All Things Bright And Beautiful - California Impressionists

Impressionism found fertile ground in California in the early years of the 20th century. California, with its temperate climate, liberal sunshine, and beautiful landscape, was an especially popular locale for painters who worked “en plein air,” seeking to infuse their work with intense light and color. But the early 1900s, several of the state’s most picturesque places – Laguna Beach, San Diego, and Monterey – boasted artists’ colonies. The California Impressionist style peaked in the 1920s; by the end of that decade, with the onset of Modernism combined with the effects of the Great Depression, it was relegated to history. This traveling exhibition, organized by the Irvine Museum, features 59 paintings and one Bischoff Vase, dating from 1890 to 1930.

Location: In The Mary L. Beitzel and The Sally and Volney Righter Galleries