Our Impressionist collection brings together paintings and prints that share a commitment to light, color, and the felt experience of a moment. Rooted in one of the most beloved traditions in Western art history, these works range from landscapes bathed in the particular luminosity of the Southwest to figurative scenes that capture movement, atmosphere, and the textures of daily life.
Impressionism emerged in France in the 1870s as a radical departure from the academic painting traditions of the time. Rather than carefully constructed compositions depicting historical or mythological subjects, the Impressionists painted what they saw around them, using loose, expressive brushwork and a brighter palette than anything that had come before. In the Southwest context, Impressionist influence arrived with the wave of artists who came to New Mexico in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, drawn by the region's extraordinary light and landscape. The quality of light in New Mexico, clear, intense, and unlike anything found in the eastern United States or Europe, proved a natural subject for painters working in an Impressionist tradition.
The relationship between Impressionism and the American Southwest is closely tied to the story of the Taos and Santa Fe art colonies, which drew painters from across the country and around the world beginning in the 1890s. Many of these artists had trained in Europe and arrived in New Mexico with a thorough grounding in Impressionist technique. What they found here transformed their work. The desert landscape, the Pueblo communities, the dramatic skies and shifting seasons gave Impressionist methods a new subject matter and a new urgency.
The artists who settled in Taos in particular developed a distinctive regional variation on Impressionism that balanced the European tradition with the specific demands of painting in the Southwest. Their work is now recognized as an important chapter in American art history, and pieces by the founding members of the Taos Society of Artists are among the most sought after in the market for Western American art.
Earl Biss, a Crow Nation artist who studied under Fritz Scholder at the Institute of American Indian Arts, brought an Impressionist sensibility to his luminous paintings of mystical landscapes and Plains Indian figures, drawing on influences ranging from Turner and Munch to the New York School to produce canvases of extraordinary color and emotional depth.
Collectors drawn to this category will find strong connections with our landscape collection, where the Impressionist sensibility toward light and atmosphere is very much present across a wide range of works. Those interested in the artists who brought this tradition to the Southwest will also want to explore our Taos Artists collection. And for works that share the Impressionist interest in the human figure and everyday life, our figurative collection offers a natural complement.