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Welcome to Great Art.

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For the past few years
we've been filming

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the biggest exhibitions in the world

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about some of the greatest artists
and art in history.

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Not only do we record
these landmark shows,

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but we also secure
privileged access behind the scenes

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of the galleries
and museums concerned.

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Then we use the exhibition
as a springboard
to take a broader look.

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There's little question
that the Impressionist movement

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has become
the world's favourite genre of art,

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but it certainly
wasn't always the case.

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To begin with, the Impressionists -
men like Manet, Renoir, Degas,
Monet, Pissarro,

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and women like Morisot and Cassat -
were reviled and rejected.

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But as admiration for their work
took hold,

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so too did their influence spread.

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Among those artists
who changed course

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on being confronted
with the Impressionist movement

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were a significant number
of Americans -

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painters like Childe Hassam,
William Merritt Chase,

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J Alden Weir and Maria Oakey Dewing.

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For four decades, from 1880 to 1920,
they flourished,

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and in doing so, revealed
much about their country
and its rapid change.

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We travelled to America
to film an extensive exhibition

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that began in Philadelphia
in Pennsylvania

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and ended in Old Lyme in Connecticut.

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In doing so,
we were able to make a film

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that illustrates a critical stage
in American art history,

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and indeed
in the broader cultural history
of the United States of America.

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NARRATOR: When one thinks
of the Impressionists,

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one thinks of Paris
or northern France...

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..not the gardens
and landscapes of Connecticut,

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Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

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But there is a story
to be told of American artists

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learning from a movement in Europe,

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but making it very much their own,

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and very much reflective
of an America

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that at the end of the 19th century

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was undergoing enormous change.

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The Artist's Garden:
American Impressionism
and the Garden Movement

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was a major exhibition
that originated

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at the Pennsylvania Academy
of Fine Arts in Philadelphia

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and then travelled to here,

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the Florence Griswold Museum
in Old Lyme, Connecticut.

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It was an exhibition
that explored a fascinating

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and vitally important period in art.

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ANNA O MARLEY: All of the artists
included in the exhibition
are very unique.

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What brings them together
is their interest

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in gardens and painting outdoors.

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I'm always thinking about
the connections between art

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and socio-political realities.

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It opens up a window
into understanding our history.

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ELSA SMITHGALL: A lot of people
think the story of American art
starts in the 20th century.

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We're really trying to bring back

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and re-evaluate, as a field,

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the importance of this period

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and to really see the roots.

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The whole liberation that happens,
it's freeing artists up

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to think about just simply
expressing their response
to the world.

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The works of these
American Impressionists

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certainly reflect the moment
that they're born from,

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and that they're living in.

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One of the important points

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that's recognised and promoted
in this "artist in the garden"
exhibition

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is that while
a painting of a garden is beautiful,

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it's also full of the context
of the American culture
that created it.

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At the end of the Civil War in 1865,

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the United States nursed
some deep and bloody wounds.

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And yet the post-war era

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also marks the beginning
of an extraordinary rise
in international wealth.

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(BELL CLANGING)

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The nation was changing

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from one of exploration
to one of exploitation -

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massive exploitation
of natural resources.

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Fuelled by
the expansion of railroads,

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shipping, oil, steel, foodstuffs,

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the US became the largest economy
in the world.

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(TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS)

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The rich didn't just get wealthy,
they became super-wealthy.

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Affluent suburbs
sprang up around the cities,

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and the emerging moneyed classes

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quickly developed an appetite
for culture and art.

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Meanwhile, a new generation
of American artists

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looked to Europe for inspiration,

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and in particular France.

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To visiting Americans,
the most appealing art

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was that of a new group
of European painters

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broadly labelled the Impressionists.

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These artists painted outdoors,

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using unmixed colours
in strokes and dabs

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to represent the effects of daylight.

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They painted not dukes and saints
but fishermen and coal-carriers...

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..not ancient Rome and Jerusalem,

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but the train stations of Paris

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and the countryside of Brittany.

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Chief among the Impressionists
was Claude Monet,

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who from 1883 to 1926

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lived in Giverny on the river Seine
to the west of Paris.

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He was an extraordinary gardener,

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and at Giverny, he created
an ideal environment
in which to paint.

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MARY MORTON: For Monet,
it's about creating a great motif.

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The compelling driver
is aesthetic, it's visual.

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It's, uh, water lilies.
It's creating this pond

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and architecting, you know,
a beautiful Japanese-style bridge

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so that you can paint dozens of
pictures of this particular motif.

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I think it's about really,
sort of, zeroing in

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on nature
but also the present moment,

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and the richness
of visual perception
when you open yourself up to it

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and engage in looking hard
at one thing.

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American Impressionists
address the gamut of subjects,

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uh, that are addressed
by the French Impressionists.

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They were interested in urban life.

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But the garden
was particularly important to them,

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because it was a space
where one could go for retreat,

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for rejuvenation,
was kind of a private space.

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And so they were following
in the footsteps

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or following the inspiration
of Impressionist practitioners
like Claude Monet.

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Flowers and gardens
are one of the most

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popular and essential,

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intriguing and even challenging,
um, tropes

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of American Impressionist artists.

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They came to be very important

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from their travels to Giverny,
to meeting Monet.

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And they brought
that study of the garden
back to the United States,

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and became really integral
in their approach
to plein-air painting.

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The popularity of gardening,
the Garden Movement,

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is very much associated
with the rise of the middle class.

