Displaying items by tag: American Impressionists

In 1911, Pennsylvania businessman George D. Horst began acquiring early-to-mid 20th century American and European works of art from th the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts’ annual exhibitions as well as from other fine art institutions, galleries, and auctions. Horst was the primary donor of the fledgling Reading Public Museum, which he helped establish. In 1924, after considerable growth, the Reading Museum began construction on a new location on the edge of town, which angered Horst as he felt it made his collection inaccessible to the public. Ultimately, Horst asked for the return of his paintings from the museum, as well as his financial donations.

On March 30, Freeman’s in Philadelphia will offer 64 paintings from Horst’s collection. The works, most of which remain in their original frames, have hung in Horst’s custom-built gallery since 1929. Since Horst’s death in 1934, the works have been loaned on occasion for exhibitions, but have mainly been hidden from public view. The collection is being offered by Horst’s grandchildren.

Horst’s collection includes works by American Impressionists such as Childe Hassam, Daniel Garber, Edward Willis Redfield, and Frank W. Benson as well as Barbizon works by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Eugène Boudin, and Charles-François Daubigny. Estimates range from a few thousand dollars up to $300,000.  

At the end of the nineteenth century, American artists began to demonstrate not only a preference for gardens as an artistic motif but also a growing appreciation for the art of gardening itself. The importance of the garden as a subject at this time reflects a paradigm shift in attitude toward depicting nature. As America became a settled nation and the frontier closed, artists turned away from large-scale panoramic views of the countryside favored by artists associated with the Hudson River School a few decades earlier. Instead of untamed wilderness, these painters favored intimate and domesticated landscapes. For artists enamored with Impressionism and interested in capturing the effects of light, there was no better subject than a lush garden under the play of summer sunlight.