Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

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Abbott Handerson Thayer, Angel, 1887, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Several hundred of the museum’s greatest treasures by artists such as John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer and Childe Hassam are on view in the Grand Salon at its Renwick Gallery while renovations continue at the museum’s historic main building. 

Description

This striking new selection of more than 185 works are hung salon-style, one-atop-another and side-by-side to re-create the elegant setting of a 19th-century collector's picture gallery. Drawn primarily from the museum's large collection of 19th-century painting, the works were selected from four strengths in the museum's permanent collection: Colonial and Federal artworks, American impressionism, Gilded Age treasures and art of the Western frontier including the Taos School. This installation includes a suite of three stunning views of Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon by Thomas Moran, two on long-term loan from the U. S. Department of the Interior, which inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone as the nation's first national park.

Visiting Information

February 27, 2004 October 22, 2005
Open Daily, 10:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m.
Free Admission

Artists

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Childe Hassam
born Dorchester, MA 1859-died East Hampton, NY 1935

Painter and illustrator. Hassam was a leading American Impressionist whose work was much influenced by Claude Monet.

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Winslow Homer
born Boston, MA 1836-died Prout's Neck, ME 1910

Painter and graphic artist. Homer's illustrations of the Civil War for Harper's Weekly are singular and outstanding examples of wartime reporting.

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John Singer Sargent
born Florence, Italy 1856-died London, England 1925

Painter. Sargent traveled in a circle of socially prominent people and is known for his loosely painted portraits done in a style reminiscent of Edgar Degas and James Abbott McNeill Whistler.

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Abbott Handerson Thayer
born Boston, MA 1849-died Dublin, NH 1921

Painter, best known for his idealistic and allegorical paintings of women as angels and madonnas.