Terra Foundation for American Art
The Terra Foundation for American Art is a foundation founded in 1978 by the entrepreneur and art collector Daniel J. Terra . Based in Chicago, she has been dedicated to the art of the United States since the colonial days. The foundation owns an important art collection and temporarily had two museums of its own. Today it makes works of art available on loan to other museums and runs an extensive program of education and grants.
history
In the early 1970s, the entrepreneur Daniel J. Terra acquired the first works of American art for his private collection. In 1978, he transferred his rapidly growing collection to the Terra Foundation for American Art, whose aim is to collect, research and display the art of the United States since the colonial days. To present the collection, the Terra Museum of American Art was founded in 1980 , which was initially located in Evanston , a northern suburb of Chicago. In 1987 the museum moved to larger premises on the Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago. The Terra Foundation for American Art is located in the same building at 120 East Erie Street and North Michigan Avenue. A second museum, the Musée d'Art Américain , was established in 1992 as a European location in Giverny , the last residence of the French painter Claude Monet . An American artist colony had formed there at the end of the 19th century, the works of which are a focus of the Terra Foundation of American Art's collection. After the death of the founder of the foundation Daniel J. Terra, both museums initially continued to exist and exhibited lively exhibitions. The Terra Museum of American Art in Chicago closed in 2004, and the Musée d'Art Américain in Giverny also closed at the end of 2008. The newly established Terra Foundation Paris Center has served as the European base of the Terra Foundation for American Art since 2009 , while the headquarters of the foundation continues to be in Chicago and the American programs are coordinated from there. In addition, the rental of works of art is organized from Chicago.
Foundation activities
Chicago
The Terra Foundation of American Art maintains an extensive educational program in Chicago. With the Chicago K-12 Education Grants , the foundation supports art teaching in Chicago's schools by providing teaching materials for art classes and further training for teachers. In parallel, there is an educational program for adults called the Chicago Public Program Grants . These educational opportunities are designed to promote understanding of American art among broad sections of the population.
The Terra Foundation of American Art also awards grants to scholars and students who study the art of the United States. Lectures, symposia, research work and publications are funded. With Exhibition Grants , the Terra Foundation of American Art supports various museums in organizing exhibitions through financial grants. In addition, the headquarters of the Terra Foundation of American Art organize the rental of works of art from its own collection. Part of the collection is on permanent loan to the Art Institute of Chicago .
France
Even after the Musée d'Art American in Giverny was closed, the Terra Foundation for American Art is still active in Europe. The Terra Foundation Paris Center, which opened in 2009, coordinates the Foundation's academic programs, exhibitions and partnerships in Europe. The Paris headquarters are located in the Hôtel Lévis-Mirepoix at 121 Rue de Lille, the seat of the Fondation Custodia of the art historian Frits Lugt . Both institutions have important reference libraries and use a common reading room for this purpose. The Terra Foundation for American Art library is the only specialized library in Europe devoted exclusively to United States art. It thematically covers the period from the 18th century to 1980, the focus is on art from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The library has over 10,000 English-language volumes and is available to anyone interested free of charge.
The Terra Foundation for American Art owns several buildings in Giverny - for example the Mansuy and Champrenault houses - in which artists and scientists have been meeting for conferences, artist workshops and events such as the Terra Summer Residency since 2001 . The aim of these events is to explore and promote American culture and to promote scientific collaboration between Europe and the United States. The Terra Foundation for American Art awards research and teaching grants for this purpose.
Art collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art
In 1971 Daniel J. Terra laid the foundation for his collection of American art with the acquisition of the first works by the painter John Singer Sargent . In the following years he brought together further works - initially as a private collection; since 1978 these works have been brought together in the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art. Even after the founder's death, the collection is not complete, but is continuously being expanded by the Terra Foundation for American Art. In 2019 she had around 800 paintings, prints, drawings, photographs and sculptures by 235 different artists.
Early American painting
The earliest works in the Terra Foundation of American Art's collection date from the colonial days before the independence of the United States and from the early years after its creation. Paintings from this period include, for example, the Portrait of Mrs. John Stevens by John Singleton Copley from around 1770 in the style of English portrait painting , the portrait of President George Washington by Rembrandt Peale, painted after 1824, or the portrait of a woman (possibly Clarissa Gallond Cook) in front of one Port town of the painter Erastus Salisbury Field from 1838. William Groombridge shows an idyllic landscape in his representation View of a Manor House on the Harlem River, New York from 1793. The everyday scene Blind Man's Buff from 1814 by the painter John from Württemberg is reminiscent of Dutch genre painting Lewis Krimmel . A highlight of the collection is the picture Gallery of the Louvre, painted 1831–33 by Samuel FB Morse, who was later also successful as an inventor . With the interior view of the Louvre in Paris, he not only shows thematically a motif from Europe, but also underscores how much the early American painters sought their role models in Europe.
