For Immediate Release

Contact: Cara Egan, SAM Public Relations
(206) 748-9285; email: PR@SeattleArtMuseum.org

SAM Presents Major Exhibition Exploring Influence of Old Masters on Impressionist Painters

Inspiring Impressionism: The Impressionists and the Art of the Past
June 19–September 21, 2008

SEATTLE, April 17, 2008 – Inspiring Impressionism: The Impressionists and the Art of the Past will shed new light on one of art history’s most important movements when it opens at the Seattle Art Museum on June 19, 2008. The first comprehensive survey to explore the influence of Old Master artists on Impressionist painters, this groundbreaking exhibition will pair masterpieces by Impressionists such as Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Édouard Manet, Pierre Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas with those by artists Frans Hals, Francisco Goya and Jean-Honoré Fragonard, among others.

Inspiring Impressionism features nearly 100 works, including paintings and works on paper, drawn from more than 70 museums and private collections, some of which have never traveled to the United States. Organized by the Denver Art Museum, Inspiring Impressionism opened in Atlanta at the High Museum of Art (Oct. 16, 2007 through January 13, 2008) and subsequently traveled to the Denver Art Museum (February 23 through May 25, 2008), before its last stop at SAM. The national tour of Inspiring Impressionism is made possible by Northern Trust.

“Inspiring Impressionism offers audiences a fresh viewpoint on the Impressionist painters,” says Mimi Gates, Director of the Seattle Art Museum. “It reveals exciting new scholarship about the origins of this important period in art history.”

Inspiring Impressionism explores the ways in which these late 19th-century artists carried on a dialogue with their predecessors, while simultaneously creating the innovative style depicting modern life that came to be known as “Impressionism”. Exhibition highlights include traditional landscapes, still lifes and portraits by Old Masters such as Jean-Antoine Watteau, François Boucher, and Claude Lorrain that are shown with Impressionist works such as Monet’s Summer (1874) and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Confidences (ca. 1873).

Pairings like Mary Cassatt’s The Family (1893) and Bernardino Luini’s Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John (ca. 1515-20) will show an Impressionist updating and secularization of traditional religious subject matter. The examination of Édouard Manet’s The Little Cavaliers, (copy after the original in the Louvre by the workshop of Velázquez) (ca.1859-1860) and Degas’ Visit to a Museum (ca.1879-90) will present a direct working dialogue between the Impressionists and Old Masters—a relationship often developed through artists’ study at the Musée du Louvre.

Other highlights of Inspiring Impressionism include Cézanne’s large-scale Still Life with Statuette (1894-5), a painting whose focal point is a reproduction of a 17th-century plaster sculpture of a putto. The sculpture will also be on view along with Cézanne drawings featuring the same subject. Several exquisite drawings by Degas were copied from drawings by Raphael and other Renaissance masters, reinforcing Degas’ assertion that “No art is less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and the study of the Old Masters.”

Exhibition Organization and Support

Inspiring Impressionism is organized by the Denver Art Museum, and co-curated by Timothy Standring, deputy director for collections and programs, and Ann Dumas, a London-based independent scholar, in collaboration with the High Museum of Art and Seattle Art Museum. In Seattle the exhibition will be curated by Chiyo Ishikawa, the Susan Brotman Deputy Director for Art and Curator of European Painting and Sculpture.

Northern Trust is the National Tour Sponsor of Inspiring Impressionism.
“We are thrilled to be able share this wonderful exhibit with the Seattle community, offering local art patrons and visitors from around the world an outstanding cultural experience,” said Frederick H. Waddell, president and chief executive officer of Northern Trust Corporation. “As the tour embarks on its final event, we are extremely proud of the important learning opportunity this exhibit has provided and its promotion of arts education and awareness.”

Additional support is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Local support is provided by the Sarkowsky Endowment.

An illustrated exhibition catalogue includes an introductory essay by Ann Dumas and eight essays by Impressionist and Old Master scholars such as George Shackelford, Chair, Art of Europe, Museum of Fine Arts Boston; John House, Walter H Annenberg Professor, Courtauld Institute of Art; and Frances Suzman Jowell, Independent Art Historian, who will provide a more detailed evaluation of the relationship between Impressionism and the art of the past.

Northern Trust Corporation

Northern Trust Corporation is a leading provider of investment management, asset and fund administration, fiduciary and banking solutions for corporations, institutions and affluent individuals worldwide. Northern Trust, a multi-bank holding company based in Chicago, has a growing network of 84 offices in 18 U.S. states and has international offices in 13 locations in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Northern Trust, founded in 1889, has earned distinction as an industry leader in combining high-touch service and expertise with innovative products and technology. For more information, visit www.northerntrust.com.

Seattle Art Museum

The Seattle Art Museum comprises three venues: the Olympic Sculpture Park, SAM downtown and the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park. SAM is an institution with a global perspective, representing 140 cultures. The collections currently number approximately 24,000 objects, and the range and depth of these collections are unmatched in the region.

This exhibition was organized by the Denver Art Museum in collaboration with the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, and the Seattle Art Museum.

Northern Trust is the National Tour Sponsor of "Inspiring Impressionism." Additional support provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

This exhibition has been made possible by the generous support of Microsoft Corporation.

Major support has been provided by the Seattle Art Museum Supporters (SAMS), PONCHO and 4Culture.

Media sponsorship is provided by The Seattle Times and KING 5 Television.

Additional support is provided by the Herman and Faye Sarkowsky Endowment Fund and contributors to the Annual Fund.

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