The American Museum

More than a century ago until the beginning of WW1 a colony of American Impressionists painters came to Giverny to explore the aesthetic possibilities of Impressionism.

Although Claude Monet hadn’t encouraged others to follow him, Giverny became a popular destination for international artists and students keen to experiment with the impressionist aesthetic. The American museum celebrating its15 years of existence this year has extended the exhibitsw to 19th American Art and is organizing new exhibitions every other year.

Designed by the architect Ph ROBERT of Reichen and Robert’s, the building closely combines the architecture with the light and the landscape. It harmonizes the junction between art and nature integrating the impressionist painting collection into the surrounding landscape. The museum follows the slope of the hillside and extends in a horizontal manner nestling into a screen of vegetation.

A bright entrance hall welcomes the visitors. Taking the shape of the hill, 3 showrooms on different levels can accommodate the exhibitions including a spacious auditorium used for conferences, films , concerts, and business meetings. At the origin of the Musée d’Art Americain is Daniel J.Terra (1911-1996) Grandson of an Italian lithographer who had emigrated to the US, he graduates in chemistry and made his success taking out a patent for a chemical component which reduced the ink drying process from 96hrs to 24hrs.

In 1940, he founded his company, lawter Chemicals whom fast expansion allowed himself to buy art. Initially he began to collect XVIII and XIX century British landscapes and later exclusively American Art. Daniel Terra’s collection not only fulfilled his personal passion for Art but also his wish to promote and spread abroad the American Art. Appointed State Ambassador-at-large for Cultural Affairs in 1983 he travelled to France and discovered with enthusiasm Giverny’s rich and artistic past.

To make provision of his collection he founded the Terra Foundation for Art. He inaugurated his first museum in 1980 at Evanston Illinois, followed by 2 other museum, one in Chicago in 1987 (now closed down) and the Musée d’Art Americain in Giverny in 1992.

Musée d’Art Américain Giverny
99, rue Claude Monet
27620 Giverny, France

Tél. : 33 (0) 2 32 51 94 65
Fax : 33 (0) 2 32 51 94 67

contact@maag.org
http://www.maag.org/us/index.html

Horaires
Ouvert du 1er avril au 31 octobre,
tous les jours, sauf le lundi, de 10h à 18h.
Ouvert les lundis fériés.


Tarifs
Gratuit le premier dimanche du mois
Adultes : 5,50 €
Tarif réduit (carte sénior, carte abonnés Régions transport, étudiant, enseignant) : 4 €
Personnes à mobilité réduite : 3 €
Jeunes de 12 à 18 ans : 3 €
Moins de 12 ans gratuit
Tarif réduit du 10 au 14 juillet 2007
Groupes adultes (à partir de 20 personnes) : 4 €
Groupes scolaires : 3 €

April 1 – October 31, 2008

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the United States knew an unprecedented economic development and industrialisation. However, painters of this period seemed to favour the representations of leisure.

Responding to the patrons’ demands, they depicted a “gilded age” of American society devoted to perpetual entertainment. Images of women sewing peacefully and children playing in everlasting flowered gardens, reflected a taste for the so-called “genre painting”. This new iconography was directly linked to the growth of an upper middle-class, to which artists belonged or identified themselves.

About sixty paintings, drawings and prints from the Terra Foundation for American Art collection will introduce the visitor to one of the greatest invention of the modern era: leisure

Portrait of a Lady:

American Paintings and Photographs in France, 1870–1915

Musée d’Art Américain Giverny : April 1–July 14, 2008
Musée des Beaux-arts de Bordeaux : September 25, 2008–January 5, 2009

This exhibition, organized in collaboration with the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, will feature approximately 60 paintings, drawings, prints, and photographs of women at the turn of the last century drawn primarily from French public collections. These paintings were produced by celebrated American artists such as John White Alexander, Thomas Eakins, William T. Dannat or John Singer Sargent and photographs taken by Americans Gertrude Käsebier, George Henry Seeley, Edward Steichen and Clarence H. White. They demonstrate a decorative elegance that relates to the renewal of high society portraiture during this period. Several works from the Terra Foundation for American Art collection from this same historic period will be included to enrich and complete the exhibition.

The concept of “Portrait of a Lady: American Paintings and Photographs in France, 1870–1915” followed the creation of the La Fayette online database, sponsored in 2006 by the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Henry Luce Foundation. It is a catalogue of historical American paintings in French public collections. Through the La Fayette database, curators of this exhibition identified an impressive selection of representations of women produced around 1900 and located in French museums.

This exhibition will showcase these rich holdings of American art from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in French collections. Often purchased by the French government during the annual Salons, these paintings and photographs demonstrate not only the integration of numerous American artists into the official world of French art, but also the prolonged interest of public institutions for this “foreign” art. In addition, the presence of a work of art in the French national collection became a sign of prestige for American artists and assured their success in France and America. In this way, many artists (like Cecilia Beaux and Mary Cassatt) decided to donate paintings to the musée du Luxembourg so as to make certain works visible in France. Thus, in 1898 John White Alexander, whose painting The Green Bow had been purchased by the French government, offered to exchange it for his Portrait in Gray so as to be represented by a more significant picture.
“Portrait of a Lady” will include a selection of photographs from Camera Work published by Alfred Stieglitz (between 1903–1917) and now in the collection of the Musée d’Orsay. Pictorialist photographers George Seeley, Clarence H. White, and Edward Steichen demonstrated a wide ranging interest in depictions of women. At the time, Japanese art and aesthetics inspired artists in the use of flat picture planes, daring compositions and decorative lines. Many of the photographs also reveal artistic intervention directly on the print or the conscious use of reflections and blurred areas. These subtle techniques point to the desire of many photographers to imitate painting.