New Spanish-themed show coming to Chrysler Museum to feature art never seen in America

Sure, Paris had its museums, art academies and je ne sais quoi.

Rome, with its ruin and antiquities, was also a must-stop for American artists in the 19th and early 20th century who wanted to be taken seriously. A few Americans, such as Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent, took detours to Spain to study its art, seemingly exotic culture and colorful fiestas.

They were not disappointed. Neither was the art world.

The impact of Spanish culture on American artists has often been understated, but needs to be examined according to a signature exhibition opening this week at the Chrysler Museum of Art. With “Americans in Spain: Painting and Travel, 1820-1920,” the Chrysler partnered with the Milwaukee Art Museum to bring together more than 100 pieces from art institutions and private collections, including pieces never seen in the United States.

The show taps into the Chrysler’s and Milwaukee’s catalog of realist paintings and holdings by old masters like Diego Velázquez, Claudio Coello and Francisco de Goya. Pieces are also on loan from all points on the globe including the Prado Museum in Madrid, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Musée d’Orsay in Paris and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

A highlight of the show is Cassatt’s painting, “Spanish Girl Leaning on a Window Sill.” It was discovered only a few years ago in a private collection in Madrid.

American audiences will see it for the first time in Norfolk.

This period is also underrepresented in the Chrysler’s collection, but it will finally get a well-deserved examination said Corey Piper, the Chrysler’s Brock curator of American art and co-curator of the exhibition.

“It is a chance to look at an aspect of American art that was unexplored in the scholarship and museum world,” he said.

The exhibition will run at the Chrysler from Friday, Feb. 12 through May 16. It will then travel to Milwaukee where it will be on display from June 11 through Oct. 3.

Piper said a couple of cultural shifts occurred in the early 1800s to attract American and European artists to Spain. The most important was the opening of the Prado Museum to the public in 1819, which included works of the likes of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and Jusepe de Ribera, two 17th-century giants. Two of their pieces will be in the show. Americans like William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri flocked to the Prado to study the techniques of the greats. Several of the copies they made are included in the exhibition.

“Among the kind of forward-thinking painters, there was a great interest in the style that these artists were working in several centuries before,” Piper said. “They painted with great realism but also in a way that kind of showed off the skills of the artists.”

Cassatt, who would become a world-famous impressionist painter, actually began her career in Spain by bucking societal norms and traveling by herself to study in Seville in 1872. Cassatt used local models and created a portfolio that conveyed some of the popular tropes of Spanish culture, including bullfighters and sultry, young women. In 1890, artists Chase and Sargent produced competing portraits of the Spanish dancer Carmen Dauset Moreno, known on stage as Carmencita, which show how American audiences were fascinated by Spanish culture. They also show how the artists incorporated the lessons they adopted from the old masters.

M. Elizabeth Boone, professor of history, art, design and visual culture at the University of Alberta in Canada, is scheduled to give a virtual lecture in May about Cassatt and how Boone discovered two of Cassatt’s paintings in a Madrid suburb.

Piper said that the element of travel is an integral component of the show since the work embodies the beauty that comes when artists explore outside of their traditional comfort zones. The exhibition features travel guides, photographs, prints, landscape paintings and images of the country’s Islamic and medieval architecture which also drew Americans to Spain. Visitors will be able to access a 3D visualization of the Prado Museum and use their mobile devices to visit the Prado Museum and other famous sites in Spain.

Even if international travel wasn’t limited because of the pandemic, the show is “an assemblage of works that would take you months and months of travel that we’re bringing to Hampton Roads,” he said. “You can see the paintings that these artists traveled to see….We hope it is a great treat.”

Denise M. Watson, 757-446-2504, denise.watson@pilotonline.com

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if you go

Americans in Spain: Painting and Travel, 1820–1920, Chrysler Museum of Art, One Memorial Place, Norfolk

On view Feb. 12 –May 16. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sundays; closed on Mondays.

COVID-19 protocols are in place and the museum has limited capacity. The museum requests that people go online at chrysler.org or call (757) 664-6200 and reserve their free admission tickets.

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Upcoming programming

Virtual Members’ Exhibition Preview: Americans in Spain

Feb. 11

7 p.m. Free for museum members

Tune in for an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the making of Americans in Spain and a live interview with the exhibition curators, Corey Piper, Ph.D., the Chrysler’s Brock curator of American art, and Brandon Ruud, Ph.D., Abert Family curator of American art at Milwaukee Art Museum. After registering, members can submit questions about the exhibition for the curators in advance or during the webinar-style event. To register, visit chrysler.org.

In-Gallery Drawing Workshop

April 10 and May 1

10:30 a.m. $40 for museum members, $50 for non-members

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, American artists traveling to Spain would spend time in the Prado Museum honing their craft by copying the old masters. Learn basic techniques for drawing from paintings during two hours of guided instruction with local artist Rowena Finn. Materials are included. Space is limited. To register, visit chrysler.org.

Norfolk Society of Arts Lecture: Saucy Cigarreras and Sevillian Barbers: Spain and 19th-Century Popular Culture

Feb. 24

11 a.m. Free

Explore themes from Americans in Spain during a virtual lecture with Brandon Ruud, Ph.D., Abert Family curator of American art at the Milwaukee Art Museum and co-curator of the exhibition. Visit norfolksocietyofarts.org for a link to the lecture, available one day before the event.

Looking for Mary Cassatt in Spain with M. Elizabeth (Betsy) Boone

May 1

2 p.m. Free

This program will take place via Zoom. Mary Cassatt’s “Spanish Girl Leaning on a Window Sill” makes its United States debut at the Chrysler Museum in this exhibition. The newly documented ca. 1872 work was one of two lost paintings discovered in Madrid by Boone. Boone will share details about the artist, the work, and her discovery during this virtual program. Registration is required and people can check chyrsler.org closer to the event to register. The Zoom link will be sent one day before the program.