Catching Light: European and American Watercolors from the Permanent Collection

This brochure highlights the free-flowing, luminous qualities of watercolor in the eighteenth- and early nineteenth centuries, a time when the medium had come into its own with works by English and French artists. The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center has extraordinary works by many of these artists in the permanent collection, a majority of which were original gifts from Matthew Vassar, who acquired them from trustee Elias Lyman Magoon. Featured in the exhibition from this period are light-filled watercolors by J. M. W. Turner, John Ruskin, John Sell Cotman, John Webber, Anthony Vandyke Copley, Joseph Michael Gandy, Augustin Pugin, and Charles-Louis Clerisseau.

Late nineteenth century and early twentieth century watercolors, by both European and American artists, are also included in the exhibition. Sterling examples feature works by William Trost Richards and Hilda Belcher. Modernist watercolor is a rich vein in the collection, and the exhibition includes vital works from this era by John Marin, Oscar Bluemner, and Charles Demuth. The exhibition concludes with later watercolors by Nell Blaine, Jim Dine, Jane Freilicher, and Andrew Wyeth.