European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 11, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                American impressionism show opens some eyes among the paintings at the show above it Quot Bird s Eye View of giver by Quot by Theodore Robinson at right Quot Mother about to Wash her sleepy child Quot below Quot the poppy Garden Quot by Willard Metcalf. By Hanns Neuerburg associated press his first encounter with impressionism shocked american Painter Julian Alden Weir. Attending a show of French impressionists in 1877 was like visiting a Quot chamber of horrors Quot Weir wrote in a letter to his family in Connecticut. But he later became a convert to the movement that left a deep Impact on american Art As demonstrated by a new exhibit that is attracting rave reviews and proving fascinating to european a and american a crowds in Switzerland. American impressionism on View through oct. 28 at the Lakeside Villa Favorita gallery in Lugano is billed As the most important show of its kind Ever held outside the United states. It features 66 works by 26 artists borrowing heavily from the Large private collection of Baron Heinrich von Thyssen Bornemisza a Swiss industrialist. For europeans the show constitutes a discovery. Except perhaps for Mary Cassatt Childe Hassam John Singer Sargent and John Twachtman most of the artists whose works Are on View Are virtually unknown even to specialists in Europe. Prestigious european encyclopedias make Only passing reference to the american impressionist movement which Quot produced compositions of extraordinary vitality Quot Baron Thyssen said. The movement was pioneered by Cassatt an expatriate who settled in Paris in i 877, became a student and close Friend of Edgar Degas and remained in France until her death. Some of her works hang in the louvre. Her refreshing Mother about to Wash her sleepy child painted in 1880, is the exhibit s earliest painting. The rest of the works follow 1886, described by curator William Gerdts As the Quot crucial year for american awareness Quot of the impressionist movement. That was the year that a Paris dealer staged a Large exhibit in new York of works by Claude Monet Pierre Auguste Renoir Degas and other leading French impressionists. Quot by and Large most americans were oblivious to impressionism before 1886,&Quot writes Gerdts a professor at the City University of new York in the exhibition Catalon. Gerdts says that Early in the 19th Century landscape had been recognized As the most important american pictorial theme Quot one that embodied the natural history of a nation that had no appreciable human  he says this explains Why it was Monet the pure 10 stripes Magazine october 11, 1990 lands Capist Quot who received the greatest adulation Quot among . Collectors during the next decade. Monet also profoundly influenced . Painters. Sargent who met Monet As a student in 1876, and Theodore Robinson and several others represented at the Lugano show were plainly under his spell. The show illustrates that influence. Robinson s Bird s Eye View of Tiverny recalls his repeated Long stars in the French Village of Tiverny Monet s Home. Also on View Are Tiverny scenes by John Leslie Breck and Dawson Dawson Watson. The poppy Garden by Massachusetts born Willard Metcalf who is believed to have been one of the first americans to visit Tiverny is on the cover of the exhibition Catalon. There is no record of such visits by Hassam although he also studied in France like most other american impressionists. His work is represented in Lugano by 10 canvases spanning a period of 30 years. Most of them Are cityscape including one from his popular Flag series. Rivalling for attention Are Twachtman s shimmering Winter scenes and Ferdinand Frieseke s paintings of women and Weir s red Bridge depicting an Iron Span Over the she Tucket River near his Connecticut Home is presented As a rare example of an impressionist s concern with work and Industry. Irene Martin curator of the Thyssen Bornemisza collection said it took 18 months to organize the relatively Small show. Works were Lent by 36 major . Museums and nine private collectors. Martin an american specialist who moved to Switzerland from Dallas three years ago says the Lugano exhibit is unique because of its comprehensive approach including regional artists not widely known in the United states. "1 his is the first time a show like this has happened Quot she said explaining that exhibits in the United states usually focus on individual artists or specific regions. It is going Well and i am hoping it will even get better Quot Martin said of the show. Quot we have also had already a lot of american tourists Here. And they Are just