Beyond the Sea: Impressionism and Modern Painting in Europe

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, countless American painters journeyed across the Atlantic Ocean in search of fresh subjects and styles. By visiting exhibitions, attending classes, and befriending leading European artists, they observed the growing popularity of impressionism and other dynamic, sometimes controversial trends in contemporary art. Many adopted new painting techniques, using vigorous brushwork and patches of unblended paint to give bold surface texture to their canvases. Though some art critics ridiculed the immediacy of impressionist pictures, others found their energy refreshing.

Working outdoors—painting directly from nature—became a favorite practice among late 19th-century artists in Europe. They embraced the physicality of carrying their equipment into backyards and beyond, hunting for beautiful scenery and opportunities for experimentation. Plein-air painting introduced challenges like portraying the power of wind, movement of waves, and weather effects like storms and fog, and these artists studiously observed the play of sunlight, shadows, and shifts in color at different times of day. Their pictures, they found, could further stimulate viewers’ senses by suggesting heat, humidity, and the fragrances of the natural world.

The contrast between urban and rural life also fascinated painters of this era. Some noted differences in traditional dress between the Netherlands, Spain, and the French countryside. Elsewhere artists used friends, family, and patrons as models, creating fashionable vignettes of elite leisure. Together, such works reveal the rapid transitions then underway across European society, as the Industrial Revolution swept the Old World, ushering in changes to class systems and inspiring nostalgia for crafts and customs from earlier times.

This exhibition from Telfair’s collection offers a window onto this dynamic and cosmopolitan art world, in which American and European painters nurtured vibrant international visual conversations. It features works by Robert Henri, Gari Melchers, Henri Martin, Frederick Carl Frieseke, and Sir Frank Brangwyn, as well as Savannah artists Mary Hoover Aiken and Valentino Molina. Follow in their footsteps, from the rocky cliffs of the Mediterranean to the wide beaches of Brittany and intimate gardens outside Paris and Amsterdam. As these painters searched for striking vistas and picture-worthy subjects, each sought to balance tradition and innovation in unique ways, pushing the boundaries of modern art.