Decorating With Great Impressionist Prints By American Artists Will Enhance Your Home

By Michelle Powell


Decorating your walls with good artwork is a great way to create a unique and inviting ambience in a room while making a solid statement about your taste and interests. Not everyone can afford expensive originals, but it is possible to purchase good reproductions. You may have already decided modern art is not your style and are more inclined to the paintings of Impressionists. If you want to showcase American art, and still enjoy this genre, you can buy some great Impressionist prints that represent some of the best examples of American art.

The works you choose will be much more special if you learn something about the period which they represent. Impressionism, for instance, is considered to have been introduced to America by John Breck. After visiting France, he opened his first Boston exhibit at the end of the nineteenth century. Frank Benson painted in the French open air style as did William Chase. Chase established what is today Parsons School of Design.

Childe Hassam is generally considered the most famous of the American Impressionists. He is most well known for his street scenes and depictions of flags flying in New York during World War Two. He painted in both oil and watercolor. His style probably most closely resembles the French painters, Pissarro and Monet. Vivid colors and broken brush strokes characterize his work.

Although male painters dominated the art scene, Mary Cassatt, and her painting of everyday occurrences in the lives of women are still admired today. Some of her most famous works are intimate scenes of mothers interacting with their little children. A native of Pennsylvania, she traveled to France early on and caught the attention of Edgar Degas. He invited her to show her work with leading French Impressionists.

James Whistler, the great painter best known to many for the painting familiarly referred to as Whistler's Mother, spent a great deal of time in France. He became lifelong friends with Monet. Whistler, not interested in copying the style of the French Impressionists, developed his own. Instead of vivid color he preferred more muted tones and scenes depicting everyday life.

If guests, studying your prints, ask about the difference between French and American Impressionism, you might tell them that although painters on both sides of the Atlantic had an interest in landscapes and interiors, the American subject matter is distinct and recognizable as America. Many of the American Impressionists were fascinated with the New England coastline.

Ironbound Island, Maine was a popular destination for a lot of American Impressionists. The Blaney family owned it and welcomed such renowned painters as John Singer Sargent and Childe Hassam. The Blaneys were great supporters of the arts.

Once you decide which artists, subject matter, color palettes, and styles you like the best, looking for reproductions that reflect them becomes a lot of fun, even though it can be challenging. You don't have to choose the most famous paintings by individual artists. You may find you like the lesser known works the best.




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