“An Enduring Legacy: American Impressionist Landscapes from the Thomas Clark Collection” is on view at The Hyde Collection. For the past 20 years, Thomas Clark has been amassing a significant grouping of pre-1940 American Impressionist landscape paintings with more than 100 works in the collection. Considered one of the finest private collections of this genre in upstate New York, it is a testament to the enduring legacy of Impressionist painting in American art.
The collection comprises representative examples from the last great generation of landscape painters who emerged both during and in the aftermath of the American Impressionist movement (1880‱920). These artists were the students and/or sketching partners of the seminal figures in the development of Impressionism in America such as Childe Hassam, William Merritt Chase, Willard L. Metcalf, Robert Henri and John Henry Twachtman.
The American painters represented in this collection were primarily concerned with capturing the effects of light, color and atmosphere achieved by painting directly from nature †out-of-doors †rather than in the studio. Though not as well known as their Impressionist predecessors, this generation of landscape painters flourished in areas such Old Lyme, Conn.; Cape Ann, Mass.; New Hope, Penn.; and Woodstock, N.Y., as well as areas of Vermont and California. The works in the Clark collection offer a comprehensive treatment of these regional schools of Impressionist activity in America.
Sixty-four paintings by 47 artists are featured in the exhibition, which runs through March 28. The landscapes selected vary in scenic subject matter from snow-filled views to sun-drenched hillsides and waterways, as well as harbor scenes and cityscapes.
The exhibition is curated by Erin B. Coe, chief curator and deputy director of The Hyde Collection and will be accompanied by an illustrated catalog with a foreword by the collector and an essay by the curator.
The Hyde Collection is at 161 Warren Street. For information, 518-792-1761 or www.hydecollection.org .