John Singleton Copley:
Portrait of Mrs. John Stevens
Erastus Salisbury Field:
Portrait of a woman (possibly Clarissa Gallond Cook) in front of a port city
John Lewis Krimmel:
Blind Man's Buff
Samuel FB Morse:
Gallery of the Louvre
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Landscape painting by the Hudson River School
The Hudson River School represents the first great painting movement in the United States. Influenced by European landscape painting, the painters sought their motifs on the American continent and transfigured them mostly in a romantic manner. An early example is the motif Landscape with Figures: A Scene from "The Last of the Mohicans" by Thomas Cole from 1826, influenced by a novel. Later motifs often show a vast, deserted and paradisiacal landscape in harmonious colors. Examples include Almy Pond, Newport by John Frederick Kensett , Autumn Afternoon, the Wissahickon by Thomas Moran , Brace's Rock, Brace's Cove by Fitz Henry Lane , Hunter Mountain, Twilight by Sanford Robinson Gifford , Paradise Valley by John La Farge and Newburyport Marshes: Approaching Storm by Martin Johnson Heade . The exploration of the country by the painters becomes clear through more and more distant motifs, as the motifs The Sidewheeler "The City of St. Paul" on the Mississippi River, Dubuque, Iowa by Alfred Thompson Bricher and The Iceberg by Frederic Edwin Church show. Landscape painting seldom mixes with a patriotic statement, as in Our Banner in the Sky by Frederic Edwin Church, which was created in 1861 at the beginning of the American Civil War and makes the flag of the United States appear symbolically in the sky.
Thomas Cole:
A Scene from The Last of the Mohicans
Fitz Henry Lane:
Brace's Rock, Brace's Cove
Sanford Robinson Gifford:
Hunter Mountain, Twilight
Frederic Edwin Church
Our Banner in the Sky
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Genre and still life painting
American genre painting of the 19th century is represented in the Terra Collection with various examples. There are depictions of a domestic family idyll in works such as Fiddling His Way by Eastman Johnson and The Blind Fiddler by John Lewis Krimmel . The simple life of the rural population can be found in pictures such as Apple Picking and The Whittling Boy by Winslow Homer , The Yankee Pedlar by Thomas Waterman Wood or The Jolly Flatboatmen by George Caleb Bingham . The painting Ships Unloading, New York by Samuel Colman , on the other hand, shows an urban scene. There are also various examples of 19th century American still life painting. These include classic motifs such as Harvest of Cherries by Robert Spear Dunning and Still Life with Apple Blossoms in a Nautilus Shell by Martin Johnson Heade . There are also works in the trompe l'œil style such as One Dollar Bill by John Haberle and Old Time Letter Rack by John Frederick Peto .
