FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISM BLOOMS
IN THE ARTIST’S GARDEN AT THE CHRYSLER MUSEUM OF ART
—Creativity Meets Conservation in Exhibition of American Flower Paintings,
Summer Partnership with Norfolk Botanical Garden and Regional Garden Clubs—
NORFOLK, Va. (May 20, 2015) — Celebrate the bountiful beauty of flowers with the masterpiece
exhibition The Artist's Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887–1920. The
show profiles some of the finest art of the early 20th Century, when gardening became a favorite
pastime of the American middle class, inspiring artists to plant their easels outdoors and paint with
stunning results. This traveling exhibition, on view in the Museum’s Norfolk Southern Special Exhibition
Gallery from June 16 through September 6, 2015, illuminates the intertwining stories of this Garden
Movement and the work of America’s best Impressionist artists. Admission is free.
The Artist’s Garden showcases more than 70 masterworks by renowned painters like Childe Hassam,
William Merritt Chase, John Henry Twachtman, Theodore Robinson, Gari Melchers, and Cecilia Beaux.
The exhibition is organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, the oldest
museum and art school in the United States, and many of its key paintings are from PAFA’s rich
collection. Others are lent by private collections and prominent museums across the United States,
including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, the Terra Foundation for
American Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“Impressionist paintings captivate us with their vigor and immediacy, thick paint, and bright colors,” says
Chrysler Museum Director Erik Neil. “Our galleries of French painting introduce this movement with
extraordinary works by Monet, Renoir, and Sisley. This complementary exhibition allows us to compare
these masters with dozens of works by their earliest American admirers. It’s a rare treat!”
Many artists in this period were avid gardeners who adapted their own yards to become subjects for
their work. Their models included the great palace gardens of Europe, such as the Villa Corsi-Salviati
near Florence, where William Merritt Chase painted An Italian Garden in 1909, a spectacular sundrenched study of formal walls and terraces (and a Chrysler Collection favorite). Others preferred the
more intimate flower-filled yards of Claude Monet, as seen in John Leslie Breck’s Garden at Giverny (In
Monet’s Garden), painted between 1887 and 1891, a scene of tall flowers crowding around a slender
dirt path. The exhibition explores these choices: how artists organized their gardens, what they planted,
and why certain flowers were favorites.
“French Impressionism was a starting point, but these artists developed unique American voices and
styles,” explains Alex Mann, Brock Curator of American Art at the Chrysler. “They formed artist colonies
in historic towns like Cornish, New Hampshire, and Old Lyme, Connecticut, and they had special
admiration for native species like phlox and goldenrod.”
These stories trace the evolution of garden painting from its European roots to domestic soil, with
sections devoted to the rural artist colonies and to urban gardens. The Garden Movement emerged in
response to the rapid growth of America’s cities during these decades, with social critics demanding
more public green spaces. The paintings demonstrate the relationship of the Garden Movement to
these new parks and to the growth of gardening as a suburban, middle-class hobby. Gardens, both real
and in paint, fulfilled a widespread desire for connections to the natural world.
Other thematic sections consider women’s presence in gardens, both as elegant counterpoints to
exquisite roses and hollyhocks, and as designers and caretakers of these colorful, natural spaces.
Women also were artistic interpreters of their beauty. Many of the works in the exhibition are by female
painters. Major pieces by Maria Oakey Dewing and Jane Peterson show that gardening and garden
painting offered key opportunities for women to express their creativity in art just as highly esteemed as
that by their male contemporaries. The Chrysler expands this theme with paintings by Susan Watkins
and sculpture by Harriet Frishmuth—notable works from its own collection.
Gardens and flowers were also inspirational for the decorative arts, and centerpieces of the show are
stained glass windows by the two leading American designers in this field, John La Farge and Louis
Comfort Tiffany. Drawing from its own renowned glass collection, the Chrysler adds to these displays
with a magnificent Tiffany pond-lily lamp, as well as important examples of American art pottery. Of
special note in the final section of the exhibition, “The Garden in Winter,” are the Chrysler’s painted
ceramic tiles by the Rookwood Pottery Company, in dialogue with an impressive collection of winter
scenes by Twachtman, Abbott Thayer, and the Tonalist master George Inness.
“Even when covered in snow, gardens fascinated these artists,” says Mann. “In their eyes, a blanket of
white is really a luxurious patchwork of blues, grays, and purples. Winter signified promise, and we can
imagine the rich colors of spring just under the surface and preparing to explode.”
Though the acclaimed exhibition covers all four seasons, it is on display in Norfolk only as Chrysler’s
summer anchor show. The Artist’s Garden next travels to Reynolda House Museum of American Art in
Winston-Salem, N.C., The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino,
Calif., and the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Conn.
“This spectacular exhibition affirms the Chrysler’s commitment to bringing art of the highest quality to
our region,” says Neil. “A hundred years ago these Impressionists approached a traditional subject—
flowers—with new energy and new ideas. Today we honor their spirit with exhibitions that are both a
pleasure to view and, we hope, will inspire new generations to paint and be creative.”
PARTNERSHIPS AND PROGRAMS FOR THE ARTIST’S GARDEN:
All programs take place at the Chrysler Museum of Art
and are free and open to the public, unless noted otherwise.
The Chrysler Museum is pleased to have several local partners for The Artist’s Garden, offering Hampton
Roads with not only companion exhibitions, but a slate of eclectic events and programs that explore the
legacy of the Garden Movement in Tidewater Virginia.
