Artists Affiliated with Giverny

Willard Metcalf

Date: 1887

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1989.6

Text Entries: River Epte As did Monet, American artists responded to the colorful contrast and reflections of the Epte River, a tributary of the Seine, and its decorative row of poplar trees. The surface density or texture of John Leslie Breck's The River Epte, Giverny was created by adding layers of pigment. The artist's compositional devices, for example, cropping the left side of the riverbank, make the viewer feel physically present at the scene. Landscape painter Willard Leroy Metcalf's The River Epte, Giverny is an example of the fluid, sketchy brushwork typical of rapid plein-air application-in this case an oil sketch, a study made on site for a larger more finished work. In his Giverny landscapes, Metcalf applied the free and easy brushwork, which lends a sense of freshness and immediacy associated with the impressionist style. Visiting his friend Metcalf, Louis Ritter painted Willows and Stream, Giverny in the traditional landscape colors of brown and green rather than the bright color palette favored by impressionists. Despite its hazy atmosphere, the color, form, space and perspective are traditional indicating that Ritter modified impressionism's principles, as did most Americans, to suit his own personal style.

Willard Metcalf

Date: 1888

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1992.10

Text Entries: This small panel painting depicts a favored subject for nineteenth-century painters: the café, which played an important role in daily social life. This rendition features areas of black and white paint set against the warm orange tone of the panel support, which is visible in areas such as the back wall and the hand of the man and that of the woman in the foreground. Willard Leroy Metcalf's abbreviated style is wonderfully juxtaposed with a few fine details, most notably the monocle on the hatted gentleman in the front and the almost legible name of the newspaper being read by the man behind him. This bustling scene of the French capital stands apart from the landscapes that later made Metcalf's reputation. After his return to the States in 1888, he became famously known as "the poet laureate of the New England hills."

Willard Metcalf

Date: 1919

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1992.48

Text Entries: Giverny: visited 1885, 1886, 1887, 1888 Three months after he returned to the United States in 1888, Willard Metcalf exhibited over forty works from his Giverny stay at the St. Botolph Club in Boston to much critical acclaim. Admired for his ability to capture "sunshine and the intangible air," Metcalf enjoyed a successful career as a painter of New England landscapes. This late canvas of a harmonic scene in rural Connecticut incorporates a rich bluish green often associated with French Impressionism.

Willard Metcalf

Date: 1902

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1992.49

Text Entries: Designated "the poet laureate of the New England hills," Willard Metcalf recorded the landscape with consummate craftsmanship and sensitivity to nature. Awarded one of the first scholarships to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, he later studied at the Académie Julian in Paris before returning to the United States. By 1890, Metcalf had established his studio in New York and was teaching at the Arts Students League with his friend John Twachtman. His memorable contribution to the founding of The Ten was in penning the introductory statement of their mission. In 1902, Metcalf traveled to Cuba to fulfill a commission by the famous architect Stanford White for the decorative scheme of the Havana Tobacco Company Store in New York. Havana Harbor is one of a series of landscape paintings of Cuba's most important city and its port, harbor and the island's inland plantations. A contemporary critic reviewed the works as "one of those flashes of technical sleight-of-hand which only one artist in five hundred can put to his credit." The artist's confident use of color and the effect of shimmering light suggestively evoke tropical breezes blowing above the red tile roofs and demonstrate impressionism's effectiveness in rendering landscapes.

Willard Metcalf

Date: 1887

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1993.5

Text Entries: James Carroll Beckwith's application of pure pigment and use of saturated color demonstrates his interest in ideas associated with plein-air painting and its attendant color theories. The horizontal bands of multiple shades of green are heighten by patches of undiluted red color in French Spring. Continuing his summer experiences of plein-air painting, Willard Leroy Metcalf deftly used a wide range of greens in The Lily Pond thereby creating a tonal effect that was enriched by a judicious use of pale to bright yellow to suggest vibrant sunlight, contrasting against the shadowy reflections.