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There's a growing disparity
between rich and poor,

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but also an emergence,
with industrialisation
and urbanisation,

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of people who are filling offices
to do their work,

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but they are also looking
for places to live

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that can take them back,
in some cases,
to their agricultural roots.

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So the garden itself
becomes an important form

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for understanding the way
that Americans handled

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many of the changes
associated with modern life.

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Millions of new immigrants
from Europe,

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America's own rural populations
transferring to the cities,

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and newly freed black slaves
moving north from the southern states

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all caused overcrowding

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in the tenement blocks
of northeastern cities.

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The more the USA industrialised
and urbanised,

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the more some harked back
to a sense of rural calm.

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ANNA: Philadelphia, New York,
Chicago, Boston

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have a new influx of immigrants.

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There is a lot of anxiety.

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So the people who can afford to,

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this newly emerging middle class...

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And by "middle class" I mean

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doctors, lawyers, artists.

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..they now have the ability,
with the train lines,

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to build these suburban homes
and commute into the city.

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So they can live on a train line
20 minutes out of the city
and commute there,

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whereas earlier in the 19th century

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they would have lived
in their townhouse in the city.

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And I think that the Garden Movement

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is a reaction
to the industrialisation,

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as well as mass immigration.

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I think in the late 19th
and early 20th century,

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Americans of a certain class

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began to appreciate gardens
as a pastime.

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And it also, for the more talented
of the people involved in it,

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it became a challenge for design

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and looking into the history
of garden-designing,

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including, obviously, the UK.

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Coming up with their own ideas
about how to design gardens,

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but in addition to this,
there was this whole other movement

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of women in particular

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starting to write about gardens,
the romance of gardens,

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and the therapy of gardens.

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They talked about garden design
and how they designed their gardens,

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how they maintained them,
where they got their ideas from.

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And also, they were all
right up to date

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on the latest developments
in horticulture.

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I think artists would have been
thrilled by the kind of
colour combinations

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that they saw in gardens.

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But landscape is a subject in art

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that has interested
practitioners for centuries.

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But the subjects that were addressed
through landscapes,

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especially in American art,
were wilderness subjects,

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things that emphasised
nature in remote areas.

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Sometimes you might have
a more pastoral adaptation

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where you saw a farm,
but there would have been
a lot of green in those.

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It wouldn't have been about
this sort of, you know,
chromatic contrast

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that you saw in a garden.

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And it's only with Impressionism,
with this new idea

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that you could make
a painting about a subject

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right in front of you.

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MAN:
'There is nothing new under the sun.

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It remains but to have
knowledge and execution,

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to treat the ordinary
in the highest and simplest way.'

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J Alden Weir.

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'I feel more and more contented
with the isolation of country life.

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To be isolated is a fine thing
and we are all near to nature.

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I could see how necessary
it is to live always in the country,

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at all seasons of the year.'
John Henry Twachtman.

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I think American artists
were always asking

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what was American about their land

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and what kind of art
could they produce

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that would be different from Europe.

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In the early 19th century,
we have the Hudson River
school of painters,

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led by Thomas Cole, and also
his student Frederic Church.

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They were really looking
for landscapes
that were unique to America.

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So they were often studying
in Europe but then asking themselves

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what was American
about American art.

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So you see them painting
scenes of the Catskills,
of the Hudson River Valley,

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where they would find, still,
a lot of nature that was untouched.

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And they were looking
to these landscapes

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as sources of respite.

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They were finding that
this untouched wilderness in nature
could provide a lot ofpeace.

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With the completion
of the Transcontinental Railroad,

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the nailing of the golden spike
at Promontory,

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San Francisco
is connected to New York,

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and the frontier is closed.

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There is no frontier any more.

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So this idea of the boundless,
undiscovered Eden

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is not something that Americans are
really identifying with any more.

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And then we're really at a time

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when the cities
are so industrialised.

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Artists' colonies,
as well as garden communities,

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are being developed.

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NARRATOR: Artists sought the company
of like-minded individuals

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in locations conducive to painting.

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For some,
it was the memory of Giverny

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and the colony that lived
and worked in the hotel there.

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Certainly, for all, it was a desire
to get back to nature,

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living and breathing something
they felt so passionately about

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with others who felt
exactly the same way.

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Thus, at the heart
of American Impressionism

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were a number of artist colonies,

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notably Old Lyme, Cornish,
Appledore and Weir's Farm.

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The American art colonies
were definitely started by artists

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who spent most of their life
in cities, doing commissions,

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like the sculptor
Augustus Saint-Gaudens,

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had a workshop
in downtown Manhattan.

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But remember, this was in
pre-air-conditioning days,

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and New York was a sweltering horror
in the summer.

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So they all were looking
for places to go to,

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and he discovered
Cornish, New Hampshire

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and invited all of his friends
to come up there and join him.

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They went there every summer
to escape the heat of the city,

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to be with their friends, to relax,
to create art.

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But, I think,
for many of these artists,

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gardening was an extension
of their artistic practice.

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They saw gardening as an art

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00:18:56,360 --> 00:19:01,200
and they saw what they were doing as
'painting without brushes'.

245
00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:03,760
That's what
Anna Lea Merritt called it.

246
00:19:03,760 --> 00:19:08,320
To create a composition
through living colour
was a challenge for them.

247
00:19:08,320 --> 00:19:10,440
And so I think that

248
00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:13,880
that was an integral part
of their interest in colonies.

249
00:19:15,360 --> 00:19:19,440
The art colonies where
the Impressionists gathered together

250
00:19:19,440 --> 00:19:23,840
were very important
because they were a gathering place.

