Exhibitions

IN NATURE'S STUDIO: TWO CENTURIES OF AMERICAN LANDSCAPE PAINTING

Hunter Museum of American Art / 10 Bluff View May 26, 2023 - September 4, 2023

This rich exhibition features the bounty and beauty of the American landscape from the early nineteenth century through the late twentieth century. Drawn from the permanent collection of the Reading Public Museum, the selections explore the Hudson River School and the emergence of the first uniquely American artistic movement; Impressionism and Tonalism at the turn of the century; and Modern trends in interpreting the landscape. Majestic and inspirational depictions of bucolic American vistas— intimate forest interiors, sweeping panoramic views of natural wonders, and dramatic images of the untamed land and sea—join dramatic scenes of Europe, the Near East, and South America by artists from the United States. More than sixty-five paintings will be featured in the exhibition including works by nineteenth-century landscape artists, such as Thomas Birch, Frederic Church, Jasper Francis Cropsey, Worthington Whittredge, William Trost Richards, Aaron Draper Shattuck, William Louis Sonntag, Paul Weber, Edmund Darch Lewis, and Hermann Herzog. The exhibition will also examine works that represent the shift to Impressionism and Tonalism at the turn of the century by painters, including George Inness, Ralph Albert Blakelock, John Francis Murphy, Elliot Daingerfield, N. C. Wyeth, Childe Hassam, William Langson Lathrop, Edward Willis Redfield, Frederick John Mulhaupt, and Robert Spencer. Modernist landscapes by George Bellows, Arthur Bowen Davies, Benton Spruance, John Fulton Folinsbee, and Andrew Wyeth, among others, chart the path to abstract and expressionistic compositions in the twentieth century.