From Abroad
An exhibition at Debra Force Fine Art looks at work created by American expatriates
Expatriates:the Journey Abroad at Debra Force Fine Art
With travel, especially international travel, limited at the moment, Debra Force Fine Art is bringing collectors views from around the world with its newest exhibition, Expatriates: the Journey Abroad. Highlighting American artists who painted abroad, the New York City gallery will feature many of the top names in American art, from Albert Bierstadt and William Glackens to Robert Henri and John Singer Sargent.
And although “expatriates” is in the title of the show, the gallery is opening up the exhibition to artists who studied, visited and passed through places outside the United States.
“The show came to be after we started looking at some of the new works we had coming in, including several that were of American artists painting abroad, especially in Europe. We just started to realize we had a fantastic collection of work, and not
just from Europe either,” says gallery director Bethany Dobson. “So it’s a mixture of artists who lived in these places, such as James Mcneill Whistler and John Singer Sargent, both of whom spent extensive periods of time in Europe, but also artists who made shorter visits, including Guy Pène du Bois, who spent five years in France, and William Glackens, who was back and forth in France beginning in 1912.We also have artists who made even shorter trips, sort of extended honeymoons, to these places.”
One of the stars of the show is Whistler’s 1879 pastel and charcoal on brown paper work Campanile at Lido. Whistler pieces are extraordinarily rare in private hands, especially one of this quality, Dobson says.
“This work was included in Whistler’s show at the London Fine Art Society in 1881 and was mentioned in reviews at the time. It basically disappeared for several decades then sold at Sotheby’s in London in 1980—under a different title, A Venetian Church—when it was bought by its previous owner. So it’s not been exhibited in public since the London exhibition in 1881,” Dobson says. “So we’re thrilled to be showing the work now, especially since it’s spectacular in person. It’s one of the earlier pastels that Whistler ever completed. He made it after he arrived in Venice in 1879.
Shortly after he arrived he took a day trip to Lido on October 23 and he completed the pastel during that trip.” Whistler, of course, is also one of the most famous expatriate artists. Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, whistler went to France at the age of 21 and, throughout the course of his life, lived in France and London, where he painted many of his most famous works, including Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, famously known as Whistler’s Mother.
He never returned to the United States. The Expatriates exhibition will feature around 30 works, mostly oil paintings and watercolors, though there is likely to be several sculpture works. Another noteworthy piece in the show is Sargent’s Polly Barnard (Girl in White Muslin), painted in oil in 1889.“This is an exciting piece to have because Polly was one of the models in Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose. He painted her again in The Mosquito Net in the White House Collection. So this one is the only one in private hands,” Dobson says. “And Sargent is easily the second most famous expatriate we have in the show.”
Also on view is Henri’s Modiste (Spanish Girl, Madrid), an oil from 1906. Henri, the famous Ashcan and portrait artist, traveled to Spain seven times between 1900 and 1926, and was heavily inspired by the people. “The work he did in Spain was absolutely wonderful,” Dobson adds.
Other works include Bierstadt’s Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, an oil from 1860; Glackens’ French Fair (Children in Swings), an oil from 1927; Guy Pène du Bois’ colorful oil Approaching Storm, from 1929; and Edward Emerson Simmons’ 1883 oil The End of the yard.
“The Simmons piece is a really
beautiful work. My favorite element of the painting is the pink light of the sunset that is reflecting of the white stuccoed building at the top of the canvas,” Dobson says. “This painting was included in the 1884 Paris Salon and then exhibited in the 1885 Boston Art Club annual [show]. The detail is quite amazing, with every twig in this firewood so meticulously painted, so beautifully done.”
Other artists in the show, which runs from January 21 to February 26, include Theodore Earl Butler, Colin Campbell Cooper, Lockwood de Forest, walter Gay, Edward Hopper, Richard Miller, Walter Launt Palmer, Lawton Parker, Jane Peterson, Maurice Brazil Prendergast, William Trost Richards, James Jebusa Shannon and J. Alden Weir.■