Winslow Homer:
Apple Picking
George Caleb Bingham:
The Jolly Flatboatmen
Martin Johnson Heade:
Still Life with Apple Blossoms in a Nautilus Shell
John Frederick Peto:
Old Time Letter Rack
Gilded Age
The last quarter of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century are also known as the Gilded Age in the United States . In addition to the technical development and social changes of this time, this epoch also represents an important phase in the visual arts. American painters were influenced by the new artistic developments in Europe, especially in France. An illustrative work for this is the depiction of Dennis Miller Bunker Painting at Calcot by John Singer Sargent, who is best known as a portrait painter . In this picture, Sargent, who lives mainly in Europe, shows his colleague Dennis Miller Bunker doing plein air painting , which is typical of the painters of the Barbizon school and subsequent Impressionism . Originally from Philadelphia, Mary Cassatt had lived in France since 1874, where she joined the Impressionist painters and exhibited with them. Her painting Summertime , in the Terra Collection, shows young women in a rowing boat. The representation of such leisure activities is a popular motif of this time. A similar motif can be seen in Lotus Lilies by Charles Courtney Curran . Other forms of pastime include a shore excursion in In the Orchard by Edmund Charles Tarbell or a beach scene in Morning at Breakwater, Shinnecock by William Merritt Chase . Tarbell and Chase were members of the Ten American Painters group of artists , of which there are other works in the collection. These include Havana Harbor by Willard Metcalf , Portrait of a Lady Holding a Rose by Thomas Wilmer Dewing, and Winter Landscape by John Henry Twachtman . The group also included Childe Hassam , a major exponent of American Impressionism. Two of his street scenes illustrate how he transferred motifs from France to the United States. For example, in 1887 in Une Averse — rue Bonaparte , he depicted a Parisian street view and three years later repeated the subject in the painting Horse Drawn Cabs at Evening, New York . In addition, similar motifs can be found in sunlight such as Commonwealth Avenue, Boston or the Horticulture Building, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago . The painting Morning Fog and Sun by John Leslie Breck , who painted haystacks in a similar way to his model , is clearly influenced by the Frenchman Claude Monet . He lived partly at Monet's place of residence in Giverny , where an American painters colony had formed at the end of the 19th century. These included Theodore Robinson , of whom the Terra collection owns Blossoms at Giverny , and Lilla Cabot Perry , who is represented with a self-portrait . Further works from the turn of the century are the landscape paintings Brittany Town Morning, Larmor by Dennis Miller Bunker and Giverny Hillside by Guy Rose , the cityscape of Les Invalides, Paris by Henry Ossawa Tanner or the late Impressionist work Lady in a Garden by Frederick Carl Frieseke . The Terra Collection also includes the two sketch-like pictures The Zattere: Harmony in Blue and Brown and Note in Red: The Siesta by James Abbott McNeill Whistler and a typical portrait of Thomas J. Eagan by Thomas Eakins .
John Singer Sargent:
Dennis Miller Bunker Painting at Calcot
Mary Cassatt:
Summertime
Edmund Charles Tarbell:
In the Orchard
John Leslie Breck:
Morning Fog and Sun
American realism
At the end of the 19th century a new art developed in the United States that distanced itself from Impressionism and appeared more socially critical in the choice of topics and much coarser in the painting style. Some of these painters formed a group of artists now known as the Ashcan School . The Terra Collection includes the street scene Street Corner in Paris by Robert Henri , the portrait of a colored young New Year's Eve and the figure in motion nudes . By Maurice Prendergast , the company Scenes find Evening on a Pleasure Boat , The Grand Canal, Venice and Salem Willows . Similar motifs can be found in Bal Bullier by William Glackens and Knitting for the Soldiers: High Bridge Park by George Luks . There is also the socially critical portrayal of Slaves by Thomas Hart Benton or the melancholy motif Clown with Drum by Walt Kuhn . In the field of landscape painting, there is the cityscape of Brooklyn Bridge by Ernest Lawson , Cranberrying, Monhegan by Rockwell Kent and The Palisades by George Bellows . Further works are the rural architecture of Bucks County Barn by Charles Sheeler and the landscape painting Sierra Madre at Monterrey as well as the railway motif Dawn in Pennsylvania by Edward Hopper .
Robert Henri:
Figure in Motion
Maurice Prendergast:
Salem Willows
George Luks:
Knitting for the Soldiers: High Bridge Park
George Bellows:
The Palisades
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Early modern and abstract painting
Objective pictures predominate in the Terra Foundation's collection; only a few works can be assigned to abstract painting. There are, however, a number of paintings with a strongly reduced formal language. This includes, for example, the motif Telegraph Poles with Buildings by Joseph Stella , in which the representation of a telegraph pole is dominated by lines. On patterns of folk art, the painting reminds Painting No. 50 by Marsden Hartley , who used German military badges as a template. In Sails by Arthur Dove , the eponymous sails are recognizable, but against an abstract background they can hardly be assigned to a room. In architecture view Welcome to Our City of Charles Demuth building must be clearly defined, however, the background shows a geometrical. There is also the Cubist painting Construction by Max Weber , modern interior paintings such as Super Table by Stuart Davis and Adolescence by Milton Avery or a flower painting Red Amaryllis by Georgia O'Keeffe . The work Topcat Boy by Ed Paschke , created in 1970, stands for works of post-war art and can be assigned to Pop Art .
Joseph Stella:
Telegraph Poles with Buildings
Marsden Hartley:
Painting No. 50
Arthur Dove:
Sails
Charles Demuth:
Welcome to Our City
literature
- Katherine M. Bourguignon, Peter John Brownlee: Conversations with the collection: a Terra Foundation collection handbook . Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago 2019, ISBN 978-0-932171-65-8 .
