| reviews & features | galleries | art museums | schools & universities | other museums | hot links |

More promises

WAM's Impressionists on paper

by Leon Nigrosh

AMERICAN IMPRESSIONIST WORKS ON PAPER At the Worcester Art Museum, 55 Salisbury Street, through January 4, 1998.

One hundred years ago, Stephen Salisbury III decided that Worcester residents should have the opportunity to view art produced by contemporary artists. As part of its mission, Salisbury's new Worcester Art Museum held annual salons to showcase the latest efforts of area artists. At the beginning of the 19th century, American Impressionism had attained its peak of popularity, and several of its foremost practitioners showed at these important salons.

To honor the best works, instead of simply awarding prizes, WAM purchased the paintings and drawings directly from the artists and made them part of the museum's permanent collection. Now a century later, we are the fortunate recipients of Salisbury's foresight.

As part of WAM's centennial celebration -- and as a valuable augmentation to WAM's major fall exhibit, "American Impressionism: Paintings of Promise" -- curator David Acton has chosen to display four prominent American Impressionists who brought their style and authority to works on paper. All of these artists had visited Paris sometime around the turn of the century and fell under the spell of the dynamic Europeans who were espousing a new way to make art, in opposition to the stuffy academic style prevalent at the time. One of the quartet whose work is currently on display is Pennsylvanian Mary Cassatt (1844-1926). While in Paris, she became friends with Edgar Degas, who introduced her to both printmaking and the then current rage of "Japonisme," which revered the perceived Oriental refinement in life and art. In 1890, inspired by the ukiyo-e woodblock prints made by 18th-century Japanese printmaker Kitagawa Utamaro, Cassatt produced a suite of drypoint and aquatint prints depicting intimate female activities.

The set of 10 prints, now on display after two decades in storage, looks as fresh and lively as the day it was completed. Here in original condition, Cassatt's The Letter has a subtle richness and depth of color that gets lost in the myriad familiar reproductions. The patterns on the wall and in the woman's garment, as well as the flattened sense of perspective, are directly influenced by Japanese art. Other prints from the series, Woman Bathing and The Coiffure, portray subjects performing their private ablutions in much the same way as did early Japanese printmakers. Graceful curves acting as counterpoint to strong angles, pale skin tones balanced against dark washes of color, and floral patterns on the rug and water jug are all reminiscent of ukiyo-e but with a woman's gentle touch.

Boston artist Maurice Brazil Prendergast (1858-1924) was also influenced by European Impressionists. He came back to Boston with a newly found sense of color, which he brought to his large watercolors. Adopting the Impressionist method of creating his paintings plein-air (on site), he carried his easel to the beach or park and painted what he saw. In Low Tide, Beachmont he uses blocks of unmixed color over soft area washes to create an active scene of fully clothed beach-goers as they compete with rocks and sailboats for our attention.

Roxbury-born Childe Hassam (1861-1924) was admired in upper-middle-class art circles for his strong colorist oil paintings (several of which are on display in the gallery upstairs). And as we can see by some 20 examples, he was also a prolific master of printmaking, watercolor, and pastel. Although his lithograph Broad Curtain retains the pensive feeling captured in his New York window paintings, other works like the blocky lithograph Storm King and his stark watercolor Still Life with Fruit border on the abstract.

Worcester's own Emily Burling Waite (1887-1980) brings this foursome home. Like the others, Waite traveled to France in her youth. After returning, she continued to make etchings using the French technique à la poupée -- literally working with a puppet. This "puppet" is actually a small wad of cloth on a stick used to apply inks to a plate much like a brush, only with smoother results. An excellent example of the special effects this technique provides can be seen when you compare Waite's two etchings entitled Coastal Scene. Both are printed from the same plate, but because of the way they were inked, Waite has created two completely different settings, one cool and dark, the other hot and bright.

Visit the grand exhibit upstairs, but be sure to see these works on paper for a more intimate glimpse into the personal lives of this group of American Impressionists.

The Worcester Art Museum is open Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 799-4406.