This book presents the full spectrum of the work of Frank W. Benson, the last American impressionist who brilliantly captured the effects of light on the physical world. The paintings featured are from America's leading museums & private collections, & many are published here for the first time.

Published to accompany the exhibition of the same name held at the Farnsworth Art Museum (Rockland, Me.), June 16th-Oct. 21st 2012.

A rare collection of all fifty-five of Frank Benson's etchings in the hunting and fishing genre.

"American Impressionist: Childe Hassam and the Isles of Shoals traces Hassam's artistic exploration of Appledore Island, the largest island of the Isles of Shoals off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire, where he traveled nearly every summer for thirty years"--

A new look at a nationally admired American impressionist painter and teacher.

Frank Benson, a pivotal artist of the American Impressionist movement had three great loves in his long and productive life: his family, his art, and the sporting life. As a boy, Benson dreamed of being an ornithological illustrator. In mid-life, after an extremely successful career as a portraitist, he returned to the wildfowl and sporting subjects that were his lifelong passion. Over the next forty years, in etching, lithography, watercolor, and oil and wash, he portrayed birds beloved since childhood, scenes of his hunting and fishing expeditions, and still lives of incomparable delicacy. Whether painting a hunter setting out decoys, a wash of geese by moonlight, a watercolor of a companion poised to gaff a salmon, or an etching of a group of ducks silently gliding in for a landing, Benson conveyed the joy and beauty of a sportsman's life.

For Frank Vining Smith (1879-1967), the nineteenth-century clipper ship, like the cathedral of the Middle Ages, was one of men's most glorious accomplishments. As Monet had done with the cathedral, Smith painted the ship, featuring it in different angles and at different times of the day. Having studied under the supervision of Frank W. Benson, and Edmund Tarbell at the Museum School in Boston, Smith brought a new approach to the conservative art of marine painting. When looking at a painting by Smith, one does not see the blueprint of detail that was common in ship painting at the turn of the century, instead one sees masses of shadows and the suggestion of details. Up close, it is difficult to see where one brush-stroke ends and another begins, but seen from a distance, his compositions work perfectly, and is what contributor Peter Williams calls "the alchemy of Smith's impressionism". AUTHOR: James A. Craig is a curator and lecturer specializing in nineteenth-century American marine art. SELLING POINTS: *Definitive exploration of the art and life of this prolific Massachusetts artist's 70 year career *Of interest to museums, universities, yacht clubs, yachting enthusiasts, and antique collectors *Vining Smith's work is in collections across the United States including in navy wardrooms, and he counted former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as one of his loyal patrons ILLUSTRATIONS: 93 colour & 72 b/w

Published to coincide with an exhibition of the nineteenth-century artist's fly-fishing paintings, an examination of the author's inspirations and works notes his use of watercolors and his insight into the sport that enabled him to convey its realities through his creations.

"Published...on the occasion of the exhibition Impressionists on the Water on view at the Legion of Honor Museum, San Francisco, from June 1 to October 6, 2013 and at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem Massachusetts, from November 9, 2013 to February 9, 2014."--Colophon.