Maine in America

Mount Desert, Monhegan Island, Ogunquit, Mount Katahdin, Camden Harbor, the Allagash -- these names evoke varied images of Maine -- images created by such artists as Frederic E. Church, Winslow Homer, Rockwell Kent, John Marin, and Edward Hopper. For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, Maine served as both host and inspiration for a remarkable number of artists. It has been represented in almost every style and medium -- the luminist landscapes of Fitz Hugh Lane, impressionist seascapes of Willard Metcalf, abstractions by John Marin, and the realism of Andrew Wyeth's work. For 50 years, the Farnsworth Art Museum has collected expressions of Maine by these artists and others. Works by Washington Allston, Thomas Cole, Thomas Eakins, William Harnett, Martin Johnson Heade, George Inness, Robert Salmon, Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully, and others attest to the depth of the Museum's 19th century collection. The 20th century is richly represented by Will Barnet, George Bellows, Marsden Hartley, Robert Henri, Robert Indiana, Louise Nevelson, Neil Welliver, Marguerite and William Zorach, and especially the Wyeth family. The museum's holdings of American impressionists are especially strong, with works by Frank Benson, Joseph DeCamp, Childe Hassam, Maurice Prendergast, and John Twachtman. Maine in America presents a lavish selection of nearly 250 works from the Farnsworth's permanent collection of paintings, watercolors, and sculpture and traces the development of art in Maine within the larger context of American art.