Seated L to R:
Edward Simmons, Willard Metcalf, Childe Hassam,
J. Alden Weir, and Robert Reid
Standing L to R: William M. Chase, Frank
W. Benson, Edmund C. Tarbell, Thomas Wilmer Dewing,
and Joseph R. DeCamp. John Twachtman is not shown
in this 1908 photo, as he was replaced, upon his
death in 1902 by Mr. Chase.
On December 17, 1897, ten American painters came together
to form a group entitled ... well, "Ten American Painters."
The purpose was to establish a group through which their
works might be exhibited in a mutually beneficial manner.
On March 31, 1898, the group held its first joint exhibit
at Durand-Ruel Gallery in New York City. As a founding
principle each member agreed to exhibit at an annual show
and to add additional members only by unanimous consent.
They continued to do this very thing for a period of some
20 years.
The Ten American Painters resigned from the Society of
American Artists in late 1897 or early 1898 to protest
the large size and commercialism of that group's exhibitions.
The Ten were Childe Hassam, J. Alden Weir, John Henry
Twachtman, Robert Reid, Willard Metcalf, Frank Weston
Benson, Edmund Charles Tarbell, Thomas Wilmer Dewing,
Joseph DeCamp, and Edward Simmons. When Twachtman died
in 1902, William Merritt Chase joined in his place. Abbott
Handerson Thayer and Winslow Homer were asked to join
the group when it was formed, however they refused.
All of the Ten were active in either New York City or
Boston. All were influenced by Impressionism.
Peters, a preeminent Twachtman scholar, has written a wonderful
collection of essays to accompany the traveling Twachtman exhibition
organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. Anyone unfamiliar
with Twachtman's life and work need not consult other sources
(although Peters dutifully acknowledges the foundation research
of earlier scholars). Organizing his text by time period, Peters
methodically traces the development of Twachtman's art from
his early years in Cincinnati (1835-75) through his death in
Gloucester, MA, in 1902. If there is any doubt of Twachtman's
mastery as an impressionist, one has only to gaze at any of
the fall or winter landscapes that are beautifully reproduced
in this volume, along with dozens of other examples from his
oeuvre. Oddly, there is neither a table of contents nor a separate
list of exhibited works and their provenance. Warmly recommended
for most public and academic libraries. —Steven Thomas,
Central Michigan Univ. Lib., Mt. Pleasant Copyright 1999 Reed
Business Information, Inc.
One of the most original artists among the American Impressionists
and a member of the Ten American Painters, John Twachtman (1853-1902)
created his best known work on his property in Greenwich, Connecticut,
from 1889 to 1902. This exhibition catalogue focuses on a select
group of Twachtman's Greenwich works: his vibrant and sensuous
images in oil and pastel of flowers in the wild and in the artist's
own garden as well as rare figurative images, in which Twachtman
depicted his family in casual outdoor settings. Within this
104-page publication are essays by Richard J. Boyle, William
H. Gerdts, John Douglass Hale, and Lisa N. Peters. Each of the
twenty works in the show are illustrated in color and there
are an additional eighteen color and twenty-four black and white
illustrations.
Reader review: Dynamite art book; also a great read!
I had thought that Benson was strictly a painter of Victorian
era young ladies in seaside settings. This bio (by a descendent)
fleshes out his various careers as a painter of oils, a teacher,
a water colorist and whatever is the correct term for one who
creates etchings. Also provides a good overview of the American
art scene (especially "The Ten") during the transition from
the 19th to the 20th century.
A prominent figure in the Boston School and a member of the
Ten American painters, Frank W. Benson executed a spectacular
group of Impressionist works between 1897 and 1920 during summers
spent on North Haven Island, Maine. Depicting his wife and daughters
at leisure in the outdoors, Benson created vivid sunlit images
expressive of the idyllic pleasures of endless August afternoons
on a breezy, refreshing coastal landscape. This 74-page catalogue
includes essays by Sheila Dugan, William H. Gerdts, and John
Wilmerding. In addition to color illustrations of the twelve
works in the show, there are ten color and twenty-two black
and white reproductions.
