack Boul and others continued to do through the rest of the century.

Book of 20 detachable postcards.