251
00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:28,080
Uh, artists tended to do this,
of course, even earlier.

252
00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:30,480
Nathaniel Hawthorne
wrote about artists...

253
00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:33,360
American artists in Rome
in the mid-century.

254
00:19:33,360 --> 00:19:36,080
And he talked about them
keeping each other warm.

255
00:19:36,080 --> 00:19:38,240
And there is something to that,

256
00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:42,640
and particularly,
the colonies of the Impressionists,

257
00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:46,320
because they could go out together
and paint together.

258
00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:54,880
(INSECTS BUZZING)

259
00:19:58,880 --> 00:20:01,800
One of the most significant
of the art colonies

260
00:20:01,800 --> 00:20:04,440
was that hosted by Florence Griswold.

261
00:20:06,520 --> 00:20:10,760
On the Atlantic coast,
halfway between Boston and New York,

262
00:20:10,760 --> 00:20:15,120
this boarding house became
a home of American Impressionist art.

263
00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:55,360
The colony starts here in Old Lyme
for a couple of different reasons.

264
00:20:55,360 --> 00:20:57,680
One of them is Florence Griswold,

265
00:20:57,680 --> 00:21:01,560
who is an extraordinary figure
who created an important salon

266
00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:05,920
for American artists
and cultural figures
here in rural Connecticut.

267
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:09,800
Florence was the daughter
of a packet-ship captain

268
00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:12,960
who travelled back and forth
between New York and London,

269
00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:15,880
and who retired
from the sea in the 1850s.

270
00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:20,560
And so even though
she grew up in this town
on the Connecticut coast,

271
00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:24,560
her father's profession brought her
perspective on a wider world.

272
00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:27,760
Unfortunately, after
he retired from the sea,

273
00:21:27,760 --> 00:21:30,680
the family fell on
somewhat hard times.

274
00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:34,160
She and her mother ran
a school in their house for girls

275
00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:37,520
and accepted boarders
starting the late 1870s.

276
00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:40,000
And they closed it
in the early 1890s

277
00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:43,760
when changes in women's education

278
00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:46,800
made, uh, somewhat obsolete
the model that they followed here,

279
00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:49,560
where women received
ornamental training

280
00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:51,720
in needlework and arts like that

281
00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:54,240
and less of a college
preparatory education,

282
00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:56,760
which increasingly was
what people desired

283
00:21:56,760 --> 00:21:58,800
for the young women
in their families.

284
00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:01,200
Florence continued the practice

285
00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:04,080
of welcoming in boarders
who weren't students,

286
00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:07,920
and in that context,
she met the mother
and the sister of an artist

287
00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:11,280
named Clark Voorhees,
who took back with him to New York

288
00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:13,760
what he knew of Old Lyme.

289
00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:16,360
And when he met the artist
Henry Ward Ranger,

290
00:22:16,360 --> 00:22:18,720
they discussed finding
places in the country

291
00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:20,800
where one could find
paintable subjects

292
00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:24,840
but also the hospitality that
you would need for a nice stay.

293
00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:30,120
Ranger came to Old Lyme in 1899.

294
00:22:30,120 --> 00:22:32,920
He enjoyed
his experience here so much

295
00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:35,040
both personally
with Florence Griswold,

296
00:22:35,040 --> 00:22:38,800
her bountiful table, the society
of the people who were here,

297
00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:42,600
but also the kinds of sights
that he found around town.

298
00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:46,720
He would describe
the landscape around here
as reminding him of Barbizon.

299
00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:49,400
He loved the oak trees
growing in this area.

300
00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:51,920
And so he sets out, intentionally,

301
00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:55,240
to create an art colony
in this town.

302
00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:58,440
And the next year, in 1900,
with Florence Griswold's permission,

303
00:22:58,440 --> 00:23:01,680
he brings back with him
a group of artist friends

304
00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:03,920
and the Lyme art colony begins.

305
00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:14,040
Many American Impressionist painters
were a product of the middle class.

306
00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:17,040
The group that congregated
in Old Lyme

307
00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:21,240
were artists who were not
at the beginning of their careers.

308
00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:25,200
They were established, stable,
married for the most part,

309
00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:29,280
and had reputations,
and were sort of building off of
and developing them.

310
00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:36,240
Florence really helped
American Impressionism flourish

311
00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:39,360
by the way that she nurtured
these group of artists,

312
00:23:39,360 --> 00:23:43,200
turning her house over to them,
turning her garden over to them,

313
00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:47,200
and by living in a place
that was an embodiment

314
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:52,000
of the kinds of subjects
that American Impressionists
were just so eager for.

315
00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:57,760
JENNIFER: Artists came here
for a variety of reasons,

316
00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:00,120
and one of those reasons
was the community

317
00:24:00,120 --> 00:24:02,760
provided by the boarding house
at Florence Griswold's.

318
00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:05,640
The artists could choose rooms,

319
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:08,040
and often,
married couples would take

320
00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:11,240
the larger studios
and bedrooms downstairs.

321
00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:13,640
Bachelors
and sometimes bachelorettes

322
00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:15,760
would stay upstairs
in smaller rooms.

323
00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:21,160
Meals were held in the dining-room,
but when it got very hot,

324
00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:23,520
they would also eat outside
on the side porch,

325
00:24:23,520 --> 00:24:26,200
and those artists called themselves
the Hot Air Club,

326
00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:30,000
not only because of the heat
that would proliferate
in the dining-room

327
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:32,120
but also because of the subjects

328
00:24:32,120 --> 00:24:34,680
that they could have casually
on the dining-room porch.