This 24-page catalogue, including illustrations in color and
black and white is by Bailey Van Hook, associate professor of
art and art history at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University, Blacksburg, Virginia. The text provides an overview
of Thomas Dewing's career and discusses the influences on the
mural including James McNeill Whistler and the American mural
movement. She details the commission of this important mural,
which was installed in the Detroit Savings Bank in 1900, as
well as the roles of the entrepreneur-collector Charles Lang
Freer and of the prominent architect Stanford White. Van Hook's
discussion of the mural's iconography, style, and critical reception
reveals why this work is such a tour-de-force, encapsulating
the ideals of the turn-of-the-century aesthetic era in America.
This elegant volume presents Tarbell's finest work in the context
of a biographical text filled with fascinating quotations from
the artist's contemporaries.
A Connecticut Place: Weir Farm, An American Painter's Rural
Retreat
by Nicolai Cikovsky Jr., Elizabeth Milroy, Harold Spencer, Hildegard
Cummings – Paperback: 115 pages Publisher: Weir
Farm Trust in collaboration with the National Park Service,
Weir Farm National Historic Site (April, 2000)
A Connecticut Place: Weir Farm, An American Painter's Rural
Retreat is a primary text on the 19th century American artist
J. Alden Weir and his Branchville, CT home, now known as Weir
Farm National Historic Site. The 116-page soft-bound, 9"
x 12" catalogue that accompanied the same-titled exhibition,
is amply illustrated in color and black and white.
With an introduction by Nicolai Cikovsky, Curator of American
and British Art at the National Gallery of Art, essays by the
Exhibition Curators Hildegard Cummings and Harold Spencer, both
leading experts on Weir, and by Elizabeth Milroy, Professor
of Art History at Wesleyan University, A Connecticut Place presents
Weir's art within the social, intellectual and physical environment
in which it was produced. It also presents Weir's Branchville
home as a creative focus for his art and a gathering place for
many prominent members of the turn-of-the-century American art
community, among them Childe Hassam, John Twachtman, Emil and
Denis Carlsen, Albert Pinkham Ryder, John Ferguson Weir and
John Singer Sargent.
J. Alden Weir: A Place of His Own by Hildegard Cummings,
Helen K. Fusscas, Susan G. Larkin – Paperback, Published
by University of Connecticut, 1991
Ten American Painters by William H. Gerdts –
Paperback, Published by Spanierman Gallery, 1990
This lavishly illustrated, 188-page volume includes an introduction
by William H. Gerdts and essays by experts on the individual
artists in this group to which many of the best-known American
artists of the late nineteenth century belonged: Frank W. Benson,
William Merritt Chase, Joseph DeCamp, Thomas W. Dewing, Childe
Hassam, Willard Metcalf, Robert Reid, Edward Simmons, Edmund
C. Tarbell, John H. Twachtman, and J. Alden Weir. In addition
to color images of the eleven works in the exhibition, there
are thirty-six color plates and over one hundred black and white
illustrations, many of rediscovered works. Providing a comprehensive
survey of the Ten's twenty-one years of existence and a study
of each members' participation in the group, this catalogue
is of great value to American art history.
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John Henry Twachtman: An American Impressionist 
John Twachtman: Connecticut Landscapes
In
the Sunlight: The Floral and Figurative Art of John Henry Twachtman
John Twachtman (Famous Artists)
Frank W. Benson: American Impressionist
Frank W. Benson the Impressionist Years
Commerce
and Agriculture Bringing Wealth to Detroit: A Mural by Thomas
Wilmer Dewing
Edmund
C. Tarbell: Poet of Domesticity
Impressionism Transformed: The Paintings of Edmund C. Tarbell
Edmund C. Tarbell and the Boston School of Painting, 1889-1980
A Connecticut Place: Weir Farm, An American Painter's Rural
Retreat
Willard Metcalf (1858-1925), Yankee Impressionist
– Hardcover: 151 pages Publisher: Spanierman Gallery (January
2003)
Ten American Painters
Joseph DeCamp: The Boston Technician
