Dutch Utopia

Dutch Utopia is the first major exhibition to explore the little-known but fascinating phenomenon of American artists settling or working in Holland around the turn of the twentieth century and to consider the cultural significance of their production. These artists created visions of Dutch society that celebrated a preindustrial lifestyle and, in some cases, alluded to America's own colonial Dutch heritage. The exhibition includes seventy-three works by artists who remain celebrated today, such as Robert Henri, William Merritt Chase, John Henry Twachtman, and John Singer Sargent, along with painters admired in their own time but less well known now, including George Hitchcock, Gari Melchers, George Boughton, Elizabeth Nourse, and Walter MacEwen. In addition to full-color reproductions of the works in the exhibition, the catalog presents important new scholarship. Essays in the volume are by Dr. Nina Lubbren, Senior Lecturer in Art History, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom; Holly Koons McCullough, Chief Curator of Fine Arts and Exhibitions, Telfair Museum of Art; Dr. Emke Raassen, Curator, Singer Laren Museum, the Netherlands; Kim Sajet, President and CEO, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; and, Dr. Annette Stott, Director, School of Art and Art History, University of Denver.