Opening Reception and Special Exhibition Lecture | Sunday, June 14 at noon
Enjoy light garden fare and an opportunity to join Museum Members as the first to preview the
exhibition before its public opening. Anyone wishing to join the Chrysler to enjoy exclusive access today
may do so at The Welcome Desk upon arrival. At 2 p.m., Dr. Anna Marley of the Pennsylvania Academy
of the Fine Arts, organizing curator for the traveling exhibition, will deliver a free public lecture on
American Impressionism in the Museum’s Kaufman Theater.
Floral Interpretations of Exhibition Masterworks
For the show’s opening week, regional garden clubs will interpret works of art in the exhibition. Their
flower arrangements will debut in the Museum’s Huber Court for the Members’ Opening on Sunday,
June 14 and will be on view for several days. Throughout the exhibition, the Chrysler Museum’s Flower
Guild will create weekly arrangements for the archway niche at the bottom of Museum’s Fine Staircase.
Norfolk Botanical Garden Display in the Chrysler Museum’s Community Gallery
Norfolk Botanical Garden partners with the Museum in presentation of The Artist’s Garden of Norfolk,
its own exhibition of local history, heritage, and horticulture. Visit the Waitzer Community Gallery to
learn about the Garden and its mission through large-scale photographs, artifacts, and a living sculpture
wall created from garden plants. One highlight is a painting on loan from Norfolk artist Maizelle (Brown).
Her centerpiece canvas honors the efforts of the many African-American workers who helped to
establish the city garden’s roots as part of the Works Progress Administration during the Great
Depression of the 1930s.
Tidewater Wildflowers: Watercolors by Bessie Tyler
The Chrysler has mounted a complementary exhibition with local art ties for the downstairs galleries of
the historic Willoughby-Baylor House (601 E. Freemason Street, Norfolk). This free-admission exhibition
of work by a noted female artist from Norfolk shows the influence of the Garden Movement on our arts
community in the 1930s, the same years in which the Norfolk Botanical Garden was conceived. Our
partners at Norfolk Botanical Garden (6700 Azalea Garden Road) also will display several of Tyler’s
paintings in their Baker Hall Visitor Center. Discount admission coupons to NBG are available at the
Chrysler’s Welcome Desk.
The Great Frame-Up | throughout the exhibition at Norfolk Botanical Garden
6700 Azalea Garden Rd., Norfolk
Find one of the 20 frames strategically placed around the Garden, take your photo with one of them
there, and hashtag it #NorfolkBlooms when you post it to your social media. Your image may appear as
part of our interactive engagement in the Garden’s Community Gallery space at the Museum.
Participation is free with NBG admission.
Plein-Air Painting Workshop | Saturday, June 27 from 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
Norfolk artist Ray Hershberger teaches you to capture outdoor light and life. As you spend the day
outside inspired by the lush landscape that surrounds the Museum, you’ll learn to paint in the moment
and use your eye to guide your brush. The cost is $30 for Museum Members, $40 for all others, and
includes all supplies and acrylic paint. (The rain date is Saturday, July 18.) Register online at
reservations.chrysler.org.
Free Family Day | Saturday, July 11 from 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
Bring the entire family and your friends to enjoy fun activities, artsy crafts to take home, and the beauty
of nature in two of our popular exhibitions, The Artist’s Garden and Gifts from Japan. The Chrysler’s
Family Day is generously sponsored by the Bunny and Perry Morgan Fund.
Exhibition Talk: Norfolk's Cemeteries and the Garden Movement | Sunday, August 23 at 2 p.m.
Flowers spring eternal in this afternoon program at the Museum. Josh Weinstein of the Norfolk Society
for Cemetery Conservation and Alex Mann, our Brock Curator of American Art, discuss how the Garden
Movement was a catalyst for the establishment of many of Norfolk’s beautiful cemeteries, and how they
continue to work for natural and artistic conservation. A Q-and-A session follows their illustrated talk.
The Artist’s Garden Catalogues
A beautifully illustrated hardback catalog, awarded a David R. Coffin grant from the Foundation for
Landscape Studies and published in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania Press, accompanies
the exhibition and is available in The Museum Shop for $45. Museum Members save 10% on purchases.
More programs are in planning. Check www.chrysler.org for additional programs for The Artist’s Garden.
SPONSORSHIP
The Artist's Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887–1920 was organized by
the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Pa., and was curated by PAFA’s Curator of
Historical American Art, Anna O. Marley, Ph.D. The Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for
the Arts, Inc., and the Richard C. von Hess Foundation provided leading support for the project, with
additional major funding from Bill and Laura Buck, and Christie’s.
ABOUT THE CHRYSLER MUSEUM OF ART
The recently expanded Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, is one of America’s most
distinguished mid-sized art museums, with a nationally recognized collection of more than 30,000
objects, including one of the great glass collections in America. The core of this collection was given to
the Museum by Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., an avid art collector who donated thousands of objects from his
private collection to the Museum in 1971. In the years since Chrysler’s death in 1988, the Museum has
dramatically extended its campus and developed new ties with the Norfolk community. It now has
rapidly growing collections, especially in American art, photography, and contemporary glass.
In 2011, the Chrysler opened a full-service glass studio with a 560-pound capacity furnace, a full hot
shop, a flameworking studio, nine annealing ovens, and a coldworking shop. In addition, the Chrysler
administers two Federal-period historic houses in downtown Norfolk: the Moses Myers House and the
Willoughby-Baylor House.
The Chrysler Museum of Art, One Memorial Place, Norfolk, and its Perry Glass Studio at 745 Duke St.,
are open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. The Historic Houses
on E. Freemason Street are open weekends. Admission is free. For more information on exhibitions,
events, and programs, visit www.chrysler.org or call (757) 664-6200.
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For more information or high-resolution images, contact Virginia Hilton at (757) 340-7425, (757) 2322178 (cell), or virginia@themeridiangroup.com.