Flower Power: Women, Gardens, and the Dawn of American Impressionism

American Impressionism’s often been seen as a pale copy of the French Impressionism that flowered in the late 19^th century. Although American Impressionists early on copied their French counterparts (and even made pilgrimages to Monet’s Giverny garden and home), the exhibition The Artist's Garden: American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, 1887–1920, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts through May 24, 2015, proves that American Impressionism quickly blossomed into something distinct — and distinctly American — by the turn of the 20^th century. Capturing aesthetically a moment of contradictions as American nativism threatened to close borders while women’s suffrage struggled to open doors, The Artist’s Garden demonstrates the power of flowers to speak volumes about the American past, and present. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Flower Power: Women, Gardens, and the Dawn of American Impressionism."