329
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:38,080
I think that the conversations

330
00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:42,240
that artists had in Old Lyme
on the porch were wide-ranging.

331
00:24:42,240 --> 00:24:46,280
They might have discussed technique
and had disagreements over that,

332
00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:49,720
and we know that they did,
but I think they also
talked about all aspects

333
00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:52,360
of American culture and politics.

334
00:24:52,360 --> 00:24:55,800
There's a lot of discussion about,
'What is American culture?'

335
00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:58,680
'What are American values?'
Questions that are raised

336
00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:02,400
as you have people
arriving in larger numbers
from other parts of theworld.

337
00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:05,720
And there was a feeling
that they had to

338
00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:07,880
really assert an American identity

339
00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:12,840
against the kind of plurality
that is brought in by immigration,

340
00:25:12,840 --> 00:25:17,080
and what they promote
as a kind of American identity

341
00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:20,920
is this New England identity,
a kind of Anglo-American identity.

342
00:25:28,360 --> 00:25:31,520
MAN: 'Don't hesitate to exaggerate
colour and light.

343
00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:33,960
Don't worry about telling lies.

344
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:36,880
The most tiresome people
and pictures

345
00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:39,120
are the stupidly truthful ones.'

346
00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:42,280
William Merritt Chase.

347
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:49,120
'The man who goes down in posterity

348
00:25:49,120 --> 00:25:51,720
is the man who paints his own time

349
00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:54,200
and the scenes of everyday life
around him.'

350
00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:57,680
Childe Hassam.

351
00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:09,120
AMY: This is Kalmia
by Willard Metcalf.

352
00:26:09,120 --> 00:26:11,200
It's a painting
that was done in 1905,

353
00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:14,200
and the name of the painting
comes from the Latin term

354
00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:17,320
for mountain laurel,
kalmia latifolia.

355
00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:20,200
It's a painting that's important
because it represents

356
00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:24,400
Willard Metcalf's transition
from an earlier style of art

357
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:27,720
that he picked up in France.
He went to Giverny

358
00:26:27,720 --> 00:26:30,320
and was actually friendly
with Claude Monet.

359
00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:34,520
And he spent several years there,
off and on, in the 1880s,

360
00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:37,400
before returning to America in 1888.

361
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:40,440
And it takes a long time for Metcalf
to make the transition

362
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:43,080
from a kind of softly applied paint,

363
00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:46,480
the sort of richly toned
colour palette
that he used in France,

364
00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:48,800
and to really, kind of, assimilate

365
00:26:48,800 --> 00:26:52,640
the example of Monet's version
of Impressionism.

366
00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:56,280
And, in fact, it takes Metcalf
almost 20 years to do that.

367
00:26:56,280 --> 00:27:00,880
So, he was feeling
a kind of crisis in his career

368
00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:03,480
by the early 1900s.

369
00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:08,200
He talked about how he was suffering
nervous anxiety in the city

370
00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:10,800
and he needed to go
to the country to paint.

371
00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:13,360
And he ends up
at the art colony in Old Lyme,

372
00:27:13,360 --> 00:27:15,440
which is where
he painted this picture,

373
00:27:15,440 --> 00:27:18,960
right on the Lieutenant River behind
the boarding house where he stayed.

374
00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:22,840
This was a crucial moment
for Metcalf.

375
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:25,440
It's a period he referred to
as his 'Renaissance',

376
00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:29,480
when he throws off
what was impeding him
and holding him back,

377
00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:32,080
and embraces Impressionism.

378
00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:35,760
And in this picture that transition
is made quite apparent in the way

379
00:27:35,760 --> 00:27:38,280
that the background
and the foreground

380
00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:40,400
relate to one another.

381
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:43,520
The background is painted
in soft greens and blues

382
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:45,920
and purple tones,
which is very reminiscent

383
00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:48,760
of works that Metcalf did in France,

384
00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:52,520
with this very softly
blended and applied colours.

385
00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:55,120
And there is a bit of tension
or contrast

386
00:27:55,120 --> 00:27:57,840
in this work
with the bushes of kalmia

387
00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:00,720
that are growing along
the banks of the river here.

388
00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:04,280
This is where you see
the Impressionist coming
out of Willard Metcalf,

389
00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:07,960
exploding forth in a kind of
impasto that he uses,

390
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:11,160
laying paint on thick
in unmodified dabs

391
00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:14,440
to create this burst of flowers.

392
00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:16,440
It's significant
that he chose kalmia

393
00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:19,480
as the means
for making this transition

394
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:23,000
because it was a flower
that had a lot of significance

395
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:25,600
in early 20th-century
American culture.

396
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:27,800
It was a native species.

397
00:28:27,800 --> 00:28:30,880
Old Lyme was an area known
for having bounteous groves

398
00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:34,520
of mountain laurel that bloomed
each year in late June.

399
00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:36,880
And it's a flower
that was really embraced

400
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:39,880
by the American Impressionists
and embraced in American culture,

401
00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:43,000
because it was seen
as embodying American traits.

402
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:45,480
That it was native to the soil,

403
00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:48,160
it was hardy,
its wood was very hard,

404
00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:51,480
it was evergreen,
and it was spoken of

405
00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:53,840
as really, kind of,
exemplifying traits

406
00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:56,480
that Americans
applied to themselves.

407
00:28:56,480 --> 00:29:00,160
It's analogised to being
as enduring as liberty itself

408
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:03,120
in some of the periodicals
of the time.

