New Exhibition Explores Spanish Influence on American Artists

Mary Cassatt, Spanish Girl Leaning on a Window Sill, c. 1872. Oil on canvas, 24 3/8 x 19 in. Inscribed lower left: Mary S. Cassatt. Private Collection, Madrid

NORFOLK, Va. – September 15, 2020 – The extensive impact of Spanish art and culture on American painters in the 19th and early 20th centuries is the focus of Americans in Spain: Painting and Travel, 1820-1920. The new exhibition will be on view at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, Feb. 12-May 16, 2021, and at the Milwaukee Art Museum, June 11-Oct. 3, 2021.

Americans in Spain will explore a pivotal moment in the 19th and early 20th centuries when American artists and their European counterparts flocked to Spain to capture its scenic charms and customs. The first major exhibition to present this important period of American art to a wide audience, it brings together more than 100 artworks, including paintings from the 17th-20th centuries, photographs, prints and travel guides. It showcases works by American artists Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, Robert Henri, John Singer Sargent and others alongside their Spanish contemporaries and Spain’s old masters. A newly documented painting by Cassatt that has never been shown in the U.S. is one of the highlights. Visitors will be able to access a 3D Visualization of the Prado Museum and Interactive Artist Travelers Project using their mobile devices to visit the Prado Museum and famous sites in Spain.

The exhibition draws upon the Chrysler Museum’s collection of American and old master works and the Milwaukee Art Museum’s holdings of realist paintings, specifically by the Ashcan Circle and the Eight. Other works come from a wide range of national and international collections, including the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain; Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France; Getty Museum in Los Angeles; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

“The Chrysler Museum is honored to collaborate with the Milwaukee Art Museum on this exciting exhibition,” said Erik Neil, director of the Chrysler. “Together we are offering a new glimpse into the historical influence of Spain and Spanish artists on American art history.”

“The story of this often overlooked aspect of art history is one we were in a good position to tell,” said Marcelle Polednik, Ph.D., Donna and Donald Baumgartner director at the Milwaukee Art Museum. “Milwaukee has a long history of presenting the art of Spain, and Marquette University and the American Geographical Society Library at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee are rich with related resources and programs. Having the Chrysler Museum join us as a partner has been invaluable in strengthening the project.”

The works in the show will be presented thematically and organized to emphasize migration, tourism and travel in 19th-century Spain. Additional themes include the romance and the reality of old Spain; Spanish architecture, gardens and landscapes; Spain’s Islamic history; and the critical and popular responses to American artists’ work.

“International travel and exchange have always been central to the history of American art,” said Corey Piper, Brock curator of American art, Chrysler Museum of Art, and co-curator of the exhibition. “At a time when tourism and movement have been disrupted throughout the world, this exhibition explores a vibrant and significant moment in American painting, spurred by artists who traveled back and forth between Spain and the United States.”

“It’s difficult to overstate the importance that Spanish culture had on artists from the United States at the time,” said Brandon Ruud, Abert Family curator of American art, Milwaukee Art Museum, and co-curator of the exhibition. “We’re delighted to share this important moment and its art with a wider public.”

For many American artists, particularly in the second half of the 19th century, a European tour was an expected part of their training, and Spain was a vital stop. A large number of America’s most prominent artists – many of them at the beginnings of their careers – traveled to the country for training and to study its old masters at the Prado Museum. However, the influence of Spain on American artists’ development has received less attention than that of travel and study in France or Italy.

Beginning in the 19th century, Spain attracted an increasing number of European artists who were drawn to the country largely through Victorian-era stories of romantic and dramatic exploits. American painters also sought to capture the country’s landscape and culture firsthand, and to study its old masters at the Prado Museum, but not until the outbreak of the Civil War did they begin traveling in earnest to Spain. American and European artists absorbed and translated Spanish subjects and styles into their own work. They borrowed from Spanish prototypes, adapting flamenco dancers, matadors and other colorful characters for their own canvases. Landscape painters introduced the country’s medieval architecture and romantic gardens to American audiences. Many female artists found success in Spain where they often traveled on group study trips or had studios of their own. For example, Mary Cassatt had a studio for several months in one of Seville’s most historically significant buildings.

Presenting Americans in Spain: Painting and Travel, 1820-1920 in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique opportunity to consider the role that travel and cultural exchange play in the lives of artists and society at large. As current international travel has been dramatically curtailed by health concerns, visitors to the Chrysler Museum of Art and the Milwaukee Art Museum will have a chance to learn how travel within Spain was essential to the development of American artists’ techniques and helped shape a pivotal period in the history of American art.

Catalogue

A full-color, hardcover catalogue published by the organizing institutions will feature essays by the exhibition’s curators and leading scholars in the field. Distributed by Yale University Press, the catalogue will be available for purchase from the Chrysler Museum of Art and Milwaukee Art Museum.

Support

Americans in Spain: Painting and Travel, 1820-1920 is made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor. The Henry Luce Foundation is the Presenting Sponsor of Americans in Spain, which also is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Supporting Sponsors are the Wyeth Foundation for American Art and the Milwaukee Art Museum’s American Arts Society; Contributing Sponsors, Christie’s and The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

The 3D Visualization of the Prado Museum and Interactive Artist Travelers Project and exhibition app were developed in partnership with the Milwaukee Art Museum and Marquette University, including Dr. Eugenia Afinoguénova, professor of Spanish languages, literatures, and cultures, and Tim Korolev and Shiyu Tian, and funded by a Marquette University Explorer Challenge Grant.

Local sponsorship at the Chrysler Museum of Art is provided by the Presenting Sponsor Dollar Tree.

At the Milwaukee Art Museum, exhibitions are made possible by the 2020 Visionaries: Donna and Donald Baumgartner, John and Murph Burke, Sheldon and Marianne Lubar, Joel and Caran Quadracci, Sue and Bud Selig and Jeff Yabuki and the Yabuki Family Foundation. A generous gift from the Terra Foundation for American Art helped support curatorial staff at the Milwaukee Art Museum and Americans in Spain during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

About the Chrysler Museum of Art

The Chrysler Museum of Art is one of America’s most distinguished mid-sized art museums, with a nationally recognized collection of more than 30,000 objects, including one of the great glass collections in America. The core of the Chrysler’s collection comes from Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., an avid art collector who donated thousands of objects from his private collection to the Museum. The Museum has growing collections in many areas and mounts an ambitious schedule of visiting exhibitions and educational programs each season. The Chrysler has also been recognized nationally for its unique commitment to hospitality with its innovative gallery host program.

About the Milwaukee Art Museum

The Milwaukee Art Museum welcomes people from throughout the community and the world to find themselves and lose themselves in art, creativity and culture. At any one time, visitors can experience over 2,500 works on view within the Museum’s collection galleries and three ever-changing exhibition spaces; participate in engaging programming; and explore the one-of-a-kind spaces across the 24-acre lakefront campus. The iconic architecture brings together structures designed by Eero Saarinen, David Kahler and Santiago Calatrava. Famous for its moving Burke Brise Soleil, the Museum serves as a symbol for Milwaukee pride and connects the shores of Lake Michigan to the city’s bustling downtown.

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For more information or high-resolution images, please contact Meredith Gray at the Chrysler Museum of Art (mgray@chrysler.org) or Jodi Beznoska at Blue Water Communications (jodi@bluewatercommunications.biz).