“American Impressionists of the East End” comes to the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill on Saturday, Nov. 14, showcasing the works of William Merrit Chase and Walter Granville-Smith.
The exhibition closes the Parrish’s year-long series organized in response to the nation’s semiquincentennial, “Parrish USA250: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,” which seeks to recognize the contributions of regional artists with respect to the broader landscape of American art and culture. Like many artists before, during, and after them, Chase and Granville-Smith found renewed creative inspiration on Long Island during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The upcoming exhibition expresses that shared sentiment, presenting “an exciting dialogue between the painter’s work,” according to a statement from the Parrish.
Works from the two artists depict a range of shared subject matters, most notably including family life, local landscapes and the social atmosphere of the bourgeoisie.
Chase, an exponent of impressionism and teacher was also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later became the Parsons School of Design. A longtime resident of Manhattan, in 1892, he built a summer home at Shinnecock. There, it’s believed he produced some of his freest and most successful work, according to the Smithsonian, where he “developed and continued to employ two different styles of painting: the impressionistic plein air landscapes and genre scenes, and the somber realism of his portraits and still-life works.”
According to the National Academy of Design, Granville-Smith began summering regularly on Fire Island, eventually acquiring a home in Bellport. “The south shore of Long Island and its barrier beaches became favorite subject of Granville-Smith’s landscapes and marine paintings,” says the Academy’s biography of the artist. Works from Granville-Smith, a commercial magazine illustrator who later transitioned into plein-air impressionist painting, are part of the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the Art Club of Philadelphia and the Butler Institute of American Art, to name a few. He is often credited with producing the first machine-colored magazine illustration that appeared in the United States.
Organized by Kaitlin Halloran, associate curator and publications manager, the exhibit will be on at the Parrish through March 21, 2027. For details click here.
The Parrish Art Museum is located at 279 Montauk Highway in Water Mill. Museum hours are Thursday through Monday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For mroe information call 631-283-2118.