409
00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:05,960
The patriotic spirit
with which the plant was viewed,

410
00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:08,840
associating it with,
kind of, liberty

411
00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:13,320
and kind of, uh, claiming
this identity, is cemented in 1907,

412
00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:15,680
a couple of years
after this picture is painted,

413
00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:19,520
when the flower is named
Connecticut's state flower,

414
00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:23,920
after a group of women who were
a part of the Garden Movement

415
00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:28,400
mobilised thousands of votes
in favour of kalmia as that flower.

416
00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:13,800
This period of the Garden Movement,
of American Impressionism,

417
00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:16,440
is completely embedded
in what is known

418
00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:19,080
as the Progressive era
in the United States.

419
00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:22,600
And the Progressive era
is an era of politics

420
00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:26,760
that goes from the mid-1880s
right up until 1920,

421
00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:31,160
when American women are
finally granted the right to vote.

422
00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:34,760
And it's no accident
that this development

423
00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:38,040
of Garden Movement culture

424
00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:42,440
and women's empowerment
is happening at the exact same time,

425
00:30:42,440 --> 00:30:47,520
because the garden movement
is part of a larger coterie

426
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:50,080
of Progressive-era developments.

427
00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:54,760
For example, Celia Thaxter,
who is the great poet

428
00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:56,880
of the garden in this period,

429
00:30:56,880 --> 00:30:59,000
who grew her own garden
at Appledore,

430
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:03,400
who hosted the artist Childe Hassam
there in the summers...

431
00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:05,560
She created a unique partnership

432
00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:08,840
between her gardening practice
and her political activity.

433
00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:12,040
She was one of the founders
of the Audubon movement.

434
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:15,720
So, the Audubon movement was founded
during this time period

435
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:18,280
to protect native species of birds.

436
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:23,080
So, Celia Thaxter, for example,
in the famous painting of her

437
00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:27,160
by Hassam, is standing
in her garden, hatless.

438
00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:29,720
Why ever would a gardener

439
00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:32,880
stand in the mid-sun
without a hat on?

440
00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:36,320
Well, that's not what any gardener
I know would do.

441
00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:38,440
The reason she is doing it is

442
00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:43,320
she is doing it as a conscious
political act of protest.

443
00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:47,880
At that time the millinery industry
was using fauna.

444
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:50,960
They were actually
using feathers from birds

445
00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:54,320
to construct these elaborate,
amazing late-19th-century hats.

446
00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:56,440
But women like Celia Thaxter

447
00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:58,800
who were involved
in the Audubon movement said,

448
00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:01,320
'We are losing our native
species of birds.

449
00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:03,640
We need to protest that.'

450
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:06,680
And having herself
photographed and painted hatless

451
00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:09,520
was one of her ways
of protesting that.

452
00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:13,920
Now, women gardeners
were also very involved

453
00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:17,760
in being proponents
of native species,

454
00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:20,600
of founding local garden clubs.

455
00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:25,040
It was also a time of emerging
professionalisation for women.

456
00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:29,000
So American artists become
professional visual artists.

457
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:33,480
But there is also the development
of landscape architecture,

458
00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:39,640
and in this period in particular,
it becomes a moment of opportunity.

459
00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:52,240
Celia Thaxter plays an equally
important part in this story.

460
00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:58,080
Here, on a small island
called Appledore,

461
00:32:58,080 --> 00:33:00,600
off the New Hampshire coast,

462
00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:03,800
she created an art colony
of major significance.

463
00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:09,400
Celia Thaxter is really
well-known in the United States.

464
00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:13,960
At the time, in the 1800s,
she was quite famous,

465
00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:18,800
and her poetry was the primary
first vehicle for her fame.

466
00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:22,600
And then later, this artist colony
that she built up around her.

467
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:25,400
The Boston Brahmin,
as they are called...

468
00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:29,080
The wealthy class
was growing at this period.

469
00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:32,120
And this is a new phenomenon
in the United States.

470
00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:34,880
And they have time
and space in their lives

471
00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:39,280
because of their wealth
to enjoy and explore the arts.

472
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:42,360
The Transcendental movement
is also beginning now,

473
00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:45,800
so there's a real connection
between religion and nature,

474
00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:48,400
and the glorification
and the restorative nature

475
00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:50,600
of being in wilderness.

476
00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:54,360
And this is
the Industrial Revolution
in the United States.

477
00:33:54,360 --> 00:33:57,840
And so the appeal
of Appledore island was a relief

478
00:33:57,840 --> 00:34:01,240
from the dirt and grime of the city.

479
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:03,680
And also, at that time,
the doctors were saying,

480
00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:07,120
'Go to the ocean,
and the ocean air will restore you.'

481
00:34:08,640 --> 00:34:11,400
The artists who came
to Appledore island really...

482
00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:17,680
..start with Celia's relationship
to the Boston scene,

483
00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:19,840
which she marries into.

484
00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:24,000
So, her father's business partner,
who helped fund the building

485
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:26,160
of this grand hotel,
the Appledore House,

486
00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:29,720
was Levi Thaxter,
and he was from a wealthy family.

487
00:34:29,720 --> 00:34:34,720
And he introduces Celia
to the Boston Brahmin scene.

488
00:34:34,720 --> 00:34:37,400
And she actually meets Hassam
in Boston

489
00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:39,520
before he ever comes to Appledore.

490
00:34:39,520 --> 00:34:42,480
And this is where she meets
most of the artists of the day,

491
00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:44,560
who then she invites to Appledore.

492
00:34:46,720 --> 00:34:49,920
The inspiration for her garden

493
00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:53,480
is she wants to remember
a simpler time.

