Spring in France

Robert Vonnoh was among the first American painters to explore Impressionism. He received his formative artistic training in Boston and headed to Paris in the early 1880s for further instruction. By the late 1880s, Vonnoh had settled in Grez-sur-Loing, a rural area outside of Paris that attracted a growing colony of artists who worked en plein air. Here, using a brilliant palette, broken brushstrokes, and unblended colors, Vonnoh captured the budding vegetation and warming sunlight of a spring day. Alongside intense greens, peaches and lavenders convey the dappled light and shadows of a winding road at right. Although no figures appear in Spring in France, the composition suggests a domestic setting, with fence posts delimiting a yard and white linens hanging from a nearby tree. (Source: Art Institute of Chicago)