Lightner Museum exhibitions to explore American Impressionism

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This spring, the Lightner Museum celebrates the evocative, timeless beauty of late 19th and early 20th century American art with two exhibitions of American Impressionist paintings.

“American Impressionism: Treasures from the Daywood Collection,” features paintings from the acclaimed collection of the Huntington Museum of Art in West Virginia.

A companion exhibition, “St. Augustine in a New Light: American Impressionism from the Collection of the Lightner Museum,” is curated from the Lightner’s own collection.

The exhibitions will run from April 8 to July 5.

“American Impressionism: Treasures from the Daywood Collection” showcases work from a transitional time in American art when painters abandoned the rigors of academic styles and subjects.

Inspired by their European counterparts, they turned to intimate scenes of the cultivated countryside and figure studies of friends and neighbors that reflected the more modern influences of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Robert Henri, George Inness, George Luks, Gari Melchers, John Sloan, John Twachtman and J. Alden Weir are among the notable artists featured in the exhibition.

The exhibition was organized by the Huntington Museum of Art and is toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C.

“St. Augustine in a New Light: American Impressionism from the Collection of the Lightner Museum” harkens back to the waning years of the 19th century, when St. Augustine became a winter haven for Impressionist painters from artists’ colonies in the north.

Attracted by the warm climate and picturesque scenery, the artists found a reliable source of income in the wealthy tourists who wintered at Henry Flagler’s hotels. They applied the shimmering light, warm colors and expressive brushwork of Impressionism to scenes of St. Augustine’s quaint streets, bustling harbors and magnificent coastline, presenting the Ancient City and its environs in a bold new light.