494
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:57,600
It doesn't have a purpose,
it's just purely aesthetic.

495
00:34:57,600 --> 00:35:02,800
It really reflects
how the gardener feels about nature,

496
00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:07,440
because it's both contained
in the box and raised garden bed

497
00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:10,400
and then it's also wild within that.

498
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:13,320
And she loved when the flowers
spilt out of the garden.

499
00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:18,320
And I can imagine the artists
really appreciating that,

500
00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:22,040
because it led to the beautiful
Hassam paintings

501
00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:24,440
of Babb's Rock
with the poppies in the front.

502
00:35:27,200 --> 00:35:30,200
'Let him but touch a flower

503
00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:33,560
and lo, its soul is his.

504
00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:39,080
Its splendours delicately bright
upon the happy page he lays,

505
00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:41,440
its whole sweet history

506
00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:44,120
there to live for time's delight.'

507
00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:47,560
Celia Thaxter.

508
00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:53,120
Childe Hassam came
for over three decades.

509
00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:55,840
I mean, he clearly fell in love
with the place.

510
00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:59,600
They had a very close relationship,
Celia Thaxter and Hassam.

511
00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:03,040
He would stay at her house
on some summers.

512
00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:06,960
And he would stay for, often,
the entire summer,

513
00:36:06,960 --> 00:36:09,800
but sometimes just a few weeks
here and there.

514
00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:14,960
He was clearly
so prolific in his work.

515
00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:19,160
There's over 300 paintings painted
just of Appledore alone.

516
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:22,040
It's clearly an inspirational
landscape to him.

517
00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:29,800
MAN: 'Art, to me,
is the interpretation

518
00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:33,120
of the impression which nature
makes upon the eye and brain.'

519
00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:36,640
Childe Hassam.

520
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:46,800
JENNIFER: There are several examples
in this exhibition

521
00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:49,280
which shows
the changing role of women.

522
00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:52,400
Women had long been
held as objects of the gaze,

523
00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:56,200
and this was still a popular subject
for painters during this time.

524
00:36:56,200 --> 00:37:00,360
But this exhibition shows that women
were also becoming actors.

525
00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:03,360
They were associated with flowers,
but they could also be actors

526
00:37:03,360 --> 00:37:07,160
as gardeners, as writers
and as designers.

527
00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:10,800
In the actual physical exhibition,
when it happened at Philadelphia,

528
00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:13,880
I had a section
called The Lady in The Garden.

529
00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:18,360
And The Lady in The Garden was,
sort of, a double-edged title.

530
00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:24,640
Because it was really about these
very idealised women as flowers.

531
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:28,040
And then there is
this whole group of images

532
00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:31,240
of women on the periphery.

533
00:37:31,240 --> 00:37:35,960
There's a Hassam with a woman
silhouetted against her garden

534
00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:38,600
with a fishbowl.

535
00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:42,520
So, she is standing there.
She is in this very decorative space

536
00:37:42,520 --> 00:37:47,440
with a garden behind her and looking
at the fish swimming in their bowl.

537
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:50,600
I can't help but think
that that's an image

538
00:37:50,600 --> 00:37:54,480
of what women are going through
at this time period.

539
00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:57,560
They are trying to emerge
out of the house,

540
00:37:57,560 --> 00:38:01,600
out of the Victorian era.
There are women who
are suffragettes.

541
00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:03,560
They're fighting
for their right to vote,

542
00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:05,640
they're becoming
professional artists,

543
00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:08,080
becoming professional
landscape gardeners.

544
00:38:08,080 --> 00:38:11,120
But they do not yet have

545
00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:15,240
equality or any real
political power.
They are trying to get it.

546
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:20,840
There are also
a lot of images of women reading
on this peripheral space.

547
00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:23,120
I think that's important too.

548
00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:25,200
The literacy, the empowerment.

549
00:38:25,200 --> 00:38:27,560
It makes you think
of all the women writers.

550
00:38:27,560 --> 00:38:31,000
The publishing business
is growing by leaps and bounds.

551
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:35,080
Ladies' Home Journal is
the number one publication
in America.

552
00:38:35,080 --> 00:38:37,480
It's published in Philadelphia.

553
00:38:37,480 --> 00:38:41,360
House and Garden
is started in Philadelphia in 1901.

554
00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:45,360
And a lot of people who are writing
for these periodicals are women.

555
00:38:45,360 --> 00:38:47,640
A lot of people who are reading them
are women.

556
00:38:48,800 --> 00:38:52,000
So these trends in painting
were really reflecting

557
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:54,440
a lot of social reforms
that were happening,

558
00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:57,920
but people had differing
reactions to this,

559
00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:00,400
and you can see that
in some of these paintings.

560
00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:04,640
Many of the paintings,
you can see women in liminal spaces

561
00:39:04,640 --> 00:39:08,120
where they are kind of betwixt
and between, as they were in life.

562
00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:13,240
They are often in domestic settings
or looking outside.

563
00:39:13,240 --> 00:39:16,280
And one example of that would be
Childe Hassam's painting

564
00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:19,200
Summer Evening, from 1886.

565
00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:23,600
You can see, um, he has painted
his wife Maude by a window.

566
00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:26,880
And although she is inside,
she is gazing outside

567
00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:30,760
and he is juxtaposing her
with this potted geranium.

568
00:39:30,760 --> 00:39:33,120
So he is emphasising
the fact that women

569
00:39:33,120 --> 00:39:38,280
were very much interior figures,
figures associated with the home,

570
00:39:38,280 --> 00:39:40,400
but he is also showing

571
00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:42,840
a kind of opportunity
by placing her by this window.

