John Leslie Breck, Studies of an Autumn Day, no. 7, 1891, Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Daniel J. Terra Collection

OLD LYME, CT.- The Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut, is the first venue for the exhibition, Impressionist Giverny: American Painters in France, 1885-1915. Selections from the Terra Foundation for American Art. Organized by the Musée d’Art Américain Giverny and on view May 3 through July 27, 2008, this exhibition of over 50 oil paintings features Impressionist masterworks by American expatriate artists who worked in this small French village. Attracted by the presence of the Impressionist master Claude Monet, who settled in Giverny in 1883, an international community of artists flocked there from the late 1880s through World War I. More than 70% were Americans. The exhibition includes such artists as John Leslie Breck, Theodore Robinson, Willard Metcalf, Louis Paul Dessar, Frederick Carl Frieseke, and Mary MacMonnies. Divided into four sections, the exhibition traces the chronological, stylistic, and thematic evolution of art produced by Americans in Giverny, from Barbizon-inspired landscapes to impressionist views of the village and decorative depictions of women in gardens by members of the “Giverny Group.” By establishing a community distinct from the older colonies of Barbizon or Pont Aven, American artists created their own unique vision of the French landscape. Reproductions of archival photos and documents contribute to the exploratory nature of this exhibition.

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