572
00:39:42,840 --> 00:39:46,120
Windows, in art,
were always symbolic.

573
00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:50,520
They represent some kind of
opportunity, they're aspirational.

574
00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:53,320
And they can be interpreted
in various ways.

575
00:39:53,320 --> 00:39:56,000
So by showing this figure
gazing outside the window,

576
00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:58,360
he is really letting
the viewer explore

577
00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:00,560
that she may have
some kind of mental faculty,

578
00:40:00,560 --> 00:40:04,040
that these larger societal changes
were coming into

579
00:40:04,040 --> 00:40:07,400
something he wanted to show
through his painting.

580
00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:10,640
But still, she has her hand
on the pot of geraniums,

581
00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:13,360
a kind of domesticated flower.

582
00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:15,720
So it's a painting
that would appeal to both

583
00:40:15,720 --> 00:40:17,840
conservative
and progressive audiences.

584
00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:29,040
'I have not acquired
the latest Impressionist style

585
00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:31,200
which so ably represents things

586
00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:33,600
as seen from a motor-car
at full speed.

587
00:40:34,720 --> 00:40:40,040
I have been obliged to sit out
for many hours daily

588
00:40:40,040 --> 00:40:44,120
in freezing wind
and later in burning sun

589
00:40:44,120 --> 00:40:47,280
looking long and carefully
at flower and leaf.'

590
00:40:49,120 --> 00:40:51,080
Anna Lea Merritt.

591
00:41:04,520 --> 00:41:07,520
There is a large group
of women artists

592
00:41:07,520 --> 00:41:10,320
working in the garden
in this period.

593
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:13,800
One in particular,
Maria Oakey Dewing,

594
00:41:13,800 --> 00:41:16,480
was a remarkable garden painter.

595
00:41:16,480 --> 00:41:20,040
She was married
to Thomas Wilmer Dewing.

596
00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:25,080
They both lived
in the artists' colony
up in Cornish, New Hampshire.

597
00:41:25,080 --> 00:41:29,720
Her husband paints women
as these diaphanous flowers

598
00:41:29,720 --> 00:41:35,200
in the garden, in a sort of
wonderful, mystical
blue-green palette.

599
00:41:35,200 --> 00:41:39,600
What Maria Oakey Dewing does
is she was the gardener.

600
00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:42,960
So she was very dedicated
to her garden.

601
00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:48,080
And she said, 'To become a painter
of flowers one must bind oneself

602
00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:50,480
in apprenticeship to the garden.'

603
00:41:50,480 --> 00:41:54,160
So she was in there for years,
working in the garden.

604
00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:56,640
And what is unique
about her paintings

605
00:41:56,640 --> 00:41:59,120
is she is actually down
on the ground.

606
00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:02,920
There's... You can see them all
as if you are lying down.

607
00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:05,400
And there's no horizon line,

608
00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:08,480
uh, there's no sky,
it's just the flowers.

609
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:12,880
And one of the contemporary critics
of that time, Royal Cortissoz,

610
00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:18,120
said that what she did
was paint portraits of flowers.

611
00:42:18,120 --> 00:42:20,520
So, these women artists were there.

612
00:42:20,520 --> 00:42:23,400
They are remarkable,
but they are less well-known

613
00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:26,440
than their male counterparts.

614
00:42:26,440 --> 00:42:30,120
So, I think this period
of American Impressionism

615
00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:35,000
tells us that women were growing,
like their fellow workers

616
00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:38,600
in other fields,
into a professional capacity.

617
00:42:38,600 --> 00:42:40,680
But, of course,
it's still an environment

618
00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:43,920
in which they face
a lot of prejudice about their art,

619
00:42:43,920 --> 00:42:47,320
including what kinds of subjects
are considered acceptable.

620
00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:50,120
And so they make important advances

621
00:42:50,120 --> 00:42:53,840
but they're still ghetto-ised
in terms of their works.

622
00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:39,000
In part,
I think it is the subject matter
that is being depicted.

623
00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:42,720
That we are looking
at a moment of transformation

624
00:43:42,720 --> 00:43:45,680
in American society, modernisation.

625
00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:48,000
And so when you think about

626
00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:50,200
what kind of subject matter
they are depicting,

627
00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:54,840
it's a much more contemporary view
of what life is like.

628
00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:58,040
Whether it's in
the urban parks and gardens,

629
00:43:58,040 --> 00:44:01,680
whether it's the new life of leisure
of the rising middle class,

630
00:44:01,680 --> 00:44:06,120
they are embracing
their own culture and time

631
00:44:06,120 --> 00:44:09,440
in a way that was very different
than the past had.

632
00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:13,120
This is not just about
the grandiose landscapes

633
00:44:13,120 --> 00:44:17,960
but it's really about
the interaction of people
within those landscapes

634
00:44:17,960 --> 00:44:21,920
and settings, that it marks
a different turning point

635
00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:25,720
in really capturing this
more modern moment in our culture.

636
00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:44,040
The American Impressionist movement
reveals to us

637
00:44:44,040 --> 00:44:46,160
about America at that time

638
00:44:46,160 --> 00:44:49,400
that there was, I think,
a real optimism,

639
00:44:49,400 --> 00:44:52,040
a sort of faith in the present

640
00:44:52,040 --> 00:44:54,720
that Americans felt
about their society.

641
00:44:55,880 --> 00:44:58,920
It's an era where there is
really intensive change,

642
00:44:58,920 --> 00:45:03,920
industrialisation, urbanisation,
fight for women's rights...

643
00:45:03,920 --> 00:45:08,720
And as much turmoil and upheaval
as those kinds of changes cause,

644
00:45:08,720 --> 00:45:11,120
there is still, I think,
a kind of optimism

645
00:45:11,120 --> 00:45:14,440
about America and its potential.

646
00:45:15,600 --> 00:45:19,440
American Impressionists
are showing the vitality of cities.

647
00:45:19,440 --> 00:45:23,840
They're showing the beauty of parks
and personal gardens.

648
00:45:23,840 --> 00:45:26,120
And that's not to say
that they are doing that

649
00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:30,560
and ignoring the strife and tumult
of the world that they live in,

650
00:45:30,560 --> 00:45:32,960
but their very selection
of those subjects,

651
00:45:32,960 --> 00:45:35,800
they sort of touch points
of contemporary culture,

652
00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:39,560
are still ones that they can view
in a positive light.

653
00:45:39,560 --> 00:45:41,680
So you may be seeking respite

654
00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:44,120
from the pressures of urban life
in your garden,

655
00:45:44,120 --> 00:45:46,640
but that doesn't mean
that you can't celebrate it.

656
00:45:48,080 --> 00:45:50,880
I think that
in times that are tough,

657
00:45:50,880 --> 00:45:54,760
that these gardens were oases.

658
00:45:54,760 --> 00:45:58,000
The idea that we need this space

659
00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:03,440
in which to reflect, in which to
find beauty again and find meaning.

660
00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:09,960
In this moment where, I think,
people are seeking beauty
and seeking retreat

661
00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:13,680
and seeking
a more peaceful environment,

662
00:46:13,680 --> 00:46:17,520
in a way, carving it out
even within the hustle and bustle

663
00:46:17,520 --> 00:46:21,000
of these increasingly growing
industrialised metropolises

664
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:23,440
like New York, for example.

665
00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:28,080
From looking at these paintings,
the viewer can really see a window

666
00:46:28,080 --> 00:46:33,320
into an America that has become
an industrialised nation,

667
00:46:33,320 --> 00:46:36,600
but is developing a love

668
00:46:36,600 --> 00:46:38,960
of the suburbs
and a sort of retreat.

669
00:46:38,960 --> 00:46:42,920
These artists really were
thinking about the issues

670
00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:46,000
of urbanisation, of immigration.

671
00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:49,760
This was really in the backdrop
and in the minds of everyone.

672
00:46:49,760 --> 00:46:53,280
The appearance of gardens
in American Impressionism

673
00:46:53,280 --> 00:46:56,520
is something that goes beyond
their aesthetic appeal,

674
00:46:56,520 --> 00:46:59,120
or how we react to them
as these natural spaces.

675
00:46:59,120 --> 00:47:01,960
When you look
at a landscape that shows

676
00:47:01,960 --> 00:47:05,160
a kind of grandmother's garden,
an old-fashioned garden,

677
00:47:05,160 --> 00:47:07,520
that it's not just about the flowers

678
00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:11,400
but the way that these flowers
promote a certain vision
of American culture,

679
00:47:11,400 --> 00:47:14,200
that they address topics
like immigration...

680
00:47:14,200 --> 00:47:17,080
And I do think that
that's something that we don't

681
00:47:17,080 --> 00:47:20,840
and really can't look at
in the same light today,

682
00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:24,680
that we have...
much more of a sense of outrage

683
00:47:24,680 --> 00:47:27,480
about the idea of not accommodating

684
00:47:27,480 --> 00:47:30,760
and assimilating
and embracing immigration.

685
00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:34,560
It feels a bit uncomfortable to talk
about these artists' dislike

686
00:47:34,560 --> 00:47:36,840
of the ways that their world
was changing.

687
00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:41,520
But I think those are the issues
that governed life

688
00:47:41,520 --> 00:47:43,960
during this time period.

689
00:47:43,960 --> 00:47:47,480
And the garden was meant
to be a space where the individual

690
00:47:47,480 --> 00:47:50,480
could resolve some
of those tensions for themselves.

691
00:47:51,760 --> 00:47:54,200
The garden landscape is a tool

692
00:47:54,200 --> 00:47:57,920
for managing contemporary life
and remaining part of it.

693
00:48:00,720 --> 00:48:02,800
For four decades, these artists,

694
00:48:02,800 --> 00:48:07,440
not only in the northeastern
United States but across the country,

695
00:48:07,440 --> 00:48:10,880
reflected their time
and their society in their art.

696
00:48:13,200 --> 00:48:16,200
But the 20th century
brought new challenges,

697
00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:19,640
new developments
and new artistic responses.

698
00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:26,080
Some sought to reflect
a harsher side of life -

699
00:48:26,080 --> 00:48:29,320
poverty, exploitation, oppression.

700
00:48:32,600 --> 00:48:36,120
Others decided
art itself needed a revolution

701
00:48:36,120 --> 00:48:40,120
and something much more contemporary
in approach than Impressionism.

702
00:48:42,600 --> 00:48:46,760
By the 1920s American Impressionism
was wilting.

703
00:48:48,040 --> 00:48:51,240
But to understand
the history of American art,

704
00:48:51,240 --> 00:48:53,880
to understand the history of America,

705
00:48:53,880 --> 00:48:57,400
one should indeed
look to these artists

706
00:48:57,400 --> 00:48:59,680
when they were in full bloom.

707
00:49:01,680 --> 00:49:03,640
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